An old XP desktop trick with two moniltors

[Geek-9pm]

This is an old  XP trick that may be new to you. With dual monitors you can have two sets of desktop shortcuts or files.   

In the screenshot below, I grouped all my TXT files on the desktop and did a drag and drop onto the second monitor. Then I did a arrange by name. Prresto! Now all the TXT documents remain on the second display monitor.

[soybean]

But, to be perfectly clear on your point, you moved only TXT files to the second monitor.  You do not have two identical desktops and you do not have any of the desktop shortcuts or TXT files on both monitors. 

[TechnoGeek]

Tried this on Win7 with two monitors. Unfortunately, when I unplugged that second monitor everything went back to the first desktop. They didn't go back to the two-desktop setup after plugging the monitor back in :/ Another thing I noticed is that the sort is global, i.e. both desktops are sorted the same way.

So, maybe a bit more limited in use with, say, a laptop, where you might be plugging and unplugging monitors often when commuting.

But hey, cool trick! 

[BC_Programmer]

you can use Desktops to provide multiple desktops. I can't recall if it actually changes desktop shortcuts, though :/

Also I think you could do this in Windows 98SE or later, since that is when they added Multi monitor support.

Fences is another good program that let's you organize desktop shortcuts, but it's no longer free. I was using it until it offered an upgrade, so I thought "oh cool a new update" and said yes, it installed it, and then complained about being a trial. I was not impressed and remove it entirely, and won't even use the old version if they are going to employ tactics like that.