The Problem with Dual Monitors

Ok. so I have a simple question with a complicated solution. I use two monitors. I would like to be able to simultaneously be able to be in a fullscreen app like a movie, or game, and at the same time control the other monitor. In XP, i couldn't even get as far as I have now. In XP, the second monitor would always go black, or become unusable. At least in vista, it stays up, so I can view live content, IE I have games/movies running on left, messenger and winamp on right.

PROBLEM: When in a fullscreen app, the mouse will not navigate outside of that monitor. Which is great! but...... I kinda need it to. It would be horrible if I were playing an FPS and tried to turn around and whoops, I am on monitor two. <SNIPED IN HEAD*>.:sa:

Possible Solution: I dunno, maybe a 2nd mouse pointer? (I know thats a bad idea though)

I run dual monitors at home and at work, and have for years. I have never experienced what you are talking about in either operating system! To me, it sounds like either very badly behaving drivers or a very poorly written media player application.

What video card, driver version, and media player application are you using?

I play movies, fullscreen, on my secondary monitor quite often while using my primary for work/surfing/whatever.
(Obviously, it is by design that the mouse is locked while you are playing a full-screen video game.)

However, my configuration has been basically the same with either XP or Vista. I have only ever used NVIDIA cards for multi-monitor. Also, I have only ever set them for DualView. I have no experience with any other configuration, so I cannot comment on those. But, for me, NVIDIA + DualView == success every time.

As an addendum, I also use a 3rd party tool called UltraMon to enhance dual-monitor goodness. However, this tool is absolutely not necessary to do what you are wanting. I'm just "pimping" it 'cause I think it's worth the buy.