Member Avatar for Katherine692008

I have successfully configured two monitors for my HP m8147C Vista PC.

I have two issues:

Issue 1:

When I maximize Media Center I cannot scroll to the other screne. This only happens when I maximize Media center, when I maximize other applications everything works just fine.
When it's not maximized I can scrool to the other monitor though.


Issue 2:

When I maximize/minimize Media Center there will be a hesitation before it'll happen. Also, somes when I minimize/unmaximize it it'll come back as maximized and I'll have to unmaximize it twice before the changes take effect.

How can I resolve any or both of these issues?

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Dani AI

Generated

Two likely causes explain both symptoms: Media Center often switches into an exclusive full‑screen/video‑overlay mode that anchors output to the primary display, and the GPU/driver can toggle desktop compositing (Aero) when that happens. That combination can prevent the mouse from moving to the second monitor while Media Center is maximized and can introduce a pause or require extra minimize/maximize actions as the driver switches modes. was correct to point toward the video driver control panel as the place to look.

Resolution steps (diagnose first)

  • Confirm which display is set as the primary monitor in Display Settings (Right‑click Desktop → Personalize → Display Settings → select a monitor → set as primary/main). Full‑screen video often stays pinned to the primary display.
  • Open the video/driver control panel (right‑click Desktop or find the vendor entry in Start → All Programs / the system tray). Look for multi‑monitor or per‑application rules and set Media Center to run on the desired display or to use a non‑exclusive/fullscreen behavior.
  • Test whether the behavior is app‑specific by running another full‑screen video player or a different full‑screen app. If they behave the same, it’s a driver/display mode issue; if not, it’s Media Center’s playback mode.

Taskbar and delays

  • Vista does not natively put the taskbar on both monitors. The vendor’s multi‑monitor manager (nView) or third‑party tools (DisplayFusion, UltraMon) add a taskbar per monitor or let the desktop be spanned into one large surface. Spanning the displays will let a full‑screen app cover both monitors, but it changes how resolutions and scaling work.
  • The pause/hesitation when maximizing/minimizing is commonly caused by the driver toggling desktop composition. Update the display driver, ensure the control panel is fully installed, and check the app shortcut’s Compatibility tab so “Disable desktop composition” is not forcing a toggle.

If the control panel is missing after updating drivers, reinstall with the custom install option that includes the multi‑monitor manager.

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Member Avatar for Michael_Knight

Hi Katherine

Your issue is probably due to the configeration of your graphics card and how it manages each monitor.

What Graphics card are you running? Id it Dual Head? or do you have 2 different cards installed?

Member Avatar for Katherine692008

Hello my graphics card is: NVIDIA GeFORCE 8500 GT. This is a Dual head graphics card which utilizes a Dual link DVI-I,VGA, and HDTV + TV Out. I only use the DVI-I and the VGA for my monitors.

Member Avatar for Michael_Knight

Thanks for the reply and the info.

A couple more questions:

1. How do you have your monitors set? Do you have the taskbar on one screen, or stretched across both monitors?

2. Have you got the nVidia control panel installed for the monitors (allows you to control how windows and applications are displayed, plus loads of other settings)?

If you do, you will find a 'Per Application' setting that allows you to set how an individual application works with your monitors. You will be able to set this to display the application (in your case, media centre) in any way you want.

Have a look in the settings for this, you should have an icon in the System Tray to launch the nVidia settings.

Member Avatar for Katherine692008

The taskbar is only on 1 screen. How do I stretch it to both monitors?

How do I get the nVidia control panel installed for the monitors? I don't believe I have this, I just use the default control panel.

Is there a place where I can find this control Panel?

Member Avatar for Katherine692008

I believe I have this already because I recongnized the graphics.

How do I open this on my PC?


How do I adjust it so that the system tray is on both screens?


How do I adjust it so that when I maximize the Media Center I am able to scroll to the other screne with my mouse pointer?

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