PCFormat Forum Archive

Hey guys, its been a while

We are rolling out dual screens to all our staff in preparation for a new app we are launching. This runs on a terminal server that clients connect to from their PCs. These are a combination of Windows 7 and XP. Now Windows 7 has the function of allowing you to use two monitors when connecting and it nicely extends your desktop like a normal PC with two screens. However XP does now. I have googled the problem and they all say to add a /span line in to the config file, but that merely stretches the one screen to the other and looks aweful.

Has anyone had this problem before and possibly know how to fix it? I need everyone using two screens with RDP by Feb 1.

EDIT: Our TS server runs Server 2008 R2

Happy New Year btw

Dj

It is extremely easy....

NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER AS IN EVER install ANY solution the requires the use of Terminal Server.

Oh and to more thoroughly answer your question after the rant... no there is no known way I know of unless you want to rewrite some core XP components.

are you sure xp can't do this?

something i've done many times in the past, (where the GPU permitted)... display properties - monitor management

if the GPU doesn't support it, dual-GPU setup?

or something like royal-TS?

or do i misunderstand the requirement?

<edit>kb307873</edit>

Rusty he is referring to the RDP client taking advantage of duel monitor support. Your option will make two screens available yes, but the RDP client will still only maximize onto one of them depending on which one it was opened.

This is as easy as ticking a check box on Windows 7, is there no way possible to do this properly on Windows XP? If not I'm in serious poo because half of our computers use Windows XP... :O

ALL company work is done on the TS server and this app is only being installed on there. We can't use this on the local machines. There's got to be a way around this.

So you are using TS the only way it has a decent use and that is by throwing bundles of hardware at a software licensing issue.... nice.

http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php ... windows-7/

read the article until you get to the bottom. If you download the latest version of the DRP client you do get the option and you can set it in the .rdp file by adding a line "use multimon:i:1" to it.

but... that's my point... xp desktops can span multiple monitors... if the TS is 2008, (which also does this), i don't get why there's difficulty....

the RDP client is just another app...

@DJT: what version rdp client are you running? have you tried upgrading?

is the /span simply stretching the image?, (ie, not translating it)

/span will only stretch what is on the other side to what you have on your side. It is not, and I do repeat, /span is not a multi desktop solution.

unless what you have on your side is the correct res... which should have the TS translate co-ords, not stretch... it's right there in the RDP protocol... hence my confusion...

i'm going to hunt down a spare xp box... :/

Rusty if the default of the TS is not set up as a duel monitor then it will simply stretch the single screen across your multiple local screens.

RDP protocol accepts a target resolution and guarantees remote translation to that resolution... this is why we can have multiple terminals attach to the TS box at multiple resolutions...

the TS returns a desktop rendered in the requested co-ord space... hence my question.

what res is being pushed during instance creation? i could understand if the client requested a target res of 1024x768 with /span and got a horribly stretched result, but not if the client is creating the instance with a suitable res...

<edit>unless i'm being dense and they're looking for 2 distinct desktops, not just an over-sized one?

multiple sessions?

multiple CALs </edit>

Windows 7 allows you to use multiple monitors perfectly. I've tried the latest version of RDP for XP, version 6 something and it still doesn't work. Stretching is definately NOT what I want. I will give that multimon thing a go when I get to CPT, but thats for the Win7 client so I doubt it will work.

This could end up costly...

DJT they made reference there saying that if you don't have Win7 or Vista that it is the another way to go about it (manually adding the tag).

But still I don't think it will work correctly on XP....

If I may, DJT, how about screenies (or in this instance a physical photo of the multi-mon setups might be more appropriate) to demonstrate the differences between the XP and Win7 setups. This way we can see what you have (in the current XP setup), and what you want (in the Win7 setup).

SykomantiS wrote:If I may, DJT, how about screenies (or in this instance a physical photo of the multi-mon setups might be more appropriate) to demonstrate the differences between the XP and Win7 setups. This way we can see what you have (in the current XP setup), and what you want (in the Win7 setup).

Will get them when I get back to CPT tomorrow. But good idea

I will try manually putting in that tag, as the span one didn't work. Lets see what happens