Microsoft is boosting support for multi-screen computing in Windows 8 and it will change desktop computing.
Microsoft has done an excellent job of talking up Windows 8 in the press. It is pulling all sorts of PR tricks and even has Steve Ballmer making a lot of quotable noise.
One subtle story is beginning to appear, though, and it is good news for those of us who are reliant on desktop computing: Microsoft is boosting support multi-screen computing in Windows 8.
This is a bigger deal than most people think. While I'm sure that most of my readers have desktop machines with two, three, or even more monitors to create one large virtual screen, some people have yet to get a clue about this.
An ideal setup would include six monitors arranged in two rows of three. I've seen this with eight monitors, too, and when you have this many, it becomes complex. But wow.
Put your MacBook Air next to that sort of lash-up and ask yourself, "which one of these rigs would I prefer if I actually had to do a lot of work?"
This sort of setup used to take multiple machines with multiple keyboards. That still might be an option, but everyone can easily do three monitors with DisplayPort. Matrox has a DisplayPort card that handles eight monitors.
Much of the buzz about Windows 8 revolves around the fact that apparently the OS in beta had poor support for multiple monitors. Now, it will handle a mix-and-match situation with both horizontal and vertical monitors placed all over and every which way.
Whatever the case, we are at least five years overdue on promoting multiple monitors, which Microsoft says are only employed by one in seven users.
The easiest setup—and one of the most cost effective—consists of two moderately-priced but reasonably-rated 27-inch 1920x1080 screens side by side. Almost every video card can handle these as adjacent dual monitors. It seriously opens up your desktop and gives you breathing room.
Many people prefer three 21-inch monitors but this may require a new video card and some tweaking. Much of the complexity is eliminated by the latest VESA standard called DisplayPort. This eliminates the VGA and DVI ports and is more or less backward compatible with some clunky dongles.
It first appeared in 2006 but did not hit the motherboards until after the latest iteration, which was approved in late 2009. By this time next year, I suspect the DisplayPort connector will be the only thing you'll find on any new machine. In fact, that may have happened already since I keep seeing it everywhere.
It was designed to compete with HDMI but focus more on computers than entertainment systems. It includes audio channels. With little fanfare, it's been fully adopted and will probably co-exist on most motherboards with an HDMI connector.
I find these sorts of changes annoying as they take forever to get a full foothold and now everyone has a bunch of DVI monitors that all need dongles. (And when I see something like this, I realize the factor driving the change is a cheaper connector, thus saving 15 cents.)
Apparently, the DisplayPort cable can be extended a great distance before signal degradation. So that's good news. And, of course, the push to multiple monitors. That's good news, too.
You can Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter @therealdvorak.
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