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I have been looking for information about using a second monitor, and thought of using a touchscreen.

Will a touchscreen monitor work in a dual setup if it is not the main monitor? I haven't found any information on this; I've only found information about the touchscreen being the main monitor. That is, except at this SU question (snippet below):

If you mean do the touch screen features still work on the other machine, the answer is yes.

Past that, you can even see some of the touch screen features on a non touch screen monitor (just not the multi touch features!) For example, on the taskbar, click (without releasing) on any icon and then drag the mouse up, and you will see that it does the same as using your finger and dragging up.

I have a HP 2510 for the main monitor. I'm thinking of adding a HP 2310ti (the touchscreen) as the secondary. My graphics card is a geforce gtx 295. I'm running Windows 7 Professional.

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Have a look in the Control Panel.

Control Panel/TabletPC/calibration - a dialog pops up, press the settings button, and there you can select which screen the touch works for.

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  • this worked for me. My development PC is a dual display. I added a touch screen for the POS development, and have it set as the 3rd display. The control panel settings worked great. Apr 13, 2012 at 20:38
  • This works for windows 10. I have a touch screen I'm required to use by my work for software testing, but it has a weird gloss coating that I find abhorrant for regular use, ergo I couldn't stand it being my main monitor, and since windows 10 only has the system tray on the main screen, I was having a rather frustrating time getting used to it. This fixed it right up.
    – Sidney
    Dec 21, 2015 at 15:45
  • The same procedure still works for Windows 10!
    – metaColin
    Mar 8, 2021 at 0:41
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Sorry it took so long to spot this question. The reason you're not seeing anyone talking about the touchscreen function is that it has nothing to do with the screen and everything to do with primary vs secondary. however the touch screen is simply a mouse built into the monitor. The only reason it lines up with your finger is that it's calibrated to do so. If you run multiple monitors with touch screen or run one with and one without neither screen can calibrate properly for both screen areas and the touch mouse is locked to the primary monitors logical location.

The only way I've seen this done effectively is to use the touchscreen as primary. We did have a customer try dual touch screens but he had major driver issues and eventually ended up disabling the feature on his secondary monitor.

You could still have the touch off to the side and make it primary with the monitor you work from set as secondary but right in front of you.

And yes all the gestures and mouse flicks work regardless of the pointing device some just lend themselves better to a mouse or the finger.

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  • Making an analogy of a mouse and a touch screen's touch functionality is wrong! You can move system mouse pointer to all monitors by using mouse, but your touch of touch screen only move mouse pointer within a single monitor.
    – Jimm Chen
    Mar 3, 2015 at 11:50
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http://www.businesslegions.com/blog/2013/10/04/set-up-a-touch-screen-as-the-non-primary-monitor/

Press enter at the primary monitor to skip it, press the touch when the dialogue is on the correct monitor.

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  • 1
    Sigh, that guy(your link) is talking nonsense.
    – Jimm Chen
    Mar 3, 2015 at 12:15
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I had a similar problem in windows 8.1: three monitors attached, one of those is touch, but not detected first. Touches are sent to other monitors and via Tablet PC settings there is no way to fix it. No matter if you indicate which monitor is the touch one, via the "enter" (to pass) and "touch" (to select) trick, the touches are sent to the primary monitor.

Here is what does the trick for me in Windows 8.1:

  • Open Screen Resolution Settings (CPL -> Display -> Resolution)
  • Set the touch monitor as the primary monitor
  • Open Tablet PC Settings (CPL -> Tablet PC Settings)
  • Select "Setup" to configure your pen and touch displays
  • Go through the normal "enter" to skip, "touch" to indicate which screen is your touch screen
  • Go back to Screen Resolution Settings
  • Change the primary display any one you prefer to act as such.

You are done.

However occasionally windows will loose the setting and you will have to redo the process. (e.g. after a driver update or some times even after a cable disconnection).

Here is a Dell Knowledge Base article that describes the same thing.

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It's more difficult than people say in my experience with Windows 7. I tried for a long time to get a second monitor to be the one that touch was referred to but no matter what I did, regardless of the advice of people who claim to know, the touch input would only appear as though it was on the laptop screen and not the second monitor. And yes, the second monitor was set to be the main monitor. The only way I could get touch to be correct was if I only had the second monitor used and had the laptop screen turned off. So I gave up and decided it was not possible; I just had the extended desktop and didn't use the touch feature. Since I couldn't use the touch I was happy to swap the monitor for an identical model but one which I was told didn't work as far as touch was concerned. When I plugged everything in I thought I'd see if the touch really was faulty and to my amazement, even though the screen arrangement is exactly the same, the touch monitor now works as wanted. I guess from this that Windows only transfers touch input to the main monitor when the external monitor is first detected, or something like that.

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It can be done but you have to lie to the PC. I know this is an old post but I figure someone may have the same problem. Windows 8.1 Touch set to secondary will not work but if you touch the secondary when the label shows on the primary it will work. Do the calibration only if the monitor needs it, and you will have to do it with the monitor set as primary.

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