MultiMonitorTools

A utility app for Windows 11 that enhances the multi-monitor experience.

Features

• Enable or disable virtual desktops separately for each monitor:

• Replaces the default windows virtual desktop switching animation to a customizable switching animation:

• When the mouse cursor crosses monitors, adjust its position to be physically accurate.

Using the app

If you haven't already, install the Visual C++ Redistributable Packages.

• Enabling/Disabling virtual desktops for a monitor:

  Select the respective monitor in Monitor Settings and toggle Enable virtual desktops.

• Setting up physically accurate cursor position when crossing monitors:

  • In windows display settings, set up the display layout to match your monitor layout, and enable Ease cursor movement between displays. Windows controls when the mouse cursor crosses to a different monitor, and MultiMonitorTools detects this transition and adjusts the cursor's location to be physically accurate.

  • In MultiMonitorTools, drag and drop the monitor layout to match your physical monitor layout. The default physical sizes are read from the monitors' EDID data, but this might not be accurate, so adjust their sizes if necessary.

  • To fine tune the monitors' geometry, toggle Draw grid lines to draw a grid of lines on the monitors. Fine tune your monitor layout until the grid lines align across monitors. The cursor's position will follow these grid lines.

• Other features

  • Press Win+Alt to display a temporary prompt that shows the current desktop name.

  • Hold Shift when switching virtual desktops to bring the current window with you.

Building

Required tools:

• MSVC2022 v143 build tools
• Windows 11 SDK

The above can be installed from Visual Studio's installer

• CMake (version >= 3.21)

Build instructions

• Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/QidiWang/MultiMonitorTools.git

• Setup the project with CMake:

Launch a terminal at the root location, where CMakeLists.txt is, and run the following:

cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -T v143

Setup takes a while since Qt6 has to be downloaded. If you already have Qt6(version >= 6.8) on your system, you can use that by setting the Qt6_DIR variable to where Qt6Config.cmake is:

cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -T v143 -DQt6_DIR="YourQt6Location/6.9.1/msvc2022_64/lib/cmake/Qt6"

• Build the project:

  • Run the following:

  cmake --build build --config Release
  

  • Or open the .sln generated in the build folder and build with Visual Studio.

License

This software is licensed under GPLv3.

Credits

Some code are taken/adapted from the following projects:

• https://github.com/MScholtes/VirtualDesktop
• https://github.com/Ciantic/VirtualDesktopAccessor
• https://github.com/GKO95/Win32.EDID

This application uses Qt6 under the GPL license. Qt source.