14

I tried to find an answer to this a few years ago, but it seemed it wasn't possible then (I suspect it isn't now either! - but what the hell!)

I have a three monitor system, that I mostly use for remote desktop. However occasionally it would be useful to have remote desktop on two monitors and use the other monitor for the local machine.

I know it is possible to have a single monitor full screen, or to stretch an RDP session across monitors, but this loses things like snapping etc.

P.S. this is a duplicate of this thread, but that was a couple of years ago, I'm hoping things have changed.

Community
  • 1
Michael B
  • 784

4 Answers4

11

You can:

  • Save a .rdp connection file and check "Use multimonitor"
  • Execute mstsc /l on the command line (list monitors, and show ID monitor)
  • Edit .rdp file in notepad
  • Change or add selectedmonitors:s:1,2 after use multimon:i:1

In selectedmonitors you can select yours monitors, listed with mstsc /l. In my sample use 1,2 but you can use others.

More info: https://www.hanselman.com/blog/how-to-remote-desktop-fullscreen-rdp-with-just-some-of-your-multiple-monitors

Victor Sanchez
  • 220
  • 2
  • 8
7

The situation hasn't changed. Your only two choices when using multiple monitors through an RDP session are the /span and /multimon options.

/multimon will treat each screen as a separate display just like you would have on the host. You get snapping/clipping capabilities, but the downside is you can only use ALL of the screens for this.

/span allows you to use only two of your three screens, but the downside is that it's one big rectangle that spans across more than 1 screen. You lose each screen's identity as a separate, distinct display.

You can modify the local group policy on the target computer to specify a maximum of 2 displays for use with the /multimon switch. I don't know what that would look like on a 3-screen display however. I suspect the 3rd screen would just go black. You'd have to play with this yourself.

You can get to the local group policy by hitting Start -> Run and typing gpedit.msc. The setting you're looking for is Computer Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Remote Session Environment. Set Limit Maximum Number of Monitors to enabled and specify 2.

NOTE You do this on the host computer (the one you're connecting to), not the client.

Wes Sayeed
  • 14,102
0

I know that this question is a very old one, but i've had this problem currently with thw windows 10 and found one answer that works like magic for me:

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/how-to-remote-desktop-fullscreen-rdp-with-just-some-of-your-multiple-monitors

Miguel Freire
  • 1
0

As stated in the linked question, I have been using Vmware workstation to full screen on a subset of my monitors, running a stripped down version of Windows 7, it seems to be working well so far and I'll likely retain this as a solution (at least as something to use when I need to have that separation.)

It does get a little sluggish at times, but for the most part there is no difference in performance (I am primarily using office apps etc)

Michael B
  • 784