Welcome to Andrewblock.net A saucy & savory blend of industry news and tech tips

How to get different wallpaper on dual monitors in Windows (without 3rd party software)

Applies to:

• Windows XP
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7

Windows XP, Vista, and 7 will only show the same wallpaper on both of your monitors. There isn't actually a setting to change this behavior (without the use of 3rd party tools such as Ultramon), but there is a very easy workaround.

You just need to do a little bit of image editing. For this demo, I'll use Adobe Photoshop, but any simple image editing tool will do.

First off, either open an image that is the resolution of your left monitor, or re-size an image to the proper resolution.

Note: this tutorial also assumes your left monitor is the same size or bigger than your right monitor. If not, this won't work right.

For example, my left monitor is 1920x1200, so — using Photoshop — I re-sized an image to 1920x1200.

The next step is to re-size our image's canvas to the total width of both monitors. Simply add up the width of your two displays. In my scenario, my monitors are 1920x1200 and 1280x1024, so the total width is 3200 pixels.

Using your image editor, re-size the width of the canvas (not the image) to the total width of both monitors. Make sure the left side of the image is anchored to the left edge, so the part that expands is blank. Finally, ensure the unit of measurement is set to pixels.

Now, copy another image, paste it as a new layer, and make it fill up the blank space (you'll probably want to use an image that is close to the resolution of your right monitor). Make sure the new image doesn't overlap the first image!

Save your new image somewhere as a JPEG or something Windows understands, and set it as your desktop wallpaper.

Then, go into your display properties and make sure the image's position is set to tiled:

That's it! You now have the appearance that each monitor has its own unique wallpaper. Kind of a pain, but worth it if you like a little variety in your wallpaper.

(Note: the screenshot below looks a little weird because the monitors are not the same height, and that's how it is displayed when I captured the image.)

Related posts:

1. Fixing Windows 7 Aero Snap feature with dual / multiple monitors
2. Crysis Warhead Won’t Display 1920×1200: How to Fix
3. Restoring the Vista / Windows 7 bootloader after a Linux dual-boot
4. Installing an old, networked printer on Windows 7 or Vista (with the printer physically connected to a Windows XP machine)