How to use a second monitor while gaming
To use a second monitor while gaming, play in borderless windowed instead of exclusive fullscreen, so clicking the other screen no longer minimizes the game. That fixes one problem of several: the game can still mute, pause, freeze or ignore your controller as soon as it loses focus, and each game hides those settings somewhere different. Second Screen Gaming finds the fixes each game can take and applies them every time it starts.
How to use a second monitor without breaking the game
Second Screen Gaming catches a game while it runs and lists the fixes that game can take: configuration fixes written into the game's own files, and runtime assists its small tray agent applies while the game runs. Turn on what the game needs, once. The next time the game starts, the same fixes apply by themselves.
What goes wrong when you click your second monitor
Every problem starts the same way: the click makes another window the active one, and the game reacts to losing focus.
- The game minimizes. Exclusive fullscreen gives the display back to Windows.
- The sound cuts out. The engine mutes itself in the background.
- The game opens its pause menu. Many games pause as soon as they lose focus.
- The game freezes or its frame rate drops. The engine stops its loop, or Windows throttles the background process.
- The controller stops working. The game ignores input while it is not in front.
- The mouse wanders onto the other screen. In borderless mode, nothing keeps the cursor on the game's screen.
- The game opens on the wrong screen. Games start on the main display unless something tells them otherwise.
How to use a second monitor while gaming by hand
Most games offer one or two of these options, rarely all of them, and they have to be found again for every game you play.
- Use borderless windowed mode instead of exclusive fullscreen. It stops the minimizing.
- Read the other screen without clicking it: turn on Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them in Settings, Bluetooth & devices, Mouse.
- Move a windowed game between screens with Windows key + Shift + Left or Right arrow.
- Check each game's settings for background audio and pause options.
Common questions
Should I use borderless or fullscreen with two monitors?
Borderless. A game in exclusive fullscreen minimizes whenever you click the other screen, while a borderless window that fills the monitor looks the same and stays put.
How do I use my mouse on the second monitor while gaming?
Play borderless, then move the mouse across and click. The click makes the other window active, so a game that mutes, pauses or stops reading your controller in the background does so at that moment; turn those fixes on for that game and it carries on while you click.