Share your HOME WORKING workstation environment - pics

[HM-2]

pincher said:

pincher said:

It's annoying as they were £70 off yesterday on their website, so £329.99 which I am happy with.


I called them and asked if they would do it for that price but they said no. Gits.

Bizarrely, I checked the website again today and the E6 is back to £329.99 - why they put it back to full price for a day is rather strange but hey-ho.

The E7 (same frame but 'premium' controller) is also the same price. Got another 10% off by subscribing to their newsletter, taking it down to £296.99 and also went via Quidco who are tracking with 4% cashback, so that's another £9.90 off.

Managed to save almost £113 (28%) by waiting less than 24 hours - madness!

I have been really happy with my Flexispot but their on-and-off-again pricing is very annoying. I saved 40% by cancelling my first order and reordering 2 days later!

[dsgrnmcm]

57 Chevy said:

I’ve finished my second mid century monitor housing. Webcam is in the old camera on the right. Three of the buttons are HomeKit scene buttons for changing the lighting for calls and shutting it all down.

That's really cool, very Fallout!

[HM-2]

Largely the same as previously shown, but with shinier and heavily upgraded PC.

[rdj001]

Lovely set up - really like the yellow accents on the desk pad which tie in with the chair.

[thecrow]

Nothing special compared to some on here but works well! We moved here in September, with us both being full time WFH this place was perfect as we’ve both got offices downstairs. Mine was formerly a playroom so it has been painted and I fitted a new ceiling light.

Most of the kit was bought following inspiration from this thread! Screen is an LG 34” ultrawide, the keyboard is a Unicomp, speakers are RCF Ayra Pro 6s fed by a Roland Duo-Capture EX, and furniture is from IKEA. Lights are Philips Hue which I’ve got set to different settings depending on the time of day.

I do occasional audio production so (with the help of a Behringer X touch) this doubles up as my mixing room.

[grumbledoak]

Mine has had another little upgrade -


A bigger, nicer desk top inspired by this thread. It gets everything off the floor for my little robot vacuum.

I've gone back to wired keyboard and mouse 'cos they annoy me by going to sleep all the time.

[redback911]

My home working environment also includes an Atom bike for boring/long conference calls.

[sunbeam alpine]

anxious_ant said:

theaxe said:

The monitor is an LG UltraWide 38WN95C 38-inch, I looked at the G9 but I don't think it has the 1600 vertical pixels, also the LG has thunderbolt 3 so it means a single connection to the laptop.

Gotcha, I will have to shop around as most I've seen are 34" ultrawide with 3440x1440 resolution.
Windows and Microsoft products user here, and most important thing to me is that I can easily snap windows to the right and left of the monitor. Basically mimicking my dual monitors, but in one wide monitor if that makes sense.

Can you point me in the direction of some instructions on how to achieve this? I've just bought a 34" screen and I'm struggling to get it how I'd like.

I've got 2 x 27" monitors on my work setup which seem to work better for me, but maybe I'm not getting the best out of the single monitor. Will post a pic tomorrow.

[xeny]

I like the way the webcam peeks out between two monitors.

What crime did the top left screen commit to end up inverted?

[redback911]

xeny said:

I like the way the webcam peeks out between two monitors.

Good position for facial recognition login too.

xeny said:

What crime did the top left screen commit to end up inverted?

:-) Well spotted. Its because my longest USB cable is too short. It never bothered me, but now you mentioned it I cannot stop looking at the inverted ASUS logo.

[xeny]

sunbeam alpine said:

Can you point me in the direction of some instructions on how to achieve this? I've just bought a 34" screen and I'm struggling to get it how I'd like.

Just drag windows to either end, or any corner of the screen, and they'll by default snap to that half of the screen, or that 1/4 of the screen. If you want more options, FancyZones is the tool to use.

Edited by xeny on Thursday 3rd February 13:18

[JmatthewB]

So my current work from home set-up is your standard compact IKEA desk and chair:


Not to be confused with the play from home set-up:

(VR setup so monitor isn't used while driving)

[JagYouAre]

redback911 said:

My home working environment also includes an Atom bike for boring/long conference calls.

Needs more screens in my opinion

Out of interest, what are your thoughts on the Atom? Been thinking about the Wahoo Kickr Bike for some time but that looks smart (and seems to be a fair bit cheaper!)

[anxious_ant]

sunbeam alpine said:

Can you point me in the direction of some instructions on how to achieve this? I've just bought a 34" screen and I'm struggling to get it how I'd like.

I've got 2 x 27" monitors on my work setup which seem to work better for me, but maybe I'm not getting the best out of the single monitor. Will post a pic tomorrow.

I believe you can use apps like PowerToys to setup zones, but most ultrawide should still allow snapping if you only have 1 monitor.
In the end I've got a spare 1080p 22" monitor used exclusively for Teams screen sharing.
It's not a good experience screen sharing desktop on ultrawide as most people will see really small text.

