Cant move program window to 2nd screen on iMac

Hi , I am a computer support tech for a large company. Been doing it 12 years and spent 99.5 % of my time and training fixing windows issues. Recently I had to take on MAC support as well and I am learning , slowly

Here is my issue for a user I have


She has a 2011 iMac, wanted a 2nd screen added. I connected the right adapter on the back to the LCD , its VGA cable. Should i use DVi instead?

So, after rebooting and making basic settings changes the 2nd LCD shows fine and i can move the mouse to it. Thought it was ALL GOOD so i walked away. 10 minutes later i get a call ........................ I cant move any file or window or program or anything to the new LCD

Went back, experienced the issue, now ........................... how do i fix it ?

"Assuming" you have a picture on the external monitor - see Post # 2, Item # 3 in the thread below:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/other-hardware-peripherals/193239-connecting-your-mac-your-tv.html

That will give you an overview of mirrored and extended desktop modes.
If in extended desktop, can the cursor be moved across to the external monitor?
Check moving the cursor beyond all 4 sides of the screen to see which side it is set up to use currently.


And yes, if you have the option, I would use DVI rather than VGA.
Not, that it's going to make a big difference on most office workstations.

thanks i will read it

on the 2nd screen i got a background and YES i can freely move the mouse to that screen, its on the left of the imac, it looks great until you try to move a window or anythng to it,

I will read your info and see if it hels and post back later today

Check out this article and the tips near the end of the article ATPM 14.12 - How To: Taming the Two-headed Monster: Using Two Monitors With Your Mac. Look specifically at the tips and tricks section. I think the reason this isn't working is that the squares iwhich represent the monitors in the Arrangement tab are in the wrong order.

For example, suppose the second screen is physically located left of the first screen. If the squares in the Arrangement tab are arranged with the second screen on the right you must either rearrange the blue squares to match the physical arrangement of the screens or drag the program window to the right. That article will explain better than I did. The screenshots will look a bit different but the behavior is the same as it is now.

man i am embarrassed, turns out she has a "parallels" setup which allows "windows on a mac" but its not capable of seeing the 2nd LCD

When i switched to mac side it works great,

MAC side = fine

Windows on a MAC = forget it

She might be able to open the VM or move the Parallels Desktop to the second screen and run her Win apps there while using OS X on the primary display. Pretty sure that's what I did when I was using VMWare.

Perhaps have her search the Parallels forum - found several threads and kb articles at their site about using dual monitors.

quick followup and conclusion, we got her onto the newest "parallels" version and its working fine now

thanks