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My setup consists of a laptop hooked up to two monitors. The display of the laptop is turned off and both monitors have the desktop extended to them. My operator system is Windows 7; my video card is the Intel HD Graphics Family.

Currently, if I open a full screen program, it will open on my main display. Any applications running in the main display display are hidden from view; the applications that were running in the second display display normally. However, I am unable to use the applications running in the second display without minimizing the full screen program. If I use ALT+TAB to navigate to them, the full screen program will minimize, which is something I don't want to happen.

What I want is for my cursor to be locked into on of the monitors unless a specific key is held down. Then I can move my cursor in between the full screen program and the applications running in the secondary display by holding down the key.

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I've generally found that you can't move between a fullscreen application and the windows desktop (including non-fullscreen applications) without the fullscreen application losing control of the screen. The best way to achieve what you want is to run the fullscreen application in what is commonly known as "Windowed Borderless" or "Fullscreen Windowed" mode. It's basically running in a window, but the window bordering has been turned off, and it's resized to fit perfectly on a monitor.

I've generally found that few applications (games, really) support windowed borderless mode (though more and more are adding it), but if the application can run in simple windowed mode, then you can usually force it into windowed borderless mode with the answers described here:

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/17306/how-to-force-maximized-fullscreen-mode-in-any-game

This will allow you to have the fullscreen application on one monitor, and access applications on the other monitor without it minimizing.

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  • The application I'm using does support windowed mode, but I would like the cursor to not move between the two monitors freely while I am using the application. Is there a way to do that?
    – Jon Claus
    Jun 25, 2013 at 20:06
  • A quick google offers CursorLock as a possible utility to do that. I haven't tried it though. Jun 25, 2013 at 20:10

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