How to switch between monitors?

[Spitfire]

I'm sorry if I missed something in the FAQ or something obvious in the menu's but if I want to switch between which monitor the Steam Link is viewing on, is there a button or menu options I need to go to?

Thanks!

[lovely8]

+1

[Piddau]

I believe there is a setting you can choose which monitor it should display Big Picture on. At work at the moment so I cant look into it more unfortionately. I just know its one of the options to the left on the settings menu in Big Picture Mode.

[Yellig]

I believe they want to know how, when streaming your raw desktop, to switch to the second monitor, rather than the main one. Several notes and build release notes have mentioned logic in which screen to show, but I know I can't ever get it to show my second screen, even if I move my mouse over to it.

[Spitfire]

I dug a little deeper and was able to find it:

Big Picture-->Settings(upper right Cog icon)-->Display-->Resolution-->Target Monitor
Then just select which monitor you want Big Picture to show up on. It will restart Big Picture and then you can just minimize Big Picture to do what you wanted to do on that 2nd screen.

It certainly is not as quick as I would like it to be but it is at least possible to do when the situation arises (i.e. playing a game that for whatever reason opens on the 2nd monitor).

Thanks everyone!

[lovely8]

So, after playing around with this a bit there are 2(3 really but you will *not* like it...) way's to achieve this:

1. Run Steam as administrator, but I think the overlay(s) won't work on some games or it may adversely affect them..

2. Run VirtualHere and choose USB device.
If you bought a license and have more than one USB device it could get a little confusing as you will then have to find the right one.
NOTE: if you selected the correct USB device and then disabled it in virtualhere you'll have to either use a connected controller to get back to BP, or go to the machine, quit BP mode and then restart the stream(ing)

3. Keep moving the mouse to the edge of the display until it switches which doesn't always work...however if you *do* get it switch the monitor/ display all you have to do is move the mouse back in the direction of the main display and it goes back automatically(?!?!)

[lovely8]

I forgot something, DO NOT(or be very wary of some programs) open the task manager for any reason whatsoever unless you're running Steam as administrator. See the NOTE: in #2 above this post

[Coolasdice]

Originally posted by Spitfire:

I dug a little deeper and was able to find it:

Big Picture-->Settings(upper right Cog icon)-->Display-->Resolution-->Target Monitor
Then just select which monitor you want Big Picture to show up on. It will restart Big Picture and then you can just minimize Big Picture to do what you wanted to do on that 2nd screen.

It certainly is not as quick as I would like it to be but it is at least possible to do when the situation arises (i.e. playing a game that for whatever reason opens on the 2nd monitor).

Thanks everyone!

Apologies for the necro, but that button...

DOES NOT EXIST!!!

P.S. I am running mac with on external monitor using vga and a hdmi to my TV. I want the overlay on the TV.

[Spitfire]

I call your bluff! I just opened Big Picture and still see it there! I don't think I can add screenshots here or I would.

[cynojien]

Having a similar issue where Big Picture ALWAYS opens on the non-primary monitor and I can confirm that the option your talking about Spitfire is not there.

[_I_]

steam streams the monitor with focus/mouse
moving the mouse to another monitor will stream the other monitor

if using a mouse plugged into the link it is captured by that monitor
but using a controller in mouse mode it can move across monitors

[Therapor]

Originally posted by Mythaerius:

Apologies for the necro, but that button...

DOES NOT EXIST!!!

It's there on PC...

[Innos]

I was too looking for a way to switch between screens on a multi monitor setup when I'm streaming my desktop for quite a while now, but I finally found a way.

Steam streams the display which you have the focus on. Meaning it always streams the display that has your mouse cursor. The only problem is that due to the way Steam Link works it rarely allows your mouse to move between screens, since it was mainly designed to stream a game and not desktops. Although, in the rare occasions when Steam Link does allows you to move the cursor to the next display it always happens when you don't want it to, such as in the middle of a full-screen YouTube video or a movie, and then it doesn't lets you move back to the previous display, which is really annoying.

But there is this program called "Dual Monitor Tools", in which you can set a hotkey for moving your mouse cursor to the next screen.

It also has an option for setting a hotkey for locking your cursor onto the screen, which can help avoid the latter problem I mentioned.

[bobby]

Originally posted by INNØS:

I was too looking for a way to switch between screens on a multi monitor setup when I'm streaming my desktop for quite a while now, but I finally found a way.

Steam streams the display which you have the focus on. Meaning it always streams the display that has your mouse cursor. The only problem is that due to the way Steam Link works it rarely allows your mouse to move between screens, since it was mainly designed to stream a game and not desktops. Although, in the rare occasions when Steam Link does allows you to move the cursor to the next display it always happens when you don't want it to, such as in the middle of a full-screen YouTube video or a movie, and then it doesn't lets you move back to the previous display, which is really annoying.

But there is this program called "Dual Monitor Tools", in which you can set a hotkey for moving your mouse cursor to the next screen.

It also has an option for setting a hotkey for locking your cursor onto the screen, which can help avoid the latter problem I mentioned.

Thanks for the tip, this worked great! I start the app if i plan on streaming to my TV downstairs, then i can press ctrl+alt+right to move cursor to next monitor to flip the screen.

Saves all the time of trying to trick it every other way i know how :)

[Terramoto]

Sorry for the necro, here's what i'm doing. I've created the following powershell scripts you can call from steamlink without having to install 3rd party tools.

save it with the .ps1 extension and that will create a powershell script you can execute to get the position of your cursor. The next code will require the position close to the border where the mouse switches to the other monitor.

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
 while($true){
$X = [System.Windows.Forms.Cursor]::Position.X
$Y = [System.Windows.Forms.Cursor]::Position.Y
 
Write-Output "X: $X | Y: $Y"
}

Now that you have your cursor position at the border (mine was <1920 on the X for the primary and >1920 for secondary in expansion setup). replace the bellow if statement value with the value for your monitor. Adjust the $X and $Y to your liking.

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms

$Pos = [System.Windows.Forms.Cursor]::Position
if($pos.X -lt 1920){
	$x = 1950
	$y = 500
}else{
	$x = 1500
	$y = 500
}
[System.Windows.Forms.Cursor]::Position = New-Object System.Drawing.Point($x, $y)

In this case if i ran the script and the cursor is below 1920 (primary display) it will send the cursor to 1950 which will be within the secondary monitor, if i run it again it will send the cursor to 1500 which is within the primary monitor.

You can than use something like ps2exe in order to convert script into an executable and attach it to the start menu.

I'm not good at explaining things so feel free to elaborate.

[Rice-A-Roni]

Found a funky solution for myself.
Mind you, my situation was on Steam mobile.
No extra software. No new apps. Nothing.
I just edited my Steam Link layout and added a "track pad" onto the on-screen button layout. For some reason jumping between monitors works with the trackpad, but not the normal touch control mouse.

TL;DR: Mobile solution.
Edit Control layout>mouse square>remove mwup>close editing>done