No one ever looks this happy at a computer. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
For future reference.
Problem: When setting a different wallpaper for each monitor in a dual-display setup, Windows 11 will arbitrarily change both wallpapers to another random wallpaper (in my case it often chose one I was using last winter) or it will change the wallpapers to a solid colour (the same for both monitors).
Solution: There is no solution! At least not one that I found that worked reliably. The fix is to simply stop using a different wallpaper for each monitor. Once I went with the same wallpaper for both displays, the problem went away. I assume this is a bug/quirk in Windows 11 and will be one of those things some people may never encounter and others, like me, will never have fixed.
Alternate Solution: Buy a Mac. This works without issue on Macs, you just have to live with the other multi-monitor weirdness, like “Why can’t the dock stay on both displays at the same time?”
I finally got my dual monitor setup in place today and I have thoughts.
First, I somehow forgot just how much space two monitors sitting side-by-side occupy. There are areas of my desk that are no longer easy to get to. It’s a minor inconvenience, but noticeable, at least right now.
Also, the monitors are different:
Right: 27″ 2560×1440 (16:9 aspect ratio)
Left: 24″ 1920×1200 (16:10 aspect ratio)
I thought the smaller screen of my older 24″ monitor would bug me, but it’s actually the lower resolution that does. Everything on the 27″ monitor feels like the “right” size, where everything on the left seems too big by comparison. If I keep the dual setup I’ll eventually get a matching 27″ monitor, but for now it feels a bit odd. There’s also differences in brightness and color I can see that would be minimized by having two of the same monitor.
I also wonder/worry if this will lead to any ergonomic issues because instead of looking dead-on at a single monitor in front of me, I am looking slightly to my left or right. It’s not like I’m craning my neck, but it’s something that might have consequences further on. Also, it just feels weird to not have one monitor sitting right in front of me.
And because I have an M1 MacBook Air, I can’t use the dual setup with it as it only supports one external display. Maybe I’ll trade it in for an M1 Mac mini (since I don’t want to spend $3,000 on one of the new MacBook Pros that do support multiple displays–more on these machines in my post covering Apple’s October 18th event soon).
Still, this should help for a lot of my workflow and will make online courses easier, with videos/tutorials on the left screen and my work area on the right. We’ll see how it goes.
I did toy with the idea of getting an ultrawide monitor instead, but:
They are expensive
Most are curved, which makes graphics work tricky (I am primarily doing graphics work, so accurate straight lines and such are important)
Curved screens, even leaving aside the point above, still feel weird to me. I remember the curved TV craze a few years back and note that the craze died out in short order (along with 3D). There must be a reason for that.
Anyway, we’ll see how it works out. If I end up totally hating dual monitors, I still have the single monitor arm mount on the wall, ready to go.
