Display Settings Panel

•

Use host settings — In most cases, you will want to use this option. Selecting this option means that if the virtual machine is run on a host that is using one monitor, the virtual machine will see only one monitor. But if the same virtual machine is moved to a different host that is using two monitors, the virtual machine will see two monitors.

Here, the number of monitors depends on the number of monitors the host recognizes when it starts up. For example, if you power on a laptop that is undocked, the host setting is one monitor, even if you later place the running laptop in a docking station that uses two monitors.

Similarly, if the host has one monitor and you suspend the virtual machine and then change your host to have two monitors, when you resume, the virtual machine will still be configured to use one monitor. You will need to restart the virtual machine to detect the new settings.

•

Number of monitors — Set the number of monitors you want the virtual machine to see, regardless of the host. This setting is useful in situations such as the following: You are on a multimonitor host but need to do testing in a virtual machine with only one monitor. Or, conversely, you might be developing a multimonitor application in a virtual machine, but the host you are using has only one monitor.

After you specify the number of monitors and power on the virtual machine, your guest operating system will see the number of monitors you set. For example, if you have a Windows XP guest, and you set the virtual machine to have two monitors, then when you open the Control Panel’s Display Settings item in the guest, it will show two monitors.

•

Maximum resolution of any one monitor— Besides selecting a resolution from the list, you can also type in the setting you want to use. Use the format <width> x <height>, where the width and height are the number of pixels. If you use a setting that is not valid, an error message appears when you close the dialog box.

Often the multiple monitor feature of Workstation is used in conjunction with full screen mode. In this mode, the virtual machine display fills the screen, so you no longer see the borders of the VMware Workstation window. For more information about using full screen mode, and for more information about using multiple monitors, see the section about controlling the Workstation display in the VMware Workstation User’s Manual, in the chapter about running virtual machines.