I will moving moving house in few months and will be getting a slightly bigger room for office, so plan is to use desk for both gaming and work.
Currently have 34" ultrawide, 27" 144Hz ROG and 27" 1080p, this would be interesting. Watch this space!

[Sporky]

I use DisplayFusion to do window snapping and a load of other things - I'd say it's worth it if you're going to use its wallpaper management, monitor profile stuff, and triggers. For just snapping it's probably a bit over the top.

[redback911]

JagYouAre said:

Needs more screens in my opinion

Out of interest, what are your thoughts on the Atom? Been thinking about the Wahoo Kickr Bike for some time but that looks smart (and seems to be a fair bit cheaper!)

I love it, it's got a decent amount of adjustability so I can get a fit close to my road bike. It works will all the main trainer apps and has decent WattBike app too. Very quiet operation and comfy to sit on, I can easily spin for an hour on a call or join a Zwift race.

[Jimmy No Hands]

Not finished yet, only been in a few months. Need something to the left for the printer and other various bits (camera gear) I am not actually an Apple fan boy, we just seem to accumulate products. I was using the Mrs' MacBook as a mouse mat for my Ideapad

Edit: apologies for dog bed and huge amounts of stuffed toys - she seems to collect them.

[LukeyP_]

Moved around over the last two years but now setup a man cave in the hallway of our house

Will be decorating, shelf above the picture and little bit decor soon

[TameRacingDriver]

sunbeam alpine said:

Can you point me in the direction of some instructions on how to achieve this? I've just bought a 34" screen and I'm struggling to get it how I'd like.

I've got 2 x 27" monitors on my work setup which seem to work better for me, but maybe I'm not getting the best out of the single monitor. Will post a pic tomorrow.

How you getting on?

I can relate to your frustrations; I've got a 34" monitor and have been using it for quite a while WFH. I came from an office where I had a dual screen setup. Part of the problem is Windows. It seems to work pretty well with dual screens for the most part, but I've noticed a number of issues with using a super wide.

Windows snapping works but doesn't always work as well as it should. Sometimes it pins windows to the wrong side when using the keyboard shortcuts. It doesn't always size the window exactly in my experience, and many apps don't remember their position after the computer has been rebooted.

Then there's the issue of how windows look maximised on a super wide. Stuff like Excel is epic (game changing from a dual screen setup), but Outlook or web browsing just looks crap, with a lot of wasted space.

Then there's the taskbar. Using the default settings (icons only), there is a vast amount of wasted space, and icons pinned to the left just look odd.

The best way I've found of working with the super wide is by using the Powertoys app, and configuring FancyZones to setup a split screen setup. FancyZones can take over the keyboard shortcuts for snapping, add borders around the windows for a more pleasing look, you can use your right mouse button while dragging for automatic snapping to zones, and apps remember their position even after being rebooted or having a file loaded. As a side bonus, you can set up multiple layouts and switch between using a keyboard shortcut, and the apps will even resize automatically to their new zones.

It works a lot more reliably, and windows always open exactly where I want them. It's a game changer for me and how it should have worked out of the box. I then treat the left / right zones as if they were separate screens just as you would on a dual screen setup. I tend to keep email, teams, web browser, basically stuff I read on the left and working / developing / creating apps on the right. If an app can take advantage of the width, just go ahead and maximise it and take advantage of all that lovely real estate.

Another nice Powertoy tool is the 'keep window on top' applet. A keyboard shortcut will trigger the current window to stay on top. Great for making notes in OneNote for example.

For the taskbar, I just use the "show labels" option in Windows 10. I find it much easier to manage a lot of windows with the labels option, and it fills the empty space better. If you're more a fan of icons only view, then I recommend TaskbarX to center the icons on the taskbar which looks FAR better on a super wide.

Windows 11 does better out of the box than Win10 on the super wide, as it can center the taskbar icons out of the box, and gives FancyZones style functionality out of the box, thoughI still think FancyZones will have its place on Windows 11, as I believe the issues with losing Window positions and whatnot will remain for the time being. One downside with Windows 11 is you can't have labels on the taskbar buttons, but it does counter it by having a much better Task Switcher screen (the WIN+TAB screen). Drag and drop support is also gone from the taskbar in 11 but is coming back soon in a feature update.

Through trial and error I've found a setup that works for me. I just wanted to share a few tips for those who have a monitor like this because it took me quite a long time to find a setup + workflow that I liked that works well with this screen considering the constraints presented by Windows, which is far from polished in this regard out of the box.

[ZesPak]

An update here.


Got a Klipsch soundbar and woofer combo, amazing.
Have a USB C lead running here where I can plug in my portable monitor (15" ASUS, gets no love since COVID otherwise)
Other than that, 34" Alienware and a 27" Iiyama.