Phil online

I have a new setup at work where I’m now using a laptop and an external display in a dual-monitor setup.  I’ve heard everyone rave for years about how MultiMon is an “must-have” utility for dual-screen users, but I wanted something very specific.  I looked around and MultiMon actually claims to do what I want. I downloaded it, but so far I am not impressed.
What I want is for my laptop to automatically switch into dual-monitor mode when I plug the external monitor in, and switch back to single monitor mode when I unplug it.  I’ve looked around and I can’t find anything that will tell me when I unplug the monitor.  I can see that the Laptop knows when the monitor is connected because it won’t let me enable the external monitor unless it is plugged in.  Once it is enabled, however, it does not automatically disable it when I unplug it.    So failing this, a hotkey is my next best option.  That maybe better, even, since it puts the switching under my control.

Here’s what I want for my own setup:

Single-monitor mode:

• Taskbar on the left of the laptop screen.
• All applications moved onto the laptop screen

Dual-monitor mode:

• Taskbar on the left of the secondary monitor (in the middle of my workspace)
• Applications allowed to move to secondary monitor, but not forced

UltraMon tries to do a good job.  But it puts a new taskbar on the second screen just for those application buttons.  I don’t want this.  I can disable it, I think, but I haven’t found out how yet.

Also when I switch to a single-monitor mode, it sometimes makes my taskbar half as wide as the laptop screen (that’s max-width for a taskbar).  This is just a bug, and I haven’t fully characterized it yet.
When I switch back to dual-monitor mode, UltraMon does a good job remember which apps should move back to the 2nd screen.  That’s a nice touch.  But it doesn’t move my taskbar back where I want it.  And that’s a primary feature I want.

So I think I’ll hack up my own.  It should be easy.  I have experience moving taskbars around and hiding and showing windows.  So in my spare time, I’ll try to make a better UltraMon.  But not with so many features.  I don’t particularly care for the extra buttons it puts on the windows and how they look.  Nice, but unnecessary.  I can do that with a system menu or a hotkey.

I don’t want to worry with shareware regs on this applet, so I’ll make it open-source, I guess.  Then when someone figures out how to do monitor-connection-sensing, they can add it for me.  Bonus.