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Multi Monitors

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:01 pm
by barryb
Hi All,

I would like to display images from my screensaver set on one monitor only. I have machines with 1 , 2 and 3 monitors.

I tried ticking the display on second monitor only and it well didn't, it displayed on both. I haven't tried on 3 monitors yet.

It would be nice if display method had a display only on primary option. I should point out I am using the program in trial mode at present pending getting this working when i would purchase.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Barry

Multi monitor, use primary

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:08 pm
by barryb
EDIT Duplicate removed

Re: Multi Monitors

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:01 pm
by gpb
gPhotoShow Pro can be configured to display the slideshow only on the primary monitor or on all secondary monitors. There are also ways to start it on a specific monitor but it can't be done when using gPhotoShow as a screen saver.
Those option have always worked on all gPhotoShow Pro versions and we never received any report about problems so I guess the only issue is to configure the program correctly. Are you using gPhotoShow as screen saver ? In this case make sure you open the configuration window from the windows screen saver control panel applet, then in the multiple monitors configuration page tick the option "Display images ONLY on secondary monitors". To display the slideshow only on primary monitor clear the option "Enable Multiple Monitors support".
If you still have problems I need a log file from gPhotoShow to understand what's going wrong there. In this case please write me directly or use the support form on the web site.

Edit: gPhotoShow relies on the windows API to detect multiple monitors, some display adapter drivers allow users to configure all monitors as a single big display or to show the same image on all monitors, in these cases Windows only sees a single monitor and gPhotoShow will do the same. In the multiple monitors page gPhotoShow displays the number of monitors it detects, if you see 1 it means your display adapter is configured in that way and the only way to make gPhotoShow to work is to change its configuration as a real multi-monitors system.

Re: Multi Monitors

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 4:56 pm
by barryb
Hi,

thanks for the quick response. I am compiling a SCR type screensaver. If i don't select multi monitor when I preview it only shows on one screen and the other is still the desktop. I would like the second one (or any other) blank (black). When I select the option Display images only on secondary monitors it works if I run the GSS script but not if I run the .SCR.

Thanks,

Barry

Re: Multi Monitors

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 6:03 pm
by gpb
Ok, now it's clear. Standalone screen savers are supposed to be configured by the user but the options to display images only on secondary monitors have not been added to the configuration window. You can change those settings by manually editing the system registry. Run REGEDIT.EXE, then open the following key (if it doesn't exist create it):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\gpsScreenSavers\YourScreenSaverName\Settings

and add the following REG_DWORD values:
OnlyMon2 = 1
MainEmpty = 1

Of course change YourScreenSaverName with the file name of your SCR (without file extension)

Re: Multi Monitors

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:16 am
by barryb
Hi Gianpaolo,

OK I added / amended the registry keys and the Screensaver starts on Screen 2 now but it left Screen 1 on the desktop.

So I went in and changed OnlyMon2 = 0 and MainEmpty = 1 it then worked as I would have expected it to. I tried the same on a machine with 3 monitors and unfortunately all 3 screens remained black any ideas or is 2 the limit?

Thanks,

Barry

Re: Multi Monitors

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:15 pm
by gpb
Hi Barry,
I apologize, the correct settings are the ones you found OnlyMon2 = 0 and MainEmpty = 1
Since 0 is the default when nothing is specified you only need to add MainEmpty = 1

About black screen, gPhotoShow has much higher limits on the number of monitors so this is not the cause.
Standalone screen savers include everything inside the scr file, when a new file should be displayed it is extracted from the scr and copied to a temporary folder. When something goes wrong because the scr file can't be opened or because it is not able to find a temporary folder where to write files the screen saver displays a black screen. Are you using the screen saver as a logon screen saver ?
Anyway it's hard to give you more details without a log file. To create a log file from a standalone screen saver you need to edit the system registry, in the same location where you added the multi-monitor settings add a new DWORD value:
Trace=1
- run the screen saver as usual, when you see a black screen stop it
- get the log file from C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\YourScreenSaverName

You can take a look at the log file by yourself, it is a simple text file or send it to me.

Re: Multi Monitors

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:23 am
by barryb
Hi Gianpaolo,

thanks for the reply, I will look in to that. I did have issues with a 3 monitor machine so will see what the logs say.

However it looks like we maybe going with the same image on all the monitors.

Out of curiosity is it possible to lock down the options so only the about screen appears?

Thanks,

Barry

Re: Multi Monitors

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:22 pm
by gpb
barryb wrote: Out of curiosity is it possible to lock down the options so only the about screen appears?
No, the created screen savers always have their configuration window.
BTW, on the next update OnlyMon2 and MainEmpty settings will be inherited by the gPhotoShow settings so you don't need to enter them manually into the system registry.