I would like to send a big thanks out to Peter Kokkovas for letting me know that CPU Magazine had a write-up about DisplayFusion in this month's issue. They had some very nice things to say about DisplayFusion, which is always nice to read. Peter received a complimentary DisplayFusion Pro license for letting me know about the article. If you spot any Binary Fortress Software applications in print just contact me and I'll be more than happy to send a few licenses your way. You can find out more about this offer here.
I am very pleased to announce the release of DisplayFusion 3.0! This release represents the most significant changes DisplayFusion has ever seen, and some of the most exciting new features. It has been 1 year since I released DisplayFusion 2.0 back in February 2008, and a healthy community has grown up around DisplayFusion since then. I have had many people submitting suggestions and others offering to help with testing and translations. As a result, DisplayFusion 3.0 has been under heavy development and community testing for the last 3 months, with over 50 people actively testing in 9 languages on every version of Windows from Windows 2000 to Windows 7 and everything in between.
The single biggest new feature in DisplayFusion 3.0 is the addition of Multi-Monitor Taskbar support for DisplayFusion Pro users. This has been the most requested feature since DisplayFusion was released, and has also required the most amount of work to develop. Thanks to a significant amount of testing, the Multi-Monitor Taskbar support in DisplayFusion 3.0 is first-class and completely integrates with Windows. It uses the standard Windows Themes in Windows XP/Vista, and even works perfectly with hacked Windows XP themes that use a modified UxTheme.dll file. There are a variety of configuration options available for the Multi-Monitor Taskbar, allowing you to configure it exactly the way you want to.
One huge benefit from community involvement is the addition of more language translations. DisplayFusion 2.2 was originally released with 3 languages, but I happy to announce that DisplayFusion 3.0 now has 9 supported languages and is constantly growing. DisplayFusion 3.0 is being bundled with 4 languages (English, French, German and Spanish) with 5 more available for immediate download (Italian, Swedish, Simplified Chinese, Dutch and Portuguese).
When I released the first version of DisplayFusion with integrated Flickr support, I had every intention of adding more image providers at a later date. However, most wallpaper sites don't provide an API like Flickr, and as a result integration just isn't possible in most cases. During the development of DisplayFusion 3.0 I was approached by Vlad from the popular Vladstudio website. Vladstudio has arguably some of the best wallpapers available for download, and all of the standard resolution images are completely free. The new Vladstudio wallpaper integration is free for everyone to use and allows access to the entire Vladstudio collection. People with paid Vladstudio accounts will have access to higher quality multi-monitor wallpaper, but free users aren't left out. Free users will have access to the same excellent images, just at a lower resolution.
DisplayFusion 3.0 has also received a complete interface overhaul. Every piece of the interface has been revised and streamlined to allow for easier use. For example, the Settings window has been divided up into more tabs for better separation of configuration options, while becoming easier to navigate at the same time.
The Wallpaper settings window has also undergone a transformation. With the addition of some excellent new image post-processing features (free for everyone to use) and the streamlining of the interface, it is now more powerful and easier to use than ever. You can do everything from applying a single image on one monitor to setting a random Vladstudio image to be spanned across all monitors. Everything has been simplified, but made more powerful at the same time.
There are a number of smaller, frequently requested changes in DisplayFusion 3.0 as well. For example, the addition of a HotKey to change to a new random wallpaper image (DisplayFusion Pro only). Moving windows between monitors has been made even easier now, thanks to the addition of the new middle-click window movement option. When enabled, just middle-click on a window's caption bar and the window will be moved to the next monitor. Very easy, and much faster than dragging the window to the desired monitor. Of course, the old drag-and-drop window movement is still there, and has been enhanced to provide better application compatibility.
DisplayFusion 3.0 also introduces a special game detection feature. When a game is starting up DisplayFusion will suspend all background operations to free up maximum systems resources for your game. Once you exit the game, DisplayFusion will resume everything automatically without you having to touch anything.
As always in any big release there are dozens of bug fixes as well. DisplayFusion 3.0 includes some fixes that apply to wallpaper centering, mouse lag, HotKey bindings and much, much more.
