Dual display with different resolutions??

[sooba]

haven't been on here in a while.... anyways i was wondering if its possible to run my max resolution on my laptop(1400x1050) and a different resolution on an external display(ex. 1280x1024) without the external display having to shift following the movement of my mouse. Is this possible with my hardware and Windows XP ?

[dr_st]

What do you mean by: "without the external display having to shift following the movement of my mouse"?

[GomJabbar]

What do you mean by: "without the external display having to shift following the movement of my mouse"?

I have seen this happen if the virtual desktop size is larger than the physical resolution of the display. In this case, the desktop extends off of the side of the screen. When you push the mouse cursor to the edge of the display, the desktop moves on the display until you reach the desktop edge.

With XP, you can usually choose screen expansion (or hv expansion) either in XP display properties or in the BIOS. Then if you choose a smaller resolution than the maximum resolution for the ThinkPad, the screen is expanded to fill the display. This would work if your external monitor has a lower resolution than the ThinkPad.

In Linux (and I believe Windows 7) you can choose not to clone displays, then you can have different resolutions on the two displays simultaneously. The only thing is that your desktop will not be displayed on both. If you have two display cards in the computer, then you might be able to have two different displays connected at different resolutions, with both showing the complete desktop.

EDIT: At least that is how I remember it. It's been awhile since I messed with screen expansion in XP. I hardly use XP anymore on my ThinkPad.

EDIT2: I just booted into XP and tried it. With Fn+F7, you can choose "Presenter Mode". This will give you maximum resolution on both displays, but the external monitor will not have your desktop, only the wallpaper. You can drag windows from one display to the other. If you do not get maximum resolution display on both monitors, Edit the settings for "Presenter Mode". Note that you can also do this from XP Display Properties (right-click on open area of desktop to get Display Properties).

[sjthinkpader]

haven't been on here in a while.... anyways i was wondering if its possible to run my max resolution on my laptop(1400x1050) and a different resolution on an external display(ex. 1280x1024) without the external display having to shift following the movement of my mouse. Is this possible with my hardware and Windows XP ?

Yes, just activate Presentation Director and setup a new profile and choose side by side monitor mode. You can then select resolution of each display.