How To See All Your Monitors Over Remote Desktop

Two Ways To Do It

• Switch between the PC’s monitors. Most remote desktop apps, and APE Viewer Free, show one of the PC’s monitors at a time and let you flip between them.
• Open every monitor at once, each in its own window. APE Viewer Premium does this, so you can place each remote screen wherever you like.

The PC’s Monitors, Or Yours?

Two sets of screens are involved: the monitors plugged into the PC you’re reaching, and the screen or screens in front of you.

Some remote desktop apps lay the session out like your own monitors, so on a laptop with one screen you get one screen, however many monitors the PC has. Others squeeze every monitor into one window, so each screen gets smaller.

APE Viewer streams the PC’s own monitors as they are, each at its own resolution, so your windows stay where you left them.

Using all monitors in Windows Remote Desktop (RDP)

In Windows Remote Desktop Connection (RDP), run mstsc /multimon on the computer you connect from. The remote Windows session uses the layout of the displays attached to that computer. mstsc /l lists those local displays and their IDs. See Microsoft's mstsc options.

APE Viewer streams the screens attached to the PC you share. On a one-screen laptop, Free lets you switch between those screens one at a time. Premium opens them together, each in its own window. Follow the APE Viewer steps below for that physical-screen workflow.

With APE Viewer Free

Free shows one screen at a time, with no time limit. Open Screens on the stream toolbar (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M brings the toolbar back) and choose Show here next to another screen.

Why It Helps

With each remote monitor in its own window, you can put a game full screen on one display and keep chat or a browser in a window on another, or spread your work across your displays the way it sits at home. Each window moves and resizes on its own, and keeps its screen’s resolution.

Every Screen With APE Viewer Premium

1. On the PC you want to reach, open APE Viewer and turn on sharing under Hosting. Every screen is shared by default, with Screens per Person set to All. If you limited them earlier, change them back under Hosting → Settings → Screens, and check the person’s screens in Hosting → People & permissions.
2. On your laptop, open Your PCs, choose the PC and select its screens.
3. For each screen, use its placement control to choose a window or full screen on one of your displays, then connect.
4. While connected, open Screens on the stream toolbar. Open opens another screen in its own window. The toolbar’s Full screen button goes full screen on the display the window is on; with more than one display, More → Full screen on display picks another.

Premium on either PC is enough to see every screen at once. On Free, you see one screen at a time and can switch whenever you like.

• Every extra screen is more video to send. If the picture gets soft or choppy with several screens open, close the ones you don’t need or lower the frame rate. APE Viewer sets no upload limit per person by default. If the PC’s owner sets one under Hosting → Settings → Limits, it’s split across all the screens a person watches.
• One laptop screen still works. With each remote monitor in its own window, switch between them with Alt+Tab. In APE Viewer, Alt+Tab stays on your laptop while the stream is in a window.