Toggle between Nvidia surround and extended

WARNING: You currently have Javascript disabled!
This website will not function correctly without Javascript enabled.

Hi everybody

I have 4 1080p monitors in extended mode (Win 10 latest build), three along the bottom and one in the middle and above the others. I would like to be able to toggle to surround mode using just the three bottom monitors at a bezel corrected resolution of 6000x1080 but can't seem to get things working. I've seen macros and discussions here but it kinda all goes over my head. :laugh:

Is there an idiot's guide to getting this working, maybe a step by step description? It would really be appreciated!

Cheers, Chris D

Nov 19, 2017 • #1

David Moheban

4 discussion posts

I also would like this feature. To be able to toggle the Main Display back and forth would be a great feature.

Thank you.

Nov 19, 2017 • #2

In the NVIDIA Control Panel, do you have a key combination set for toggling Surround mode?

Nov 21, 2017 • #3

I do, (CRTL+ALT+S) but it's pretty unreliable since the creator's update decided to install itself last week.

Cheers, Chris

Nov 22, 2017 • #4

Yeah, I've found the Surround toggle hotkey to be unreliable as well (but even had issues with it in Windows 7).

At any rate, you can try this to make it easier:

When in Extended Mode, save the layout as a Monitor Profile
Switch to Surround Mode with the hotkey
Set that layout up if needed and save it as a Monitor Profile
Then when you switch back to Extended with the hotkey, you can load the Extended profile again

We do have an open feature request for being able to toggle Surround directly with Monitor Profiles, but haven't had a chance to implement it yet. There is an API for working with the NVIDIA Control Panel but we haven't fully investigated it yet, so not sure if it's possible, but we'll definitely let you know if/when we're able to implement it in a future version.

Thanks!

Nov 22, 2017 • #5

Gordon Bradley12119

1 discussion post

CTRL+ALT+S does nothing on my machine.
I do not have an option in the NVIDIA Control Panel for Hotkeys.
I would love to know a way to toggle it.

Dec 19, 2017 • #6

Ozfer

28 discussion posts

The nvidia toggler does not work at all for me either. We have been waiting on this feature since like 2015. Will we ever get it? This software is useless without it to anyone that does multi-monitor gaming.

Aug 26, 2018 • #7

At the moment it appears that it's not possible to toggle Surround programatically, so to be totally honest, we have no idea if we'll ever be able to implement it. It is a popular request and as such will remain open on our list, so if/when it becomes possible, we will certainly let you know.

Thanks!

Aug 27, 2018 • #8

Fmstrat

5 discussion posts

Since this is one of the top posts on Google, I thought I would share my solution here. Now that the hotkeys are fixed other than returning to "extend" not saving the profile, I created an AutoHotkey script that returns 3 monitors back to normal with Cntrl+Alt+Shift+S.

The script can be found here: https://gist.github.com/Fmstrat/e78619c2fcc76384149e0ff7831fe728

Nov 8, 2018 (modified Nov 8, 2018) • #9

Ozfer

28 discussion posts

Can this be added yet? I have been waiting years for this.

Feb 28, 2019 • #10

We've been working on this, but the NVIDIA API isn't working the way it should be according to the documentation. Rest assured that if we can get it working we will add it to DisplayFusion

Thanks!

Feb 28, 2019 • #11

Ozfer

28 discussion posts

Do you guys have a ticket in with them to fix their APIs? Should I create one? This is a must.

Feb 28, 2019 • #12

I'm not sure if we have, but I will suggest it to our developers.

Mar 1, 2019 • #13

jjjjjj

72 discussion posts

Just happened to see this and wanted to point out that there is already a tool out there that does this. Just Google Helios Display Manager to find the . This will let you switch between extended and surround layouts and works extremely well. Works for both surround and mosaic.

Mar 3, 2019 • #14

@jjjjjj: Thanks for sharing that! I'd be interested to hear from other folks on whether it works for them as well, if it's reliable then there's hope that we may be able to get this working after all

Mar 5, 2019 (modified Mar 5, 2019) • #15

jjjjjj

72 discussion posts

originally they had some issues with mosaic due to small differences in how mosaic stores its display topography vs surround, but they were able to get that working after I sent over some logs and since then I've been using with both Quadro and GeForce cards without issue. As they're also leveraging the surround API to get this to work, it might be worth taking a look at their code (it's all open source): https://github.com/falahati/HeliosDisplayManagement

Mar 5, 2019 • #16

Ozfer

28 discussion posts

OMG for free that is amazing!~ Launching based on games is superb! That is what this software should be able to do...

Mar 6, 2019 • #17

Nibbio

5 discussion posts

My config is a 3x 1080p 27" displays and I've been using Helios for months now, of course for gaming, and it's the best solution right now, as nVindia is ignoring this feature since ever.

I'd love to have an option to load a specific monitor profile and icon profile for nvidia surround and back to "triple monitor" to avoid messing every time my desktop icons positions. Is there a way to trigger the event? It should recognize when the 3 displays are showed as 1, and whene they are showed as 3.

I hope my explanation is clear enough..

Aug 7, 2019 (modified Aug 7, 2019) • #18

If you save the Surround and non-Surround configurations as Monitor Profiles in DisplayFusion, you can then assign the Desktop Icon Profiles to them in the "Manage Monitor Profiles" window. You won't be able to load the Monitor Profiles to enable/disable Surround, but DF should automatically detect when the configuration matches the profile and then it will apply the assigned Desktop Icon Profile.

Hope that makes sense!

Aug 8, 2019 • #19

Nibbio

5 discussion posts

Thanks Keith, it looks like it's working!
I wasn't realizing that DF could recognize a different monitor configuration even with nVidia Surround.
Thanks for the precious advice.

Aug 11, 2019 • #20

No worries, glad to hear it!

Aug 12, 2019 • #21