Windows Display Control Panel

Q: Please inform me whether I can connect two or more monitors to the same PC. If so, what additional settings are needed?—Shyam S

How do I go about getting dual monitors set up at my home computer? I do a lot of CAD work, and having the extra space would be great!—Timothy Hold

A: You should consider several important factors before connecting multiple displays: the graphics card, the operating system, and the physical connectors.

I'm going to assume that you have Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista. Given that, you'll need a graphics card or graphics subsystem that supports multiple displays. Any video card manufactured in the past three years—even the budget cards—can do that. But take a minute to refer to your PC's manual if your system has only integrated graphics hardware—that is, a graphics adapter that's built into your system's motherboard chipset. Some integrated graphics systems can handle more than one display, but others can't.

The bottom line is that you need a graphics adapter with two physical connectors—either VGA or DVI—and two displays with appropriate connections. If you have a video card with two DVI ports, but one or both of your displays has only VGA connectors, you can obtain DVI-to-VGA adapter dongles.

Once you connect both displays, either Windows or the graphics driver control panel should autodetect the second display and walk you through setting it up. If the autodetect message doesn't pop up, you can set up the dual display yourself, either through the Display control panel or the graphics driver. The Windows control panel is simpler, but the graphics driver may give you more options.

The biggest problem you may encounter is physical space on your real-world desk, particularly if the displays are old-style CRT monitors. But once you get used to having dual displays, you'll never go back. The additional screen space is a tremendous productivity asset.