Working with Monitor Splits

Monitor Splitting is a feature that allows you to divide your physical monitors into smaller "virtual" monitors. Split sections can have their own desktop wallpaper, taskbar, and screen saver.

Monitor Splitting can be used on any type of monitor setup. Here are a few example uses of the Monitor Splitting feature:

Note: Maximizing an application will constrain it to the split sections, instead of the entire monitor, however, it's not currently possible to constrain full screen videos or full screen games to monitor splits.

Reserve space for widgets or narrow applications: Have some desktop widgets or a narrow application like an instant messaging contact list? You can reserve some space on the left or right side of the monitor, and maximize your other applications to the remaining space.
Ultra-wide monitors: Ultra-wide monitors are a great alternative to running two separate monitors. Using DisplayFusion Monitor Splitting, you can split your ultra-wide monitor into two sections, so that you can easily maximize two applications side-by-side.
Surround/Eyefinity splitting: By splitting your Surround or Eyefinity setup, you can continue to enjoy your games and videos in Surround/Eyefinity spanning, while still having taskbars, wallpaper, and regular applications confined to individual monitors.

Adding Monitor Splits

Open the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window by right-clicking the DisplayFusion tray icon and clicking "Monitor Configuration" (also accessible via the Options tab in Settings).
In the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window, select the monitor you want to split, and click the "Splits and Padding" button.

There are several pre-defined split configurations available via the "Preset Splits" button. You can start by choosing one of those configurations, then customize from there. You can also create your split setup from scratch using the "Horizontal Split" button to split the monitor into side-by-side sections, or the "Vertical Split" button to split the monitor into top/bottom sections.

Below are some example setups and the steps required to configure them.

Split the Monitor Down the Middle

Follow the steps above in the Adding Monitor Splits section to reach this screen.
In the Splits and Padding window, click the "Preset Splits" button, and choose the "2x1" option.
Click OK, then OK again.

Split a 1920x1080 monitor 70/30

Follow the steps above in the Adding Monitor Splits section to reach this screen.
In the Splits and Padding window, click the "Preset Splits" button, and choose the "2x1" option.

Enable the "Auto-Fill All Splits" checkbox.
Click the left split to select it, then change the "Width" value in the "Size" box to
```
1344
```
and press tab to update the preview.
Click OK, then OK again.

Automatic Monitor Splitting

If you're running an NVIDIA Surround or AMD Eyefinity setup without bezel compensation enabled, the quickest way to get up and running with Monitor Splitting is to enable the "Auto-split Eyefinity and NVIDIA Surround monitors" option in the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window.

Open the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window by right-clicking the DisplayFusion tray icon and clicking "Monitor Configuration" (also accessible via the Options tab in Settings).
Enable the "Auto-split Eyefinity and nVidia Surround monitors" checkbox.
Click OK or Apply. You should now have taskbars on each monitor.

Note that on NVIDIA Surround setups, you'll be prompted to disable the NVIDIA Surround helper processes. It's important that you answer Yes and immediately reboot, if you plan to keep Monitor Splitting enabled. If you answer No, you'll run into some weird quirks with the taskbars when entering/exiting full screen games.

For Monitor Splits in Surround/Eyefinity setups with bezel compensation enabled, see Configuring Monitor Splits for Bezel Correction.

Monitor Padding

Monitor Padding provides reserved space without creating a split. Monitor Padding affects the size of maximized windows in the non-padded area, but not other features like the taskbars, desktop wallpaper, or screen saver. Application windows will only maximize to the non-padded area, where splits allow application windows to maximize within the full size of the split.

Here's how to configure Monitor Padding to reserve some space on the right side of the monitor:

Follow the steps above Adding Monitor Splits to reach this screen.
Enter a value (in pixels) in the right side numeric box in the "Padding" section (e.g. 500).
Click OK or Apply. You should now have taskbars on each monitor.

Enable/Disable DisplayFusion Features for Splits

In the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window, you can enable or disable the Screen Savers, Wallpaper, Taskbars, and Window Management for use with splits. If one of these checkboxes is disabled, that feature will ignore the Monitor Splitting configuration, and instead treat the monitor as the full display. This is useful if you want to have application windows constrained to the splits, while leaving the taskbars, wallpaper, and screen savers the full size of the monitor.

Open the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window by right-clicking the DisplayFusion tray icon and clicking "Monitor Configuration" (also accessible via the Options tab in Settings).
Enable/Disable your desired features and click OK or Apply.

Tips

Click the "Show Preview" button in the Splits and Padding window to show the split lines on the monitor itself. Hit Escape or click the "Hide Preview" button to exit. You can adjust splits while the preview is showing.
Hold the Shift key while clicking the maximize button on a window to override the splits and maximizing the window to the full monitor.

Mar 28, 2017 (modified Aug 15, 2022) • #1

Taylor Halsted1

1 discussion post

Hi there!

