General Dual Monitor Question about Background Apps

[krupted]

i recently bought a doublesight 9" usb lcd monitor. it uses displaylink to get its signal, and it works really well.

but i have noticed im running into the same things i always had before with controlling background apps. i want to say be playing a game, and be able to run my media player program on the other screen. i can do that of course, but you cant control the 2nd screen without focusing the application into use.

so before i go further, is there such program to control background apps or would one need to be written for each app (like a web remote type deal that many audio players have)

 

[obobski]

i recently bought a doublesight 9" usb lcd monitor. it uses displaylink to get its signal, and it works really well.

but i have noticed im running into the same things i always had before with controlling background apps. i want to say be playing a game, and be able to run my media player program on the other screen. i can do that of course, but you cant control the 2nd screen without focusing the application into use.

so before i go further, is there such program to control background apps or would one need to be written for each app (like a web remote type deal that many audio players have)

this is a limitation of the games you're playing, most of them aren't designed to not have fullscreen/focus constantly (and some of them will just straight out crash if they lose focus) - you cannot (at least on a Windows box) have >1 application in focus at once

a few games have built-in mediaplayers and IRC clients, no idea why you'd want either, but it exists

Steam games have the Steam UI which includes a web browser (That supports flash iirc) so you could do some stuff via that

basically its nothing to do with your hardware/software config, aside from a limitation of modern tech

one game that I do know of that has no issues losing focus is World of Warcraft (if you play that)

 

[krupted]

no wow... but i know what youre saying. its to the point where i think it might be best to built a tiny little computer with a 9" screen that all it really does is play music. maybe web browse too... that way i can multitask with ease. the audio output from that little pc would go into my htpc though line in, that way i can still use my htpc to control volume overall while having music playing along with the game sound.

hmmm... i just justified a dual computer setup for my home theater. crap....