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Multi-Monitor Full-Screen Mode in IE9

Multi-Monitor Full-Screen Mode in IE9

Internet Explorer version 9 has a very compelling interface. It removes nearly all the clutter from the browser and gives over a maximum of real-estate to the web page itself. Better, in full screen mode, it gives over the entire screen to the web page. Unless you mouse to the top of the screen and get IE9 to reveal its title-bar, you see nothing but the web page.
I am using IE9 in this full screen mode to post this article and even with 3 x 1680 x 1050 pixels of screen real-estate in a multi-monitor setup it makes a difference. For those with piddling netbook screens of 1024 x 600 it must be compelling indeed.
My delight in finding this full-screen behavior was marred by the fact that it would only work on one of my three monitors. This is a perverse side-effect of one of the other features in IE9 called 'frame merging'.
The fix for this is dead simple. You just have to launch IE9 with a command line similar to the following:
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -noframemerging
Note that this should also work for IE8 which also has the same issue.
This likely comes at the cost of using more memory. However, people with a multi-monitor setup probably can afford the cost.
This works under both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Note: You must use the command line above to start whatever instance you want to see in the 'full full screen' mode. Starting a new tab or new instance from the browser does not work.


Comments

DeepNorth said…
Ironically, I was unable to post the above in IE9. Maybe it's not that great after all.

I managed to type it all in and even save a draft, but when I went to post, IE9 just went into an endless redirect loop and nothing seemed to cure it.
April 7, 2011 at 7:35 PM
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