Way to change Windows (7) monitors settings via script

Question

i bought a new TV mainly as second monitor to my PC and I often need to change settings (extend display for movies, duplicate display for gaming, disable for work'n'browsing).

Is there a way to switch among those settings via some script (batch most likely or VBS, whatever) so I dont't need to crawl through GUI all the time? I am veeery lazy... Thanks

Panhellenic

Hi veeery lazy, I'm James. If the program has different shortcuts do different things, right click on the shortcut -> Properties. Then write batch programs to mimic the shortcuts. – Crackbrain

Answer 1

Firstly, not sure if you know the shortcut

Windows + P

2 buttons seems pretty easy!

but, you could write a batch file to run the programs with the appication displayswitch.exe included. displayswitch comes with windows 7 so you can have a batch file with:

DisplaySwitch.exe /external
notepad.exe

then use this batch file to open notepad and it will always open and switch to the external display only.

the following options are available:

Extend Display
DisplaySwitch.exe /extend

2nd monitor
DisplaySwitch.exe /external

Computers Monitor
DisplaySwitch.exe /internal

Duplicate Display
DisplaySwitch.exe /clone

Martyn

Forfend

Uh... kinda embarrassing, but win+P was really all I needed :-D . Thanks. – Panhellenic

lol, you said you were lazy, but too lazy for 2 buttons! i thought that was just me! :p – Forfend

Well I knew that some sort of this sortcut is often on notebooks as the 'Fn'+sth key combination and I didn't cared too much abut the win key... well win+P is maybe the only handy shortcut – Panhellenic

I still appreciate all the options listed in the batch file example. I'm dual booting a mac and my monitors reset to duplicate every time I go back to Windows. This way I can just run a script on start up to set things up how I like. – Oakes

I use TeamViewer to log into a desktop with dual monitors, but wanted to get that machine into single monitor mode when I connect remotely -- this works great for that purpose. – Hutment

There are a lot of great shortcuts using the windows key. Win+E for the explorer, Win+D to minimize all, Win+L to lock your computer, Win+Arrows to snap to an edge, the list goes on and on at shortcutworld.com/en/win/Windows_7.html – Obumbrate

Answer 2

You can make a scrip with choose like i did:

@ECHO OFF
CLS
ECHO 1.Monitor 2 i TV Duplicate
ECHO 2.Monitor 2 i Monitor 3 Extended
ECHO 3.Monitor 2 i TV Extended
ECHO.

CHOICE /C 123 /M "Izbor:"

IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO Mon2TvExt
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO Mon2Mon3Ext
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Mon2TvDupl

:Mon2TvDupl
ECHO 1.Monitor 2 i TV Duplicate

Duplicate Display
DisplaySwitch.exe /clone

GOTO End

:Mon2Mon3Ext
ECHO 2.Monitor 2 i Monitor 3 Extended

DisplaySwitch.exe /external

GOTO End

:Mon2TvExt
ECHO 3.Monitor 2 i TV Extended

Extend Display
DisplaySwitch.exe /extend

GOTO End

Pause

The TV is number 1, and two monitors are number 2 and number 3.

Malvin