+30
Completed

Preference to have multiple monitors auto split to seperate windows

jhardwick 9 years ago updated by Phil Ellis 2 years ago 29

I would like the ability when a host connects to a guest with multiple monitors to have a separate window opened for each monitor automatically as part of a user/guest preference. Perhaps even memory of last window positions and size on the host side for each monitor... ie guest monitor 1 always goes here, guest monitor 2 always goes here. The thought being if the host has >= monitors as the guest you could have a better experience.


The majority of our clients have multiple monitors and it's time consuming to manually split them out to individual windows manually, and the default "all-up" view results in an unusable experience 90% of the time... more so when they have three monitors.

Kirsten,


Can I ask why?

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This seems to have stalled... :(

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Under Review
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Please bring this feature to Screen Connect. All of our clients have 2+ monitor setups and it is very time consuming to open the multiple windows each time we login. I just switched from another remote software company that had this feature. Just a few adjustments here and there and Screen Connect will be even better.

This isn't the same thing.


LogMeIn automatically creates separate windows for each remote monitor when you connect to a machine.


In Control/ScreenConnect I have to spend time each time I hope in to manually split them out into separate windows.

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Considering for Future Release
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Under Review
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Expanding on the business case for this... 90% of our clients now have multiple monitors and about 30% have more than two... this is becoming more and more of an issue even with 4K monitors. :(  It's please hold while we connect.. ok give me a few minutes while I split out monitors and find what you are talking about..

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I agree that splitting by default should be an option, however failing that (or in addition to that), you could put a split icon in the window toolbar so the split can be done quickly with a single click, rather than having to fish around in a menu and shift clicking multiple times.

Screen splitting sounds nice, But my previous solution did it different, and better. I could easily go to screen 1 or screen 2, But I also had the ability to see screen 1 + 2 at the same time. It did cramp it up, But with aspect ratio's I was able to expand that across both of my dual screens and could see easily work with my users dual monitors.  Its tough when you right click on one screen and go to properties, then the properties opens on the other screen then you click an option in that screen and it bounces back to the other screen. Can be very time consuming and tedious work. But if you can see both screens in the same session at the same time, you can drag windows from screen to screen with ease and makes life much easier.  And doing both screens together should be easier than splitting them into two separate Sessions all together.  Should also be easier on resources of network speed and PC Specs.

Matthew, it seems like the functionality you're describing is Control's current default behavior. Is that accurate to say?

Yes, I'm a little confused by Matthew's comment as well. Right now, by default SC presents combined displays. The combo can be split into separate windows, but this requires a fairly cumbersome process. For example, two displays would be split into separate windows as follows:


- establish connection, viewing combined windows


- go to the display icon in the toolbar, move mouse over display 1, hold ctrl button, click on display 1; this opens a new window dedicated to display 1


- move the display 1 window out of the way, and go back to combined view


- go to the display icon in the toolbar, move mouse over display 2, hold ctrl button, click on display 2; this opens a new window dedicated to display 2


- you now have three windows open, which is apt to be confusing, so you probably want to move the display 2 window out of the way, go back to the combined view, and close it.


The point is, there is no good reason to require going through the above procedure, and having to do so introduces a distraction and delay in servicing the customer.


If I were on the SC design team, I would have a single toolbar icon for toggling between combined and separate window views. Such a solution would be extremely simple and elegant. Which view should be the default would then be essentially moot, as going from one to the other would be trivial and fast. Additional intelligence that would auto-locate separate windows on separate physical displays might be nice too, but not as essential as the core functionality of the mode toggle.


Further to Matthew's comment, having separate Windows does not constitute additional sessions and should have zero impact on resource usage.

Similar, But not exactly. I think after further testing I can better describe it today. Where it makes your product difficult is the fact it keeps as aspect ratio. In my previous solution I could do a stretch to fit my screen.  If I put both of your screens to show on one monitor for instance, its super small in the middle of the screen due to the aspect ratio of the display. My previous solution would stretch the screen to any size I decided to make it and was not locked by the aspect ratio.   I did have the option to click a quick button and jump back to the exact aspect ratio if I stretched it odd. And I used that at times, But  being able to stretch those small screens to full length showing both screens was very awesome.  I would be glad to give support or developers a demonstration of my previous solution so I could better explain this. I know its hard to put into words. 

Matthew, I think this request might be more relevant to you. If you agree, I would add some comments there

Moved this back to Under Review as we try and get the design right

Possibly that link might. Can we schedule a call to discuss possibly? would only take a few minutes.  I think both cases are similar, But I want to better explain and hopefully demonstrate my ideas to you guys and let you take it from there if you like it.  

Hello Matthew,

I'm on the product team and can assist you a bit more. To schedule a quick call, please use the link below.

https://calendly.com/cwcontrol_pm/connectwise-control

Thanks!

Speaking for myself, I'd have no objection to Matthew's idea of being able to stretch or squeeze a window and have the aspect ratio follow it accordingly, e.g., perhaps by holding down the ctl key while resizing the window might have that effect. Such a feature would not be particularly useful to me personally, but I can understand situations where it would be handy as he indicates.


That said, there are many possible use cases where his solution doesn't really apply. For example, due to desk space limitations, my dual monitors are stacked rather than side by side. This limits how far I can go to enlarge a combined display image, so for my situation I need to split into two windows, and move one to the top monitor and one to the lower monitor.


It's also possible for the remote machine to have more than two displays, and in all sorts of configurations, so for example if the remote machine has two side by side displays plus a separate monitor on the wall configured in Windows as if it is stacked, the combined view will show an "L" shape with two displays side by side and a third stacked on top. Unless you happen to have a physical monitor situation that happens to be a good fit for this, no amount of monkeying with aspect ratios is likely to give a particularly usable result.


Given that there are uncountable possible variations on physical monitor configurations on both the remote and host side, the more general solution is to split the combined display into multiple windows, which can then be independently moved around and resized for best productivity based on the physical monitors available to the technician.

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it isn't automatic on the MacOS control 

It would be helpful to know where this is configured, if it has been implemented.

It wasn't exactly implemented as I had asked and I gave up on asking over and over.

At the moment, the system remembers how you had splits set the last time you connected to a system, it seems. It doesn't automatically split unless the last time you connected to that machine, you had manually split them out.

That's frustrating. It seems like the memorized setting of it has recently been reset on our instance, because all of a sudden all of our techs are getting stitched windows on machines we've had split, and we all operate only with split windows. Oh well, thanks for letting me know.