Topic: Multiple Monitors - Vista Aero Glass Theme

[thegallery]

I have a video card with two VGA monitors plugged in. Because they use the same driver I can use the Windows Vista Aero Glass theme which allows for some neat transparent effects which I actually find quite useful when using multiple windows.

I have another monitor port from the mother board, but this is disabled. In the past if I ran a third monitor out of it I have to live without the Aero Glass theme. I'd actually like to set my computer like this and now and I wondered if there might now be a a way around the need of having to use the same driver? Anybody seen some custom themes or ways around this?

Also, are there other themes out there also using the transparency ability of Aero Glass but with a different look? I remember one time having an add-on, that allowed you to roll up the windows, not minimize them, but just roll them up into a title bar. It was pretty cool but I forget the program or website it came from.

Lastly or note, I use RealTimeSoft's Ultramon for organizing the multiple monitors and mirroring the taskbar.

[Simon]

Way over my head, all that, but hopefully someone will be able to help, TG.

[Sandra]

Tony is the multiple monitor guy but I think he gave up on vista with it.

[johnbutler]

Greetings thegallery,

You may be thinking of NVIDIA's nView Desktop Manager, which disappeared a while ago, and is now back. If one of your controllers is an NVIDIA controller, try looking in the Classic View of Vista's Control Panel and look for a separate nView Desktop Manager icon. If it's not there, make sure you have the latest driver.

Once you open it, make sure nView Desktop Manager is enabled, and you should see a lot of tabs detailing different settings. Transparency is under the "Effects" tab. It is also available in the upper-left title bar icon menu under each application once nView Desktop Manager is running.

nView can interfere with a number of applications when all of its default settings are tunrned on, so turn off everything you're not using, particularly the title bar buttons in the "User Interface" section.

And you will of course need to reload the XP driver and lose Aero Glass itself to get both controllers working simultaneously. But if the functionality of the transparency feature is more important to you than the Aero Glass animation effects, this is a small price.

[Simon]

Thanks for responding, John, and