Dual Monitor Tools (mod) v2.7.1 ------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is not the official version of the program released by Gerald Evans. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dual Monitor Tools is a collection of tools for users running multiple monitor setups on Windows. Currently the tools available are DMT.exe, DualWallpaper.exe and DmtWallpaper.scr. DMT.exe is the main tool which will reside in the Windows Notification Area and contains the following modules: Cursor - Control movement of cursor between monitors. The cursor can be locked to a monitor or made sticky, so extra effort is required to move it between monitors. Launcher - Allows you to launch your favourite applications with a few key strokes and to position them at pre-configured positions on any of your monitors. All other DMT commands can also be run this way. Snap - Take snapshot of primary monitor and show on secondary. Previous snapshots can be viewed, saved to a file or copied to the clipboard. Swap Screen - Allows easy movement of windows between monitors, and allows Windows to be moved to pre-defined positions. Wallpaper Changer - Changes wallpaper periodically using a variety of sources and allows you to control how images are shown across your monitors. DualWallpaper.exe allows the manual creation of wallpaper for multiple monitors. DmtWallpaper.scr works with DMT.exe to show your wallpaper when the screen saver is running. Dual Monitor Tools is free and has been released under the GPLv3 license. For further information on usage of the tools, visit http://dualmonitortool.sourceforge.net Changes in version 2.7 ---------------------- DMT:SwapScreen option to put (transparent) border on outside of SDA DMT:Wallpaper changer shows original source image size in properties DMT:Wallpaper changer local images will use Exif data to show photographer/description DMT:Wallpaper changer checkboxes used to specify how to fit image to monitor(s) DMT:Wallpaper changer updated for change to Unsplash website Requirements ------------ Dual Monitor Tools should run on any version of Windows that has .NET 4.0 or later installed. Ideally you need two or more monitors attached to the computer, but some of the features can be useful to users with a single monitor. Installation ------------ There are 2 choices for installation: 1) Use the msi installer - this is the simplest method and will make installing any future versions even easier. 2) Portable install from a zip file - this gives you the most flexibility and is the route to use if you are installing to a portable device. Msi Installation for new users ------------------------------ Just download DualMonitorTools-2.7.msi and run it. Msi Installation upgrades ------------------------- If you have previously installed DualMonitorTools using the Msi installer then you can just download DualMonitorTools-2.7.msi and run it. Alternatively, you can do this via the options in Dual Monitor Tools, by clicking the "Check for Updates" button in the "Dual Monitor Tools"->General page. Msi installation for existing install done from a zip file ---------------------------------------------------------- With a msi installation, the executable and configuration files will live in different locations, so there are some extra steps that you need to go through if you wish to keep your existing configuration: 1) In your existing version of DMT, make sure "Start when Windows starts" (found in Options->Dual Monitor Tools->General) is not ticked. 2) Make sure DMT is not currently running. 3) Make sure you have a backup copy of the following configuration files: DmtMagicWords.xml DmtSettings.xml DmtWallpaperProviders.xml These would normally be in the same directory that you previously installed Dual Monitor Tools too. 4) Download and run the new msi installer. 5) Double click on DMT in the notification area. 6) Select the 'General' page under 'Dual Monitor Tools'. This will show the location where the configuration files now live. The files will be in the '%appdata%\Dual Monitor Tools' folder, which should be something like: 'C:\Users\<your login name>\AppData\Roaming\Dual Monitor Tools' 7) Stop DMT. 8) Copy the 3 xml files into the above location. 9) Start DMT. There should be an option in the Start menu to do this. 10) Don't forget to tick the "Start when Windows starts" option if required. Note: future updates will be much simpler as they can be performed from within DMT. Portable installation --------------------- 1) Download the zip file. 2) If you are already running the files from a previous version, then stop them. 3) Unzip the zip file to your desired location. 4) The tools are now ready to run. You may need to give Windows permission to run the files as they were downloaded from the internet. Hotkeys ------- Most of the actions are accessible via hotkeys. You will need to define hotkeys for the actions that you want to use. Not all key combinations are available as Windows reserves quite a few for itself, and each new version of Windows grabs more and more of them. Probably the most important hotkey to define is the 'Activate Magic Word input' under Launcher->Hotkeys, as this will then allow all other actions to be actioned by the use of this hotkey followed by a magic word. On a UK keyboard Win+<OemPipe> is a good hotkey to use for this as it is easy to enter. For other keyboard layouts, you may need to experiment to see what is available and easy to enter. On the same page is the 'Add Magic Word for current application' hotkey. If you press this hotkey, while running another application, it will offer to create a magic word which you can then use in the future as a quick wat of starting that application. Win+A is a nice hotkey for this, but be aware that Windows 10 now uses this key combination. Magic Words ----------- You can associate applications, websites and DMT commands with a Magic Word. When you hit the launcher hotkey, a dialog box will pop up allowing you to start entering the magic word. This uses auto-completion so you won't normally have to type in the whole word. You can also assign the same Magic Word to multiple applications. When you enter the Magic Word, all of the applications will be started. Portable Usage -------------- The tools are designed to be easy to use in a portable environment, so they can be copied to a USB drive and ran direct from there. Make sure you install from the zip file and not from the msi installer. When specifying filenames (for the launcher executables and wallpaper locations), you may want to make sure that any paths you enter are relative paths if they exist on the USB drive to ensure portability. Data Files ---------- In a portable installation, the tools will write to data files in the same directory that the executables are. The files written to are: DmtMagicWords.xml - Magic words used by the Launcher. DmtWallpaperProviders.xml - Specifies wallpaper image source. DmtSettings.xml - Any other settings go in here. - There will also be .bak versions of these files which are just backup copies of the previous versions of the files. In a msi installation, there will be a DmtFileLocations.xml in this directory that will specify where the other xml files live which would be in "%APPDATA%\Dual Monitor Tools". Uninstall of msi installation ----------------------------- You can uninstall from within Windows installed application list. Any saved settings will need to be removed manually by deleting the folder '%APPDATA%\Dual Monitor Tools'. Uninstall of portable installation ---------------------------------- If you have set the 'Start when Windows starts' in the options, then you will need to turn this off before removing anything. Then make sure none of the tools are running, and you can just delete the files you unzipped and the data files mentioned above. Known problems -------------- If you wish DMT to fully work when you have windows from applications that have been 'Run as Administrator', then you will also need to start DMT with 'Run as Administrator'.