Display Background Image across multiple monitors

Posted on March 19th, 2007 by Jason

I am a multi-monitor Windows Vista user ever since I got hooked on multiple monitor at work. Two monitors make doing multiple tasks at one so much easier.  If I am working on an article or trying to be creative in Photoshop, everything is just much easier because I always have multiple applications open at once.  One feature that I wish I had as soon as I purchased my two monitors and hooked them up was the ability to stretch my wallpaper across both monitors.  I wanted to use a very large and wide photo as my background that would like cool displayed across both monitors. Something like the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco or a cityscape.
 
After installing and uninstalling Ultra Mon, a third-party shareware utility that I heard is great for multi-monitors, I wanted a easier solution and not something that I had to run in the background.  A few weeks go by until I accidentally stumble across how to natively stretch your wallpaper across multiple monitors.
 
Follow these steps in to display a large image across multiple monitors:

  1. Right click on the background and select Personalization.
  2. Click on Desktop Background
  3. Select a background image that is at least as wide as the combined resolution of both of your monitors.  For Example, I have two 19” monitors that have a resolution of 1280×1024.  I need an image of 2560×1024 or greater so that it can be displayed across both monitors.
  4. Next, this is the step that most users would never even think about trying: Select the Tile picture positioning option as shown below. This is the only option that will display your background image across multiple monitors.
  5. Hit OK

Your background image is now displayed across both monitors instead of having the same image displayed on both monitors.

Tags: , ,

This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 11:57 am and is filed under Windows Vista, Windows XP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Related posts

22 Responses to “Display Background Image across multiple monitors”

  1. EntreGeeks on 19 Mar 2007 at 8:15 pm #

    [IMG ]Enlaces Technorati how do I open an excel csv file with my newly downloaded excel viewer?MS Techno Evangelist Now A DissidentDisplay Background Image across multiple monitorsAnger over OneCare deleting emailsVista 使用 XP 主題Windows Sidebar StylerBrowser öffnet nicht alle LinksCrea Fondo De Windows VistaDas verflixte Mausrad und Windows XP HomeMicrosoft’s Windows ‘Fiji’ on track to debut before Windows Seven

  2. Dark Elite on 27 Jun 2007 at 9:28 pm #

    Thanks so much!

    I just got an old CRT to have my music, MSN etc on while I do full screen things and/or work in Photoshop etc. I had a bunch of dual-screen wallpapers, but couldn’t figure it out. I was pretty angry, since I really wanted to use these awesome background.

    You totally made my day. Thanks so much.

  3. davblos on 30 Jun 2007 at 2:57 am #

    doesnt work for me . . . :(

  4. marius on 07 Aug 2007 at 7:30 am #

    Doesn’t work for me either :-(

  5. Andrew on 13 Aug 2007 at 8:19 pm #

    Stupid Windows XP…works great for me

  6. hobo343 on 27 Aug 2007 at 1:15 pm #

    hiding in plain view — thanks for the tip

  7. Chris on 23 Oct 2007 at 10:30 am #

    I have the opposite problem, and I don’t know how I caused it. My wallpaper is complete on both monitors. But my icons, taskbar, etc is only available on one monitor at a time. I’ve been through all my “Display” options in my Control Panel. I want identical images, icons, etc on both monitors simultaneously, but cannot make it happen.

  8. adrien on 23 Apr 2008 at 9:02 am #

    thx a lot :)
    it works for win xp as well…

  9. ORA on 28 May 2008 at 12:31 am #

    Not sure what ‘Personlization’ is. Vista maybe.

    Select your image and open in any imaging software.
    There is usually an option to ‘Resize’ the image. Make sure your calculations are correct for 2 monitors width(x)heigth. (1680×1050 will equate to 3360×1050)
    File –> Save As (something you know, maybe with the size of the image.

    For XP;
    MB3 on the background
    Properties
    Desktop tab
    [Browse] to the folder location
    Select the image that you resized
    Position = Tile (otherwise it will center and squash the image to one monitor size, but display on both as individual images.)
    Apply

    Now your resized image is displayed across 2 monitors.
    YAY!!

    ORA

  10. Buzzardo on 25 Jun 2008 at 8:40 pm #

    Legend! cheers! :-)

  11. Larry on 13 Jul 2008 at 6:04 am #

    WORKS PERFECT! The dual trick you gave by selecting “tile” works perfect! Thanks. I had to double the size in photoshop, for 1900 x 1200 widescreen res.. to 53.333 x 16.667 (exact size for double width), then dragged in my image and looks cool! Thanks! Once I selected tile, instantly showed up.

  12. Rafael on 28 Jul 2008 at 10:05 am #

    It didn’t work with me… My environment is Windows Vista Enterprise x64 with SP1, graphics card XFX GeForce 8800GS and graphics driver 175.19_geforce_winvista_64bit_english_whql.

    Any idea of the reason?

  13. Pix on 01 Aug 2008 at 11:54 pm #

    Doesn’t work in Vista (across 3 monitors). TRIED MYRIAD COMBINATIONS WITHOUT ANY SUCCESS

  14. Anonymous on 15 Dec 2008 at 2:46 pm #

    Works great on XP, thanks.

  15. meetfriend on 29 Jan 2009 at 6:00 pm #

    Thanks a lot!!!!!

    Finally I have a two diffrent pictures on my 2 monitors. As you mentioned, except Selecting the Tile picture positioning option, I had tried everything else. Works on Windows XP too!

  16. Guy on 16 Feb 2009 at 10:22 am #

    Anyone having issues with this who has Internet Explorer 8 (RC1) installed – I found that to be why mine stopped working!

  17. Bob on 19 May 2009 at 7:08 am #

    Works perfectly for me on Win 7

    This problem has been driving me nuts up to now!

    Thanks a million!

  18. warb on 01 Jun 2009 at 8:04 pm #

    worked for me, thanks for the great tip, who would have thought!…. no need to crappy additional wallpaper software!..

  19. nanobit on 29 Jul 2009 at 2:22 am #

    ok for these peoples wher it doesn’t work -> change the display order to the following:

    -> first Monitor=left Monitor=Primary Monitor
    -> second Monitor=right Monitor
    -> and so on ….

    Sorry for my bad english …

  20. Amy on 22 Sep 2009 at 12:06 pm #

    Sadly, now I just have the same image twice on each monitor.

  21. J. Janssens on 09 Nov 2009 at 4:57 am #

    I would never had thought Tile was the solution. Thanks a lot for this tip.

  22. Jeff on 10 Nov 2009 at 2:03 am #

    Guys, the image HAS TO BE A BITMAP. I used JPG and it would not work.

Leave a Reply