On my dual monitor setup running with Windows 7 (and prior versions), if you have a full-screen video on one monitor and click on an app in the other monitor, the video stops running in full-screen mode. There is a probably a fix for this; I even think I’ve fixed this before a few years ago. But, instead of wasting time searching for that solution, I found that with a Virtual Machine, you can sidestep this issue.
With a Virtual Machine running in a PC you can run a video in full screen mode and still use the PC for other things and not have those pesky loss of full-screen mode when you click on another monitor.
This is my setup. I’m running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Linux distribution, code named Lucid Lynx, as a guest OS in Windows 7 using VirtualBox version 3.1.6. The full screen video (in FireFox browser) runs in the guest OS. Sites used: Hulu, netflix, YouTube.
Now this is why Quad Core processing rocks!
Addendum
1. Not all apps experience problems with fullscreen mode: See this faq at the multimon site.
2. “How To Keep Flash Videos Full-Screen On A Second Monitor” I didn’t try the suggestions at this site.
3. Another link.
4. VirtualBox can read the host’s CD/DVD, however this is as a data source not a video or audio source. shucks.
5. Oct 21 2010: Microsoft’s SilverLight can do full-screen lock and avoid this problem. It’s working on my system. Groovy!