A quick and effective way to get additional desktop space is to use a USB Graphics Adapter, in my case I used the Star Tech USB32VGAPRO. It supports a good range of resolutions but in my case I wanted to use 1680×1050 which is the same as my in-built graphics resolution outputs at. However when using the Windows 10 display settings to set the resolution to 1680×1050, the monitors connected to the USB32VGAPRO would show the picture, but it would be squashed and showing two black stripes down each side.
No changes to the monitor configuration would resolve this and in my case all monitors were identical models running identical firmware versions.
The resolution (no pun intended) in the end was simple.
Right click on the desktop and select: “Display Settings”.
You’ll notice the “Display Resolution”, if you change this you get the issue with the black stripes, so instead, scroll to the bottom and click on “Advanced Display Settings”.
Now click on the drop down and select the monitor to which the USB32VGAPRO is attached, now click on “Display Adapter Properties for Display X”.
Click “List All Modes”, now you pick the resolution you want, in my case 1680×1050. Then click “OK” and “OK” again to apply the settings.
You should now see the graphics showing as expected on the monitor i.e. without the black stripes.