I would encourage everyone to update to DisplayFusion 3.0 today. If you have the auto-update option enabled you will be prompted to update the next time you start DisplayFusion. If you don't have auto-update enabled, just head over to the DisplayFusion page to download the new version. DisplayFusion Pro users don't need to worry, your existing license will work with DisplayFusion 3.0 and all future DisplayFusion versions.
I would like to send out a big thank you to everyone who helped to make this release possible. From the people who submitted suggestions, to the people who helped translate and test, you all made this release possible.
Thanks everyone!
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. It seems that some people were very busy over the holidays, as I recently received 4 translation files for 3 different languages. I can't thank these people enough for taking time out of their busy schedules to translate DisplayFusion into their native language. Here are the latest additions to the DisplayFusion languages:
Chinese (Simplified)
Thanks to Hui Liu and Wang Hao.
Italian
Thanks to Alessandro Ghisoni.
Swedish
Thanks to Hans Silverberg.
You can find these and more languages on the DisplayFusion Languages page. Thanks guys!
After my initial post about starting a private beta for DisplayFusion v2.3 I received an overwhelming response. I had to start turning people away to keep the number of testers to a manageable size. However, I ended up with a very diverse test group - which is exactly what I was looking for. There are people using Windows XP, Vista (x86 and x64), Server 2003 and Server 2008. Some people have Windows Themes enabled, some don't. Most are running English operating systems, but there are a few that are running localized copies of DisplayFusion. Testing is going extremely well, so I thought I would just highlight some of the exciting things coming in DisplayFusion v2.3:
This has turned out to be a substantial new release. With the numerous bug-fixes and tons of new functionality, this is shaping up to be one of the biggest DisplayFusion releases ever.
With these new changes, and after much deliberation, I have decided to adjust DisplayFusion's pricing. Effective January 1, 2009 DisplayFusion's price will be changing to $20 (CAD). I believe this new price is still a fair representation of what DisplayFusion is worth, especially taking into account the additional functionality version 2.3 will bring. If you are interested in how much this will cost in your local currency I have done the calculation for a few of the major currencies here:
Please keep in mind that the exchange rate for each of these currencies will fluctuate. I am announcing this price change 1 month in advance so that people currently evaluating DisplayFusion Pro will still have time to finish their trial and purchase a Pro license at the current price. Also, effective immediately, I have introduced volume discounts on the purchase page. This is how the discounts work:
If you want to use DisplayFusion Pro on more than one computer, this is an excellent way to purchase multiple licenses and save some money at the same time. As always, I would love to hear any feedback you have about any of these changes, or anything in general. You can use the contact page, or you can find me on Twitter. Thank you for your continued support, and I look forward to hearing from you.
I would like to send out a huge thanks to Marko for translating DisplayFusion v2.2.1 into French. If you are interested in using DisplayFusion with a French interface just head over to the DisplayFusion Languages page and download the French language file. For more information on how to install the language file, look at the "How do I use these language files" section on DisplayFusion Languages page.
After many months of development I am ready to start talking about one of the biggest new features planned for DisplayFusion v2.3: Multi-Monitor Taskbar Support. This is the most requested feature, and also the most difficult to create, so it has taken some time to get to this stage. I am officially ready to start beta testing and I'm looking for people who would like to give this feature a try. This feature will be a Pro only feature, so this beta will only be available to people with DisplayFusion Pro licenses.
Here is what the multi-monitor taskbar looks like in Windows XP with the Blue theme. The Windows Taskbar is on the left and the DisplayFusion Taskbar is on the right. As you can see, all of the taskbar windows are being shown on both taskbars.
In the second screenshot you can see DisplayFusion is only showing the windows that are on each screen in the DisplayFusion Taskbar. There are still a number of options that need to be finalized, but I want to start testing now to get as much feedback as I can from other people's desktop configurations. If you are interested in trying this out please contact me and I'll send you the download link.
Update: When you contact me please send the email address you used to register DisplayFusion, or your DisplayFusion Pro license key so I can verify your Pro status. Thanks!
