Monitor Splitting is a feature that allows you to divide up your physical monitors into smaller "virtual" monitors. Each split section can have its own desktop wallpaper, taskbar, and screen saver. Maximizing an application will constrain it to the split sections, instead of the entire monitor. Note that each of those features can be enabled or disabled with splits, so if you want to have applications maximize into splits, but keep a single wallpaper for the whole monitor, you can do that! One thing that is important to note, is that it's not currently possible to constrain full screen videos or full screen games to monitor splits.
2x2 Split
Monitor Splitting can be used on any type of monitor setup, and is especially useful for NVIDIA Surround and AMD Eyefinity configurations.
Here are a few example uses of the Monitor Splitting feature:
- Surround/Eyefinity splitting: By splitting your Surround or Eyefinity setup, you can continue to enjoy your games and videos in Surround/Eyefinity spanning, while still having taskbars, wallpaper, and regular applications confined to individual monitors.
- Reserve space for widgets or narrow applications: Have some desktop widgets or a narrow application like an instant messaging contact list? You can reserve some space on the left or right side of the monitor, and maximize your other applications to the remaining space.
- Ultra-wide monitors: Ultra-wide monitors are a great alternative to running two separate monitors. Using DisplayFusion Monitor Splitting, you can split your ultra-wide monitor into two sections, so that you can easily maximize two applications side-by-side.
Automatic Monitor Splitting
If you're running an NVIDIA Surround or AMD Eyefinity setup without bezel compensation enabled, the quickest way to get up and running with Monitor Splitting is to enable the "Auto-split Eyefinity and NVIDIA Surround monitors" option in the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window. After clicking OK or Apply, you should now have taskbars on each monitor. Note that on NVIDIA Surround setups, you'll be prompted to disable the NVIDIA Surround helper processes. It's important that you answer Yes and immediately reboot, if you plan to keep Monitor Splitting enabled. If you answer No, you'll run into some weird quirks with the taskbars when entering/exiting full screen games.
The Auto Split Option
Custom Monitor Splitting
If you want a more customize split configuration, clicking the "Splits and Padding" button in the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window will open up the Splits and Padding dialog for the selected monitor.
To get you started, there are a bunch of pre-defined split configurations available via the "Preset Splits" button. You can start by choosing one of those configurations, then customize from there, or you can create your split setup from scratch using the "Horizontal Split" button to split the monitor into side-by-side sections, or the "Vertical Split" button to split the monitor into top/bottom sections.
Below are a couple of example setups and the steps required to configure them.
Splitting the Monitor Down the Middle
- In the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window, select the monitor you want to split, and click the "Splits and Padding" button.
Splits and Padding Button
- In the Splits and Padding window, click the "Preset Splits" button, and choose the "2x1" option.
Presets Button
- Click OK, then OK again.
Splitting a 1920x1080 monitor 70/30
- In the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window, select the monitor you want to split, and click the "Splits and Padding" button.
Splits and Padding Button
- In the Splits and Padding window, click the "Preset Splits" button, and choose the "2x1" option.
Presets Button
- Enable the "Auto-Fill All Splits" checkbox.
The Auto Fill Option
- Click the left split to select it, then change the "Width" value in the "Size" box to 1344 and press tab to update the preview.
The Width Value
- Click OK, then OK again.
Monitor Padding
Monitor Padding is useful in some cases where Splits are not as appropriate. The main difference being that Monitor Padding only affects the size of maximized windows in the non-padded area, and not other features like the taskbars, desktop wallpaper, or screen saver. Application windows will only maximize to the non-padded area, whereas if you used Splits in this situation, application windows can be maximized to either side of the split. This is useful if you just want to reserve some space on your desktop for some gadgets, or an IM client window. Here's how to configure Monitor Padding to reserve some space on the right side of the monitor:
- In the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window, select the monitor you want to split, and click the "Splits and Padding" button.
Splits and Padding Button
- Enter a value (in pixels) in the right side numeric box in the "Padding" section. e.g. 500.
Right Side Padding
- Click OK, then OK again.
Enabling/Disabling DisplayFusion Features for Splits
In the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window, you can enable or disable the Screen Savers, Wallpaper, Taskbars, and Window Management for use with splits. If one of these checkboxes is disabled, that feature will ignore the Monitor Splitting configuration, and instead treat the monitor as the full display. This is useful if you want to have application windows constrained to the splits, while leaving the taskbars, wallpaper, and screen savers the full size of the monitor.
Options for Split Features
More Monitor Splitting Tips
- You can use Monitor Splitting in Surround/Eyefinity setups that have bezel compensation enabled. This guide describes the steps to configure that: Configuring Monitor Splits for Bezel Correction
- You can click the "Show Preview" button in the Splits and Padding window to show the split lines on the monitor itself. You can also adjust the splits while the preview is showing.
Splits Preview
- You can hold the Shift key on your keyboard while clicking the maximize button on a window to override the splits and have the window maximize to the full monitor.
