Penny Arcade Forums› Games and Technology› Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.

Running PC games on secondary monitor

kpeezykpeezy Registered User regular
edited June 2009 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
Does anyone know how to do this? I have my living room TV hooked up as a secondary monitor and the audio from my computer is hooked into the surround sound. Right now, I just have the TV cloning the computer monitor and that works pretty well. The problem is that it changes my monitor resolution from 1920x1200 to 1920x1080 and I don't want to do that.

I have no problems running the TV as a secondary monitor and maintaining proper resolutions but all my games open up on the computer monitor instead of the TV. Is there a way to get this working like I want?

Edit: In case anyone is curious as to why I'm doing this, a lot of the new PC games have support for the 360 controller. I use the USB receiver at my computer and just sit in my living room on the couch with the 360 controller and play the PC games in there. It's sweet.

me itt
SSBB: 5370-1223-4258
kpeezy on

Posts

  • holland909holland909 Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Open up Display Properties and set up your TV as the Primary Display. You should be able to play games on the big screen after that.

    holland909 on
  • kpeezykpeezy Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Yes, but then I wouldn't be able to use my real monitor at the computer. I'm trying to figure out a way to not switch back and forth.

    So far I've read that I can set the TV as primary and then drag the taskbar onto the secondary monitor. I think that will do what I want half of the time. I play just as many PC only games as console games and I don't want those running on the big screen since the keyboard and mouse are at my desk.

    Is there a program that can change which screen different programs default to? I want Firefox, Warcraft III, WoW, etc to open up on the computer monitor but I want Fallout 3, Mirror's Edge, etc to open on the TV.

    kpeezy on
    me itt
    SSBB: 5370-1223-4258
  • bigwahbigwah Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    If you are using multiple monitors, i suggest Ultramon (or one of the other multiple monitor programs). With Ultramon I setup a hotkey that switches the primary/sec. monitors, I just press it when i want to game on TV.

    bigwah on
    LoL Tribunal:
    "Was cursing, in broken english at his team, and at our team. made fun of dead family members and mentioned he had sex with a dog."
    "Hope he dies tbh but a ban would do."
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited June 2009
    The only thing you can do is run your games in windowed mode and drag them to the second monitor... if you have ample RAM, you won't take a performance hit.

    Jasconius on
    this is a discord of mostly PA people interested in fighting games: https://discord.gg/DZWa97d5rz

    we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Sign In or Register to comment.
Penny Arcade Forums› Games and Technology› Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern