Multi-monitor programming pitfalls

By Dennis Gurock | Published: August 23, 2005

“I will highlight two problem areas where many programs, including popular ones, make wrong assumptions and therefore contain bugs on multi-monitor machines. In fact, we have been affected by one of these problems ourselves. A customer reported that the SmartInspect Console isn’t restored correctly when it’s closed on a non-primary monitor in maximized state. We tested it, could reproduce the annoyance and wondered why we never noticed it before, especially since we use two monitors, too.”

Multi-Monitor Programming Pitfalls

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6 Comments

  1. Joe Bain
    Posted August 23, 2005 at 20:01 | Permalink

    Another thing that most programs get wrong is windows task bars. They assume that there will only be 1 and it will be at the bottom of the monitor. You should handle any number of task bars in any possition.

  2. Dennis Gurock
    Posted August 24, 2005 at 00:23 | Permalink

    That’s a good point Joe. We will have to test that with SmartInspect, too.

    I normally do not use multiple task bars so I never noticed any problems with most programs.

  3. Joe Bain
    Posted August 26, 2005 at 18:30 | Permalink

    Here is my multi-montior/multi-taskbar desktop.

    http://www.iegsoftware.com/images/Desktop.jpg

  4. Dennis Gurock
    Posted August 26, 2005 at 21:24 | Permalink

    Thanks for the screen shot. When I add a second toolbar / taskbar to my Desktop under Windows XP, all programs – including IE, Explorer etc – ignore it and are in front of it when maximized. I tried logout/login but they still ignore it.

    I noticed that your Firefox is maximized and doesn’t hide the second taskbar under Windows 2000. Maybe it’s a bug in XP?

  5. Joe Bain
    Posted August 31, 2005 at 20:24 | Permalink

    Set the bar to be "Always on Top".

    My OS is XP Pro, not 2000.

  6. Dennis Gurock
    Posted September 1, 2005 at 23:16 | Permalink

    Ah ok thanks, got it.