Gain control over dual-computer monitors

Remember, this Workshop is useful only for those with two or more monitors connected to a Windows PC. We’re going to download and install a free utility called Dual Display Mouse Manager. This program is in beta (test) phase, so may not work perfectly in all situations. However, it functioned well during our tests. Once you have clicked on the download link above and the program developer’s download page appears, click the large green Download Now Button. If the File Download Security Warning dialogue box appears, click Save and then choose a location for the downloaded file. Firefox users should select Save File to save the download to Firefox’s default download folder.

The Dual Display Mouse Manager window appears. We will explore the available options presently but the program is already functioning. To see for yourself, try moving the mouse pointer from one monitor to the other: when the pointer hits the edge of one screen it should momentarily ‘stick’. If the mouse movement then continues, the pointer will become unstuck and proceed with its journey to the other monitor. The point of this is to make it easier to grab controls that sit on screen borders, such as the slider on the right-hand side of Internet Explorer.

Locate the file that you downloaded called ‘DDMM_v1.1.zip’. This is a compressed (Zip) file that contains two files that need to be extracted for Dual Display Mouse Manager to run – even though the program itself doesn’t need to be installed. Either right-click the file and select Extract All from the pop-up menu to have the files extracted to the same location as the Zip file; or double-click to view the contents of the Zip file and drag and drop the two files within to the desired location. When done, double-click the DDMM.exe file to launch Dual Display Mouse Manager.

Now let’s take a look at some of Dual Display Mouse Manager’s options. If you closed the program window right-click the Dual Display Mouse Manager application icon in the Notification Area (it looks like two little monitors) and pick Restore. The most important option is the one labelled ‘Allow border crossing after delay’, in the Method section. Use this to specify the time period during which Dual Display Mouse Manager will prevent the mouse pointer from passing between monitors. The default setting is 150ms – one-15th of a second. To make the delay longer or shorter, just type a new figure here – 1,000ms equates to one second, for instance. Alternatively (or additionally), click to tick the ‘Allow border crossing when Ctrl key is pressed’ to move between screens when the Control (Ctrl) key is held down.

In the General section, use the ‘Activate mouse management’ tick box to enable or disable Dual Display Mouse Manager. To have the program launch at the same time as Windows, tick ‘Start with windows’; while ticking the ‘Place shortcut in start menu’ box will see a Dual Display Mouse Manager launch entry placed within All Programs under the Start menu. We wouldn’t recommend ticking the ‘Hide tray icon’, as this will remove the Dual Display Mouse Manager icon from the Notification Area (making it trickier to access these options). If you tick ‘Allow mouse region jump using Ctrl + ~’ in the Mouse control section you can use that keyboard shortcut to make the mouse pointer instantly jump between monitors.

Finally, use the Screen boundaries section if Dual Display Mouse Manager fails to automatically detect the correct screen borders (click the Detect button to have it try again). Click to remove the tick from the ‘Automatic control’ box and then type the correct border positions (measured in pixels) into the appropriate boxes. Tick the ‘Use preview’ box and Dual Display Mouse Manager will display a preview of the border positions it will use. When finished, click the Save and close button.