I currently have 3 monitors:
Left ----------- Center (Primary) ------ Right (Vertical)
1920x1080 --------- 2560x1440 ------------- 1440x2560

I have monitor splits configured for the left and right, but when I drag windows to my center, primary monitor I don't want windows to snap/resize.

Is it possible to "disable" the drag & maximize behavior for JUST my center, primary monitor?
Thanks!

Feb 11, 2021 (modified Feb 11, 2021) • #2

Hi Taylor,

Unfortunately this isn't something we support, and it's likely not something we could add in the future.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help!

Feb 12, 2021 • #3

Mika Tapanila244667

1 discussion post

Hi,
I have a three monitor configuration
Left ------------------- Center (Primary) ------------------ Right
3840x2160--------------- 2560x1440-------------------------- 3840x2160
Philips BDM4037U-------- LG 27GL850------------------------- Philips BDM4037U

Left and Right
Split 2x1 1900x2160 and 1920x2160 (No Padding, Not Autofill)
All Features On
AUto-split Eyefinity and nVidia Surround Monitors OFF

PC Configuration
GPU: Quadro P2000
Win 10 Ent 64bit, v. 1909
DisplayFusion Pro 9.7.2 (Beta 5)

Problem
Right monitor
- When the program opens to the maximum size, it opens inside the Split window

Left monitor
- When a program opens to maximum size, it opens to full screen size not Split window size

I have tried to look for what's the difference between these two definitions of the screen is but I have not invented anything which is why the Left monitor does not work in the same way as the Right monitor.

Feb 13, 2021 (modified Feb 13, 2021) • #4

Hi Mika,

Do you experience this when opening the same application on either monitor? Are you opening the application from the taskbar on each monitor?

Thanks!

Feb 17, 2021 • #5

TheBean

1 discussion post

I have an 8K screen, is it possible to chop it up into a 3x3 or even 4x4 or other combinations ?

May 5, 2021 • #6

Hello,

Yup, it should be able to do this. You can select premade splits as mentioned in the guide, or create your own manually.

Thanks!

May 5, 2021 • #7

Manuel.IT

2 discussion posts

Im trying DisplayFusion. I split a 4k monitor into 2 1920x2160 vertical monitors, but when I got into W10 Display settings it shows my normal configuration. It doesn't seem to recognize the split. Is there a way for W10 to recognize the split so if I have an app that looks into Windows monitor configuration to set up monitors I can configure them?

May 14, 2021 • #8

Hi Manuel,

Unfortunately windows isn't able to recognize those splits. What application are you trying to get this working with?

Thanks!

May 14, 2021 • #9

Manuel.IT

2 discussion posts

Carestream PACS. Normally under monitor configuration you would see pretty much the same monitor configuration you see under Windows display settings and you select in which monitor(s) to display images.

May 14, 2021 • #10

Hi Manuel,

Ah, unfortunately there's nothing we can really do here if it's checking the Window Display Settings automatically. If a window is created when displaying that image, you might be able to setup a trigger that moves the window to a split once it's created.

If that's something your interested in trying, just let me know.

Thanks!

May 17, 2021 • #11

Robert Hutchings

1 discussion post

Hi I've just bought myself a new ultrawide 5120x1440 monitor. Does DisplayFusion enable me to share a virtual screen via MS Teams? In other words, when selecting share a desktop, does MS Teams see the virtual desktop or just what Windows 10 reports?

Thanks!

Jun 10, 2021 • #12

Hi Robert,

Natively, screen sharing applications won't see the virtual splits created to share, but we do have a work around. On the Settings > Function tab, you can assign a key combination to the “Mirror Monitor with splits” Function. When you press the key combo, it will prompt you to select which monitor to mirror, and then output that monitors display to a new window on your current monitor. Teams should see the window created, allowing you to share it.

Hope that helps!

Jun 10, 2021 • #13

Snacko

18 discussion posts

How do I disable Monitor Splits?

I have a triple monitor setup with another single monitor below. I have nVidia Surround on my triples. I played with this split option today and not I can't disable it.

Jul 20, 2021 • #14

Hello,

If you open up the DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window, and click the "Splits and Padding" button, you'll see a "Reset Splits" button. Clicking that button and applying the settings should remove any splits you created on that monitor.

Hope that helps!

Jul 20, 2021 • #15

Snacko

18 discussion posts

Thanks, that did the trick!

Jul 20, 2021 • #16

Gary Orman

2 discussion posts

I'm not sure I understand Monitor Splits.

I have 3 monitors, extended display. I defined a split for one monitor, and checked it with preview. But it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Is that because the displays are extended, so anything dragged across monitor boundaries just span both monitors / displays?

How do I constrain a window to a split monitor? Can I make it "full screen" to forced it to fill the split section? (I tried this, but the windows fills up the physical monitor size, not the virtual monitor I created with the split sections.)

