Creating a virtual monitor/virtual display device
I'm trying to create a "virtual monitor" in Windows (XP & newer). For example, let's say my desktop looks like this:
I want to add a monitor virtually so it looks like this without any change in hardware:
How do I do this? Do I add a virtual driver? Or trick Windows into thinking there is new hardware?
Answer
Well, once upon I was in same problem and someone reccomended to me to override EDID data.
The EDID (Extended display identification data) data structure have all the info of your graphic card and other video sources.
You can see a tutorial for how modify EDID here.
The tutorial only applies to Win 7, Win server 2008 and Win Vista...
I don't try the following because I'm a bit afraid of manipulating these data, but... if you're average in these stuff you could try ;)
If you prefer a hardware solution, perhaps DVI Detective may help you. In his website they claim that DVI "provides a virtual EDID". Also, this hardware protects the EDID data, so, there's lower risk to do very much damage...
Hope this helps :)