Dual Monitors: Six Good Reasons to Upgrade - Comments Page 1

I still prefer a smaller monitor, even if it means having to scroll from side to side. That is how I feel about TVs too.

In addition to the uses you mentioned:
*Great for Flight Simulator, instruments on one, outside view on the other.
*When using Teamviewer, my screen on one, the other persons on the other.
I've also used the square style monitor with a 16:9 one, when some things fit that format better when used just for reference. E.g Online NASCAR racing (VHR), race on one screen, Skype, & server display on the other.
As you say, once you try it, you will find two superior to one extra large monitor. (¯`·._.·ns¢ävË·._.·´¯)®

If you get the second monitor as a rotator (landscape/portrait) then you can set one each way (or rotate back to normal dual landscape) depending on your work (activities)

My second monitor is fed by a HDMI source switcher and I can use the second monitor as a TV / DVD / VCR/ laptop screen while working on the primary monitory.
So many options / so little time

I use three monitors, I have a laptop and then connect two monitors to it. This allows me to have one monitor that is just e-mail, outlook and or gmail, one monitor that always has a browser window open to a site on the Internet and one monitor that houses whatever word document, pdf, excel file, PowerPoint or other item open at that time.

Granted my desk is a 6 foot folding table, but it overall still is very efficient for me since I do a lot of teaching online which requires opening and marking up lots of word documents, keeping the browser open to go from school site to school site and being able to have my e-mail up and open 24/7 so I can easily respond immediately, sort, or ignore emails as they come in.

I can confirm the increased productivity in an office environment. Duals also decrease employee job frustration in areas where your whole job is done through a computer. I would also recommend adding Multimon (multimonitor.com) to the setup. This neat little program gives you a task bar on each monitor plus some nifty screen control arrows. Last I ordered this program, it still was not working with dual screens in a remote desktop environment, unfortunately. Once you use dual monitors, it is very hard to go back to one.

One very important consideration is resolution. Having monitors of differing maximum resolutions capabilities is a pain, unless you choose to lower the resolution on the better quality monitor. Also, if you're considering more than two monitors, forget it unless they are all capable of the same maximum resolution.

My husband convinced me to set up a second monitor, and I am very grateful that he did. I am a writer/editor (mostly retired!), and I find having that second monitor is extremely helpful.

Thanks, Bob for informing us about how to add a dual monitor to our computers. I could use this sort of setup. :)

At least three 30" monitors. Programmers need four.
Be sure they are all the same size.

And how does one do this with Ubuntu?
How does one apply this to something like using the TV/Internet box?

Another option not mentioned here is a USB to DVI/VGA adapter. They are reasonably priced and allow you to add another monitor using a USB port.

Great article Bob. I have used multiple monitors for many years. One of the coolest things I've tried is MaxiVista. Maxi allows you to place video on your main PC on to a second PC. I like flight sim so I put my FS plane view on my main screen; place my immediate instrument panel on the 2nd screen, then place my nav stuff on the 2nd comp screen. Maxi works very well ... I was a beta tester. Multi monitor/multi PC people need to check out MaxiVista. It's great!

With Windows 7, Windows key + p opens up the second monitor choice box.

Great posting Bob! Perhaps you can do a future one with details of how to use the 2 monitors with an example for those of us who are beginners.
THANKS!

I too was quite surprised that Bob took the Control Panel route to the dialog for Windows 7. On my system I just right click on the desktop and select Screen resolution to get there.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You'd be surprised how many people get tripped up by "just right-click on the desktop."

need to set up wireless monitor[TV] using this method as clone to TV.how to do?

I use 2 different monitor with 2 different resolution and it work well. One is 16:9 size (Samsung 22 inches) and the second is 4:3 (Acer 19 inches. I guess it dépends on your video card? or your Windows version. I could not tell.

We both use three monitors, a portrait (rotated) 19" on the left at 1024x1280, 24" hd screen in the middle and a landscape 19" at 1280x1024 on the right, so resolution isn't identical but it really doesn't matter - different stuff on different screens. The tall portrait monitor is brilliant for web pages and reading anything.

We used two for years, then I got a deal on a third and tried it - we won't go back to 2, and hate working on our laptops! One screen sucks!

We do web development, event management, spreadsheets, writing, presentations etc in our business.

Cost could also be a small consideration. A nice big (24? 27?) monitor is better than the 19 or 20" most people have and gives more real estate.
However a used second monitor costs next to nothing in a thrift store which means lots of space and no real cash outlay.
Make sure though, you have somewhere to plug in the second unit. There are still lots of systems which only have a single vga port for the video.

Been using dual monitors for quite some time and couldn't live without 'em. Most of my machines are legacy (going back to Pentium III) yet they're all equipped with dual-monitor video cards (PCI, AGP, PCIe).

Since the monitors have both DVI and VGA connectors I keep one machined permanently connected to the DVI while the others get attached to the VGA as needed.

From lowly Windows 2000 up to Win7 with various Unix/Linux inbetween I get so much done.