Aug 2, 2021 • #17

Hi Gary,

Could you send me over a screenshot of your DisplayFusion Monitor Configuration window?

We currently don't support full screen applications constraining to monitor splits, but we do have this open as a feature request.

Thanks!

Aug 4, 2021 • #18

n19

1 discussion post

I've noticed that the 'snap zones' come up consistently when moving a window from one of these positions
- maximised to a split
- maximised to a monitor
I'd like this consistency when dragging a window that is not maximised, is it possible to configure DF for this?

Aug 24, 2021 (modified Aug 24, 2021) • #19

Hello,

If you open up the DisplayFusion Settings window and head to the "Window Management" tab, you can enable "Show monitor selector when dragging non-maximized windows to split monitors", and it should do this for you.

Hope that helps!

Aug 24, 2021 • #20

Gary Orman

2 discussion posts

Thanks, Owen. I think that's what did the trick. I also deleted the split and recreated them from the presets. I must have done something right, because now I seem to have two half-screens on my external monitor, which is just what I need.

Great software when it works! :laugh:

Aug 25, 2021 • #21

sjoewie

2 discussion posts

I am looking into a setup with three monitors of which one monitor is vertical and will be split. Is it possible to show the same application on one virtual window of the vertical monitor and a second monitor at the same time, but not at the third monitor.
Is it at all possible to show a application on two of the three screens?

Thanks,
Sjoerd

Aug 26, 2021 • #22

Hello,

We have "Mirror Window" and "Mirror Monitor" functions that will create mirrored windows that you can drag to other monitors/splits. I believe that's what you're looking for

Thanks!

Aug 27, 2021 • #23

sjoewie

2 discussion posts

Thanks Owen. That is indeed what I'm looking for.

Aug 27, 2021 • #24

donl51771

5 discussion posts

Future Development: Is it possible to disable a single taskbar?

• Attachment [protected]: 2021-10-26_7-12-00.jpg [162,902 bytes]

Oct 26, 2021 • #25

Hello,

This is possible, yep! If you right click an empty space on the taskbar you want to disable, you can head to Multi-Monitor Taskbar > Position > Disabled, and it should remove that taskbar.

Hope that helps!

Oct 26, 2021 • #26

Shannon Mason

7 discussion posts

any chance full screen videos can be constrained to splits or any plans/workarounds to make this happen? The last time this was mentioned in this thread was in 2017; its 2021 now so hoping more options are available?

Jan 5, 2022 • #27

Hi Shannon,

This isn't something we've added in, but we do still have it open as a feature request. Would you like me to add your vote to it, so we can let you know if we have any news on it going forward?

Thanks!

Jan 5, 2022 • #28

donl51771

5 discussion posts

You can add my vote, I think this would be useful as well.

Jan 5, 2022 • #29

Shannon Mason

7 discussion posts

Quote:

Yes please

I'd like to be able to use Nvidia surround permanently and restrict full screen videos to one monitor/split so please add my vote

and thank you.

Jan 5, 2022 • #30

Votes added

Jan 6, 2022 • #31

Shannon Mason

7 discussion posts

Is there also an option to force which side of the split screen is primary monitor because of nVidia surround?

Jan 14, 2022 • #32

Hi Shannon,

Using this advanced setting, you can force the primary monitor ID: https://www.displayfusion.com/AdvancedSettings/#monitorconfiguration_forceprimarymonitorid

This will only adjust it for what DisplayFusion sees though, it won't have any effect on what Windows sees.

Hope that helps!

Jan 14, 2022 • #33

Heroxoot

3 discussion posts

So I just decided to try this program with my new 6900XT to make the monitors split still for programs like discord and edge. My only problem is, is there no way to make a video fullscreen to a single monitor? I'm running triple monitors in 7680x1440 and it centers the video. It's not really a deal breaker as I'm likely to buy a license soon, but it's something I'd have liked. The window split works better than NVS did and Eyefinity doesn't even have such a feature likely because it wants to run eyefinity when it launches a game instead.

Jan 16, 2022 • #34

Jim421616

1 discussion post

I currently have 3 monitors, and my largest window (my IDE) spans the left, middle, and the left-hand side of the right monitor. The right monitor is split into two virtual monitors. What's the easiest way to snap my IDE window from the far left monitor to the split in the rightmost one? For example, can I have a virtual monitor spanning the three physical monitors?

Feb 16, 2023 • #35

Heroxoot: There isn't currently a way to split full screen windows, sorry! It may be possible in a future version but we don't have any time estimate on it.

Jim421616: There isn't a way to have splits span multiple physical monitors. You could manually resize the window to span the monitors, then on the Settings > Functions tab, create a new custom function for it. You can use the blue target icon in the custom function edit window to grab the co-ordinates and size of the window after you've manually resized it.

Feb 22, 2023 • #36