Setting up dual displays under Windows

Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows 2000 and Windows Xp all support Dual monitors.
Win 98 supports a max of 9 out of the box although some aftermarket software extended it further,

Dual Monitors, Dual Displays, Multi-Monitor all refer to a type of HARDWARE configuration. For a system to support multiple monitors, the computer must be equipped with two or more video boards OR it must have a single multi-port video board.

Below is an example of a really low cost Dual Head display system.
The Systems uses a Via EPIA M-10000, Mini-ITX motherboard. This Board very small only 17cm X 17cm that 6.7 inches square. It retails for around $165 US. It has a permanantly attached 1 GHz CPU on the motherboard so there is no buying CPU's or the possiblity to upgrade. It has the VIA/ S3G CLE266 Northbridge with build in graphics.
It also has the CastleRock graphics engine with MPEG-2 Decoder and support TV-Out.

There is only one PCI slot available and no AGP slot. For the Second Graphics Adapter I used an ATI 3D Rage Pro PCI, That was once a top of the line card in it's day.

Both cards support TV-Out if I wish to drive VR goggles or TV outputs, Or record something to an old analog VCR.

When installing windows imediatly recogniesed the new card and promped to install it's drivers, once that's done, it all just works.

This gives me an effective working resolution of 2560x1024

Setup for the ATI, I can swap Left to Right orientation or even top and bottom

Setup for Via Built-in Graphics Adapter

Note

Many people use these high end ATI or NVidia Cards with the rgb VGA and DVI output. If both of your monitors use rgb (standard monitor cable), you'll need a dvi-to-rgb adapter.
The software setup on these is somewhat different since the one card does support dual output. Usually when you hook up two monitors, they go into Clone Mode, meaning they both show the same thing. However, you can change that in your Display Properties > Settings part It should show two monitors after you've hooked them up.

Click on the Greyed monitor (prob number 2), and click the box
Extend my Windows Desktop onto this Monitor and click apply.

The second monitor should come alive with its own desktop.

What can you do under windows with Dual Monitors?

IOSySoft had PPCwin: A Dual Display PowerPoint Controller that allowed up the 3 displays to be used in a power point presentation.

PowerShow is a multi-monitor software that loads in PowerPoint environment as an add-in

Multi-Monitor Resources at www.realtimesoft.com