Railworks America

While "cleaning out" the garage last week (translation: moving stuff around to make things look that way), I came across an old Samsung monitor that I actually thought I had discarded quite a while ago. when I check scenarios or routes for someone, I usually run RS in windowed mode, which I don't particularly like, so I can keep my notes open in Word and Tab back and forth. Could this old monitor lead to a better solution? Sure enough, my graphics card can control more than one monitor, so I dusted and cleaned the Samsung, hooked it up, and started my computer (Windows 10, by the way), but it took me a while to figure out how to activate (if that's the correct term) the second monitor. Believe it or not, a Microsoft forum provided the answer! So now I'm happily running RS full screen and taking notes in Word on the other monitor.

Something interesting is that when I click on Word on monitor 2, TS, running full screen on monitor 1, drops down to a task-bar icon. Clicking on that icon on monitor 1 restores RS to full screen. I didn't know that this was possible.

Moral: old monitors shouldn't be tossed -- they may come in handy some day.

Monitors are the one thing that doesn't change much in the IT world. Ifyou have an old VGA CRT from 1990, it will work with your computer unless it doesn't have a VGA connector. The only big change was the move from CRT screens to LCDs, and that didn't change compatibility. I still use three LCD monitors from 2008.

When I'm working with TS for testing or modding, I stil prefer to go in windowed mode because I can Alt-Tab to other programs without freezing TS. I put it back to full-screen mode for playing.

I have my second monitor set up as a workbench/desktop. I run this one on the on board graphics and the game runs on the GPU. You can set this up by enabling the on board graphics in your bios. When installing a dedicated graphics card this will disable by default. Set up monitors by using extend the desktop feature so you can drag and drop and use both screens for editing and file editing. System tray can be duplicated on both monitors. Play in windowed full screen on the gaming monitor to prevent issues with alt tabbing. I am sure others will offer suggestions.