It is actually very simple to get the DualHead2Go Digital Edition up and running, and can be done in just a few minutes. Inside the box is the DH2G unit itself, a two-foot VGA male-to-male cable, a two-foot DVI cable, USB cable, manual and software CD. The short length of the video cable may be because most users will want to set this unit on top of their PC, but could also be to reduce signal loss. This cable will have to handle a large resolution at 60Hz cleanly, and the video cable quality is great.
You start by plugging up your monitors to the intended output (1 for the leftmost, 2 for the rightmost). When you plug the USB cable in, then a small red power LED turns on inside the unit. Without any software installed, the Matrox unit passes video information to display 1, so you can see what you’re doing.
DualHead2Go running 3 displays on a laptop (built-in + 2 external monitors)
After you install the software, you receive the ubiquitous “restart your computer now” message. Once you’re back at your desktop, you will now have access to a much larger display and can change resolutions immediately. The new large desktop does take a little bit of time to get used to, but once you step into the “multi-monitor” world, you’ll never want to go back because your productivity is greatly improved.
Laptop running two external displays
The Windows taskbar is now stretched across two screens, and you’ll be swinging your neck around to take in the full view. You’ll quickly discover that you like to keep several windows open on different displays, as glancing over at them is much easier than digging through a heap of buried windows. Many users use the left display as the “main” display where you do most of your tasks (Photoshop, editing, word processing), and the side displays acts as a complement, where you place supporting items (email, file explorer, images, etc).
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Matrox DualHead2Go Digital vs. Traditional Multi-Monitor
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Since the OS thinks this is one big desktop, how do you handle maximizing windows or where to place dialog boxes or child windows? Matrox has you covered there, too. You can configure the default behavior of child windows, maximized windows, and other desktop preferences to fit your work style. For example, you can choose that all dialog boxes appear on the display of the parent program, or force them to a pre-designated display. By default, all windows Maximize to fill only the current display, but you can press Ctrl + Maximize to fill the entire desktop. There’s no fooling the software when maximizing either – if you have an application partially on one display, then it will maximize on the display that contains most of it.
Desktop running two external widescreen displays
The default resolution or aspect ratio probably isn’t optimal, so you’ll have to go into Matrox’s desktop management software to configure the resolutions you want to use. The Desktop utility will show you all of your connected monitors, and the capabilities of each. You “create” a new resolution by selecting a resolution that will be the same on every monitor (a 3840×1200 resolution is derived by selecting a 1920×1200 resolution across two displays). You can create a total of four custom resolutions, which are then available on the slider control of Windows’ Display applet.
Play ‘The Sims 2’ in Ultra-Widescreen
Although the DualHead2Go is geared for a better productivity experience, it can also be used for games. The resolutions you set up should be available to most games, and the DualHead2Go automatically distributes the game across two monitors. This product works best with strategy games and flight simulators, as FPS games would render the cross-hair between two monitors, which becomes disorienting.
If you are serious about gaming, you should look at Matrox’s TripleHead2Go, which is optimized for PC gaming as well as productivity.
