How to Move Start Menu to a Second Monitor
Plugging more than 1 computers to enjoy the luxury of extended display has become a norm for quite some time now. Some people extend their displays to enjoy a better gaming experience while some people do it simply to achieve efficient multi-tasking. Moving things around the different monitors (displays) is fairly simple but when you want to move your taskbar to the second screen, things can get a little more technical.
The taskbar is by default present on the main screen/monitor and not on the extended ones. Moving it around is not as simple as other things/tools/applications because you can’t just drag and drop it to another position. In this article we share a few methods via which you can move the taskbar to your secondary displays.
Method 1: Unlocking and dragging
The first method is the simplest one; we simply unlock the taskbar and drag it around.
The taskbar is locked by default. To be able to move it, we will have to unlock it. To do so, right click on it and click on “Lock the taskbar” to disable the function.
Now you are free to move the taskbar around. Simply click on the taskbar to grab a hold of it and then drag it wherever you want on the extended displays.
Method 2: Using the keyboard
We can perform the steps written above using only the keyboard as well:
Press the Windows key (or Ctrl + Esc) to bring the start menu up.
Now press Esc to close it. This will turn the focus to the taskbar.
Now press the Alt and Space-bar keys together. This will bring the taskbar context menu up.
Press M and the move function will get triggered.
Now use the arrow keys to make the cursor go to a different edge of the monitor. You can also press any one arrow key followed by moving the mouse to attach the taskbar to the end of the cursor. Now when you move the taskbar near to the desired monitor edge, it will get attached there.
Method 3: Using UltraMon to add taskbars to every monitor
If you like, you can also use a software named UltraMon to have taskbars on all the monitors and a bunch of other features (discussed below). It’s simple to use and the following steps should help you through the process: (Note: It will work on all the Windows versions)
Click on this link for selecting 32/64 bit architecture . Double click to start the installer and follow the on-screen instructions to install the application.
If you are on Windows 8 (or later) go through these steps to know the type of options you have:
Open the UltraMon (Smart Taskbar) application. A window by the name “UltraMon Options” should appear.
In order to ensure that you get multiple taskbars on all monitors to show all the open applications (on the different monitors), go to the Taskbar Extensions
Change the mode to Standard by clicking on the radio button. This will ensure that all the taskbars (on different monitors) will only show the applications that are opened on the monitor they are residing on.
If you want, you can toggle between the different modes available. If you use the Standard, primary mirror option, your primary taskbar will show all the tasks open across all the displays while the secondary taskbars will show only the applications that are opened on the monitor they are on.
The Enable thinner vertical taskbars (secondary taskbars only) option allows you to resize the vertical taskbars to the application icon width as desired, while using small taskbar icons. This is not possible without the application.
Additionally there are other exciting features as well. If you want to remove the start button from say, the secondary taskbars (or even from all taskbars), then you can do that by going to the Ignored monitors tab and following the on-screen instructions. It’s also possible to hide taskbars from specific monitors.
If you have a Windows 7 or an earlier version, this is what you can do:
The first thing worth-mentioning here is that UltraMon (on Windows 7 and earlier) doesn’t let you replace the old taskbar, it just allows you to add additional taskbars as required. To change the settings, you can right-click on the taskbar and make adjustments.
You can have multiple taskbars here as well. There are two modes available. Via the standard mode, your taskbars will only show those applications that are running on the monitors that they are themselves residing on. The mirror mode will make all taskbars show all the applications running on the operating system.
