2 desktops on 1 monitor?

[dayslayer8]

Well, not sure if this is the correct place to post this but:
i just discovered that i had 2 desktops next to each other like this except i can only see the first one (left side) since i only have one display monitor.

And it is really annoying because sometimes when i open something, it goes right to the 2nd desktop where i cant see it and takes a while to move back. Something like this:

I have vista sp2 32-bit and don't really know what i did to get that 2nd desktop.
So how do i get rid off this 2nd desktop?
Thanx for all help.

 

[gbhall]

You will automatically have two desktops on any PC where there is a video chip on the motherboard and an additional video card. In many or most cases, add-on video cards also have two output sockets, one for a vga connection and the other for direct video. In those cases you will have three desktops. They all show the same desktop unless you instruct them to be desktop extensions in your video properties. Many business users have two or three monitors to take advantage of this. Once you have used a two- or three- monitor system you will never go back.

Right now you need to just right-click you desktop and choose properties / settings tab and disable the desktops (aka video screens) that you dont have an actual monitor for. As you say you can find things start on the wrong screen, you presumably also have the setting 'expand my desktop onto this monitor'. Disabling the extra screen will automatically remove the desktop extension.

Having done that, you will possibly find the second disabled monitor moans about being locked out, and you can fire up system properties, hardware tab, device manager, where your second monitor will have a yellow tag saying it is faulty or similar. Disable it more effectively there. Sometimes disabling an onboard video chip is best done in the bios.