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How does it know? "Magic" is not an acceptable answer.
At my job I work in two locations and have a desk at each. My computer is a Dell Latitude E6500 running Windows XP SP3. On both desks I have a PR03X docking station attached to a Viewsonic VX1932wm-LED external monitor. When changing offices I pack my laptop and simply plug into the docking station. I have my monitors set on "Extended Desktop" and my Viewsonic is my primary display.
At office A, the laptop is the left of the monitor. At office B the laptop is to the right of the monitor. Now the part I don't understand. WITHOUT any input from me, the systems "work" correctly. At office A, when my mouse cursor hits the left side of my primary display it leaves the Viewsonic and shows up on the right side of the laptop display. At office B, when it hits the RIGHT side of the primary it shows up on the left side of the laptop display.
Again, with the exception of serial numbers the hardware is identical. I shut my laptop down at one location. I dock it, let it boot and log on at the new location and with no input from me works correctly.
HOW DOES IT KNOW WHERE THE DOCKING STATION IS RELATIVE TO THE MONITOR?
speedstep
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9 Legend
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47K Posts
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March 18th, 2011 12:00
Each Docking station has different hardware just like if you plug in a different mouse even if its from the same
vendor the OS knows that the hardware is different. Or if you plug the SAME mouse into a different port it gives it a new
enumerator in the registry etc.
The Silly Windows Product Activation is also tied into the hidden serial number/mac address etc of each item.
How to enumerate hardware devices by using SetupDi calls
Description of the Subkeys Contained in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ...
finaltable
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March 18th, 2011 23:00
My docking stations are identical models. Our IT department places orders for multiples of the same thing. If they were different models I could understand it. Are you saying it is somehow reading a serial number from them as well to differentiate them?