Using a subset of monitors for remote desktop

I tried to find an answer to this a few years ago, but it seemed it wasn't possible then (I suspect it isn't now either! - but what the hell!)

I have a three monitor system, that I mostly use for remote desktop. However occasionally it would be useful to have remote desktop on two monitors and use the other monitor for the local machine.

I know it is possible to have a single monitor full screen, or to stretch an RDP session across monitors, but this loses things like snapping etc.

P.S. this is a duplicate of this thread, but that was a couple of years ago, I'm hoping things have changed.

Solution 1:

The situation hasn't changed. Your only two choices when using multiple monitors through an RDP session are the /span and /multimon options.

/multimon will treat each screen as a separate display just like you would have on the host. You get snapping/clipping capabilities, but the downside is you can only use ALL of the screens for this.

/span allows you to use only two of your three screens, but the downside is that it's one big rectangle that spans across more than 1 screen. You lose each screen's identity as a separate, distinct display.

You can modify the local group policy on the target computer to specify a maximum of 2 displays for use with the /multimon switch. I don't know what that would look like on a 3-screen display however. I suspect the 3rd screen would just go black. You'd have to play with this yourself.

You can get to the local group policy by hitting Start -> Run and typing gpedit.msc. The setting you're looking for is Computer Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Remote Session Environment. Set Limit Maximum Number of Monitors to enabled and specify 2.

NOTE You do this on the host computer (the one you're connecting to), not the client.

Solution 2:

You can:

• Save a .rdp connection file and check "Use multimonitor"
• Execute mstsc /l on the command line (list monitors, and show ID monitor)
• Edit .rdp file in notepad
• Change or add selectedmonitors:s:1,2 after use multimon:i:1

In selectedmonitors you can select yours monitors, listed with mstsc /l. In my sample use 1,2 but you can use others.

More info: https://www.hanselman.com/blog/how-to-remote-desktop-fullscreen-rdp-with-just-some-of-your-multiple-monitors