If you are still using Windows 7 because you hate Windows 8 and use more than one monitor, you are probably facing the limitation of not being able to use a different wallpaper for each monitor. In fact, Windows 8 has some great features for setting up two or more monitors, but until they fix all the problems with the Start screen and the lack of a start button, people aren’t going to switch anytime soon.
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to fix this problem in Windows 7. I’ll walk you through various methods, starting with a simple little trick in Windows 7 that doesn’t require you to install any third-party software. software. The rest of the options are free or commercial applications.
The first method – create a larger image
If you have multiple monitors with the same resolution, you can create an image that is equal to the width of all monitors combined and use it as your wallpaper. For example, if you are using two 1600 × 1200 monitors, you can create a 3200 × 1200 image and upload it as a background.
The only thing you need to do is select Tile and the image will be displayed on all screens. If you have three monitors, you must create a 4800 × 1200 image and so on.
Now, if you have monitors with different resolutions because the monitors are different, you can use a similar technique, but you’ll have to play with the alignment to get it right. You will still be joining the images together, but you will need to leave some black or white space at the bottom of one for them to line up correctly.
InterfaceLift.com is a great site to help you find wallpapers for multiple screens. Or you can find the exact resolution wallpaper you need. This is a very useful site in this respect.
The second method – dual monitoring tools
A free open source program called Dual Monitor Tools is great for using different backgrounds in Windows 7.
You can use it to distribute one image across multiple monitors, or you can use different images for each monitor. The program allows you to customize images and preview changes before setting the wallpaper. It can also work if one monitor is landscape and the other is portrait.
The program also has many other features, such as a swap screen for managing windows with hotkeys, and a dual launcher that lets you open apps with hotkeys and then open them on specific monitors at specific locations.
Method 3 – DisplayFusion, UltraMon and MultiMon
It looks like there are only a couple of players in the multi monitor software camp, namely DisplayFusion, UltraMon and MultiMon. Both DisplayFusion and MultiMon come with free versions that allow you to set different wallpapers in Windows 7. If you want all the extra features they include, you can buy the paid versions, but for our purposes, this is not necessary.
Luckily, I’ve already written a review of these three programs: Best Dual Monitor Software It’s hard to say which one is better as they all do a really good job at their task.
Of course, as I mentioned earlier, in Windows 8, you no longer need to worry about this issue. Now you can simply right-click the image and choose which monitor you want to apply this background to.
If you know a different way or use another program to set a different background in Windows 7, let us know in the comments. Enjoy!
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