Help setting up two monitors on Windows 7

[kpagcha]

I just got a new monitor and I'd like to set up a workstation along with my older monitor as a secondary display. The new monitor box had a VGA and an HDMI cable.

The old monitor had a VGA port used to be connected to the GPU's HDMI port through a VGA/HDMI adaptor. I needed that HDMI port to connect the new monitor, so I reconnected the old monitor to the motherboard's HDMI port. At first that the old/secondary monitor didn't work but after activating the integrated GPU in the BIOS and installing the Intel graphics drivers for Windows 7 64-bit the monitor worked.

However, I can't configure the correct resolution on the secondary monitor, which used to be 1440x900 but it persists in running a resolution of 1024x768.

Three questions:

1. How can I configure the correct resolution on the old monitor?

2. Now that the integrated GPU is activated, how can I make sure programs are running in the dedicated GPU and not in the integrated one? Could there be any other issues for having monitors plugged to different things (motherboard and dedicated GPU)?

3. How could I connect both the old and the new monitor to the dedicated GPU? These are the ports:
- new monitor: 1x VGA, 2xHDMI
- old monitor: 1x VGA
- GPU: 2x DVI-D, 1xHDMI, 1xDisplayPort

 

[drekoriggm]

I would get a Display Port (DP) to HDMI cable for the new monitor and use the VGA/HDMI adapter setup for the old monitor like you were.
The resolution issues are from you trying to use the on-board and dedicated video output at the same time.
Make sure the GPU you're using will support the dual monitor setup you're going to use too. It probably does but wouldn't hurt to check.

 

[kpagcha]

I would get a Display Port (DP) to HDMI cable for the new monitor and use the VGA/HDMI adapter setup for the old monitor like you were.
The resolution issues are from you trying to use the on-board and dedicated video output at the same time.
Make sure the GPU you're using will support the dual monitor setup you're going to use too. It probably does but wouldn't hurt to check.

My GPU is a 1060 GTX. I've searched and apparently it supports dual monitor, but I've read some people having trouble when the display input is digital for one monitor and analog for the other. If I were to set up my old monitor via VGA/DVI-D or VGA/DisplayPort would that be a problem?

Any specific reason why you suggested a DisplayPort/HDMI connection for the new monitor when it's already connected to the HDMI port directly? Aren't direct connections better in performance, power and quality?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'd connect one monitor with hdmi cable and
second monitor with adapter - either active dvi-d to vga or active displayport to vga.

All outputs on gtx 1060 are digital. And of course - simple cable is better than any additional adapters in the middle.