2 montiors for the guest

[Hedgehog2]

In VMWare Workstation 16 Player in session settings under Hardware / Display we have the option to specify the number of monitors.

For test purposes within the guest system (Windows 11 Pro) I want to have 2 monitors that are recognized as 2 individual monitors in the guest system. 2 physical monitors are available. But Windows 11 doesn't recongnize the 2nd monitor. Host system is Winodws 8.1 Home.

In VMWare display settings I set 2 monitors. Is there any possibility to achieve that the guest has 2 monitors?

[bluefirestorm · Accepted solution]

I think that Display Settings specifying the number of monitors has not worked for many years (probably since version 10 at least). IIRC, that "Specify number of monitors" originally allowed you to specify multiple monitors for the guest even though you might have just a single monitor on the host.

Anyway, what you would do now is go full screen on the guest VM instead of running on a window. Once the VM is full screen, the floating menu at the top which have a "Cycle multiple monitors" button. For Windows hosts, there should be choices of layouts, which is generally useful for hosts with 3 or more displays.

[Hedgehog2]

Thank you very much. If I click on "Cycle multiple monitors", then I have 2 monitors in guest system avaliable.

[Hedgehog2]

Unfortunately "Cycle multiple monitors" seems to work only one time. Next time I start the guest system and click on "Cycle multiple monitors", something happens, but I don't have 2 monitors again. The moues click response is on the wrong place or the mouse is not visible anymore. The guest system has only 1 monitor available, although the host has 2 monitors. If I click again on "Cycle multiple monitors" it toggles the status and the mouse response is on the right place. In vmware settings are 2 displays specified.

[bluefirestorm]

Just make the setting "Use host settings for monitors" although I doubt it will make a difference on the Cycle multiple monitors problem.
The cycle multiple monitor can be finicky about the layout of the displays on the host OS display settings.

What is the layout of the dual displays on the host?

If it is side-by-side, try aligning the two displays either at the top or at the bottom of the two displays. If it is one display on top of the other, try aligning them on either left hand side or right hand side.

Aligning them either way may not be ideal especially if the resolutions of the displays are different and can take a while to find what is workable/comfortable in how the mouse will move from one display to the other considering the layout on the host and the physical layout on the physical desk.

[Hedgehog2]

I think I got it now. All monitors within the guest OS must be set to the same scaling factor. Then I have the guest OS on all monitors. And then I can set the scaling factor for one monitor to a different value again.