RDP - Spanning monitors

arwes

I've got a weird issue going on with one of my remote clients. The office has multiple monitors, and since we're on 2003 still, we can only span. For whatever reason, her machine will not span. Resolution settings are exactly alike on both monitors, and I've even added use multimon:i:1 to the RDP shortcut (drag n drop into Notepad to access that). The funny thing is that if I run 'mstsc /span' it spans across both screens just fine.

I've deleted the remote desktop client off the machine in question, reinstalled RDC 7, recreated her Windows profile, and nothing has helped. In the meantime, I created a batch file to run 'mstsc /span' so she can work (she's actually on vacation until Monday). It's a temporary fix, and my post on the TechNet forum netted me a response of making sure 'use multimon:i:1' is in the shortcut. No telling what country the support guy is in.

Devilsbane

I've never been able to span an RDP session on multiple monitors. Where I work pretty much all workstations have multiple monitors. We were doing some training in a different room, so I RDP'd into my station and I only had access to the primary screen, and was unable to increase the size of the RDP window.

arwes

It's worked great for everyone but this one employee. The basic requirements are that your screens should be the same resolution and lined up side by side. The drawback to spanning is that when someone maximizes a program it takes up both screens. Hopefully we'll get 2008 R2 installed soon so we can do away with spanning.

arwes

Just found out what happened here. Apparently the original RDP file didn't have span monitors:i:1. When we upgraded them to RDC 7, it added use multimon:i:1 which is only supported with 2008 R2. If you try to use that with anything other than 2008 R2, it reverts to a single monitor. Removed use multimon:i:1 and added span monitors:i:1 and now it's working great.

Pash

arwes wrote: »

Just found out what happened here. Apparently the original RDP file didn't have span monitors:i:1. When we upgraded them to RDC 7, it added use multimon:i:1 which is only supported with 2008 R2. If you try to use that with anything other than 2008 R2, it reverts to a single monitor. Removed use multimon:i:1 and added span monitors:i:1 and now it's working great.

thanks for the insight.

arwes

Well you can unthank me now lol. The machine rebooted, and now will only work on one screen, whether that setting is in there or not. So I'm going to set this employee up at another workstation (had to push Office 07 out to it over a T1), and the next time someone comes to our office they're going to bring that machine so I can wipe it and start over.