Free Multi-Monitor configuration switcher for Windows 7

Question

I have three monitors which I regularly use in two configurations:

• Duplicated Screen on A and B
• Extended Screen on B and C

Because I often switch between those two configurations, the manual setup via the Win 7 Screen Resolution dialog is costing me time.

I need a simple tool with the following features:

• Allows to save Multi-Monitor configurations for later reuse
• Allows to quickly switch between those pre-saved configurations
• Preferably: Allows to do the switching through hotkeys
• Works on Windows 7
• Free or very low one-time price (<10$/€)

DisplayFusion and UltraMon are good tools, but come with a plethora of features I don't need for a larger price than what I am looking for. I was hoping to find a free or cheap alternative that only does this one task (monitor switching) for me.

Answer 1

I found out that the current Catalyst Control Center has a function to switch between monitor configurations quickly through the Tray Menu. Works pretty well for me, but obviously this solution is limited to graphic cards from ATI.

Answer 2

This is a clumsy workaround using AutoHotKey in case you did not find a direct answer. You can use a script to retrace the steps of manually switching the layouts. The sequance may differ from system to system so I will list the instructions along with a sample script that works on mine:

1. Open the Screen Resolution window, and press (on the keyboard) the number of the screen you'd like to edit. 2 for example
2. Count how many Tab presses it takes to reach the Multiple Displays menu. This number will change depending on the mode it's already in
3. Use the first letter of the menu entry to select it. E for extend, D for duplicate, etc...
4. Again count how many Tab presses it takes to reach the OK button

When you have all the variables, use them to modify the configuration section of this AutoHotKey script:

;; Configuration

myWinTitle := "Screen Resolution"      ;; Title of the window
dSequence := "2{Tab 4}d{Tab 6}{Enter}" ;; Key sequence for duplicating displays
eSequence := "2{Tab 2}e{Tab 8}{Enter}" ;; Key sequence for extending displays

;; End of configuration section

#NoEnv 
SendMode Input 
SetTitleMatchMode, 2

#+d::
  Run control desk.cpl
  IfWinNotActive, %myWinTitle%, , WinActivate, %myWinTitle%, 
  WinWaitActive, %myWinTitle%,
  Send %dSequence%
  return

#+e::
  Run control desk.cpl
  IfWinNotActive, %myWinTitle%, , WinActivate, %myWinTitle%, 
  WinWaitActive, %myWinTitle%,
  Send %eSequence%
  return

The hotkey Win+Shift+D should now switch to duplicate displays (by quickly retracing your steps), and Win+Shift+E should swtich back to extended displays.

There are most likely cleaner ways to do this by directly editing the registery keys. I'll update the script if I figure it out.