New widescreen monitor with old monitor as secondary causes problems

[Will Pittenger]

No crashes or anything. Rather the problems have to do with window sizes.
For instance, no window maximized in the primary monitor (the new
widescreen) assumes the correct aspect ratio. They appear to be sized for a
1600x1200 screen (or at least something with a similar aspect ratio). The
real screen is 1680x1050.

To compensate, I started unmaximizing windows. Some programs accept this.
Others do not. For instance, Word and IE refuse to open shorter than my
secondary monitor (the old CRT). (I even tried closing both with
Shift-Close.) This is even though they are running in the primary monitor.
Outlook has its own problems. The main window runs fine, but mail windows
always open maximized. I see no fix there.

 

[Guest]

What's the Outlook question?

 

[Will Pittenger]

Just that it is affected. Is there is a way to tell it to use the larger
size when it is not maximized?

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

No crashes or anything. Rather the problems have to do with window sizes.
For instance, no window maximized in the primary monitor (the new
widescreen) assumes the correct aspect ratio. They appear to be sized for a
1600x1200 screen (or at least something with a similar aspect ratio). The
real screen is 1680x1050.

To compensate, I started unmaximizing windows. Some programs accept this.
Others do not. For instance, Word and IE refuse to open shorter than my
secondary monitor (the old CRT). (I even tried closing both with
Shift-Close.) This is even though they are running in the primary monitor.
Outlook has its own problems. The main window runs fine, but mail windows
always open maximized. I see no fix there.

Try using Taskbar's Cascade Windows command?

Minimize all windows you don't want involved in the "cascade"
and close last any cascaded windows whose properties you
want to preserve.

BTW if "maximized" really means maximally sized
you can get that effect from the Taskbar's tile commands.
Simply minimize all windows but the one you want to
maximally size before applying the tile operation.
("Tiling" one window has the effect of maximally sizing it.)


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Will Pittenger]

I do not see how Cascade is relevant. Tiling might help, but not if I could
not manually size the windows and convince the apps to stay that way.
Besides, I would rather be able to maximize windows again.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I do not see how Cascade is relevant.

Cascade switches the mode of any window to normal
and resizes it to a default size from which you can resize it conventionally.
It seems to be a way to "shake up the bits" in the registry
more than just doing whatever manual operations would
appear to produce an equivalent result.

Tiling might help, but not if I could not manually size the windows
and convince the apps to stay that way.

As I indicated I couldn't assume that your use of the word maximized
meant that you had windows in Maximized mode and not just maximally
sized. E.g., some people even refer to very small normal windows
as "minimized".

Besides, I would rather be able to maximize windows again.

Your problem description seems imprecise. What happens when
you try to maximize windows? E.g. for clarity, press Alt-Space,X
And in the case of applications which have a primary window
it may also be useful to know which monitor they were first
opened on.


Robert
---

 

[Will Pittenger]

What happens when you try to maximize windows?
They mostly act maximized. However, they appear to size to ~1500x1060. (It
looks to be about 4:3. I think the vertical part is right. OE's status bar
was partially offscreen. So the nearest possible 4:3 width for that height
is 1413.) The screen is 1680x1050.

And in the case of applications which have a primary window it may also
be useful to know which monitor they were first opened on.

Most applications open in the primary monitor. The only exception is one
window in one application. The main app in that case runs in the primary
monitor.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

No crashes or anything. Rather the problems have to do with window sizes.
For instance, no window maximized in the primary monitor (the new
widescreen) assumes the correct aspect ratio. They appear to be sized for a
1600x1200 screen (or at least something with a similar aspect ratio). The
real screen is 1680x1050.

To compensate, I started unmaximizing windows. Some programs accept this.
Others do not. For instance, Word and IE refuse to open shorter than my
secondary monitor (the old CRT). (I even tried closing both with
Shift-Close.)

Explain please? BTW if there is a modifier which helps with closing
I think it will be Ctrl- not Shift-

This is even though they are running in the primary monitor.
Outlook has its own problems. The main window runs fine, but mail windows
always open maximized. I see no fix there.

Explain please? Is this a normal feature of Outlook windows?


BTW have you tried to find out if there are any common problems
associated with mixed size dual monitors? Perhaps tools such as
PowerStrip can circumvent such deficiencies?


Good luck

Robert
---

 

[Will Pittenger]

See below.
----------
Will Pittenger
E-Mail: mailto:will.pittenger1 at gmail.com
All mail filtered by Qurb (www.qurb.com)

Explain please? BTW if there is a modifier which helps with closing
I think it will be Ctrl- not Shift-

Perhaps I goofed. IE opens such that it fills the primary monitor now. Not
sure what I did. CTRL just worked for Word. You may be right there.

Explain please? Is this a normal feature of Outlook windows?

Not that I know of. The problem with Outlook's message window also finally
went away. I opened one up just now. The window did not open maximized.
So tried CTRL-Close with it and it now fills that monitor when it reopens.

BTW have you tried to find out if there are any common problems
associated with mixed size dual monitors? Perhaps tools such as
PowerStrip can circumvent such deficiencies?

Never heard of them. Are they free? I have no money at this time.