hi everyone welcome to thunderbolt tech
tips your source for all things
thunderbolt i'm your host lyle warnke
and today's topic is windows 11 and
thunderbolt
how they're better together and how you
can maximize your productivity with both
[Music]
hey we're doing it again with another
thunderbolt tech tips contest giveaway
michael hit me
you're fired
sweet in anchor apex 12 12-1 thunderbolt
4 dock
be sure to check out the video
description for the contest link and the
links to other products and resources
highlighted in this video and one more
thing if you have a thunderbolt tech tip
that you want to share or a thunderbolt
related topic you want to request then
hashtag thunderbolt tech tips in the
comments section below is we want to
hear from you and it can be used in a
future video segment to show how great
windows 11 and thunderbolt work together
we're going to set up a dual monitor
workspace perfect for those working from
home and need more applications open all
at the same time
so i'm going to show you how to set up
your workspace as well as how to quickly
configure multiple monitors with windows
11
and after that we're going to look at
the cool productivity feature of windows
11 called snap that can help you
organize applications on your external
monitors but before we jump into our
thunderbolt dual monitor setup i want to
highlight some of the docs and research
you can do especially if you're looking
for a thunderbolt dock or maybe even a
new laptop with thunderbolt ports the
great news is that you can do some of
your initial research for both docs and
laptops all in one place and that's the
intel.com evo this is a great resource
if you're looking for a new laptop and
has a list of all types of thunderbolt
accessories such as docs monitors and
storage devices and i'll include the
link in the video description below so
take a look at that later and if you're
wondering what evo is evo is an intel
brand spec for defining amazing laptop
experiences features responsiveness and
performance so basically evo branded
laptops represent amazing laptop
experiences and starting with intel's
11th and core evo branded laptops they
all come with thunderbolt 4 ports so the
best in connectivity for your work from
home needs and regarding thunderbolt
docs i have some examples all of which
support dual 4k monitors so let's
quickly go through these docks and
summer thunderbolt 3 and summer
thunderbolt 4. again it really doesn't
matter for our setup today since all
support thunderbolts 40 gigabits a
second bandwidth for our 4k monitor
needs so let's go ahead and take a quick
look so the dell hp and lenovo all have
thunderbolt docs for business and home
office these for example are all
thunderbolt 3 docs and have plenty of
ports for your peripheral needs so for
example the dell wd 19 tbs the hp g2
and the lenovo essentials dock i've also
got a couple of thunderbolt 4 docks so
i've got the anker apex 12 in 1
and the kensington sd 5700t so all these
are great docs and perfect for setting
up your office or home office dual
monitor setup
and in fact all these are listed on the
intel.com eva web page that i mentioned
before in the thunderball accessories
tab so another great reason to go check
out that page and compare docs and other
devices
and one more thing to remember it's the
40 gigabit a second bandwidth of
thunderbolt that allows all these docs
to provide dual 4k monitor support so
that's why you want to make sure you
have a laptop with thunderbolt ports
so let's get to the good stuff and set
up a dual monitor workspace when we go
behind the scenes with thunderbolt
here behind the scenes with thunderbolt
we're going to quickly and i mean
quickly set up and configure a dual 4k
monitor setup with windows 11 and
thunderbolt this is perfect for those
working from home or maybe those who are
already started going back to the office
and you're looking for a little bit more
productivity so let's get started and
see just how simple and easy we can do
this the first thing we're going to be
doing is setting up our dock and our evo
base 11th gen laptop now i've already
got power to my dock so i'm going to
simply plug in my thunderbolt cable to
my laptop and the first thing you're
going to notice is i immediately start
charging next let's go ahead and add a
keyboard and mouse again we're going for
more productivity so i'm using my usb
wireless dongle plug it into my anchor
dock plenty of ports i've got my mouse
i've got my keyboard we're halfway there
next let's add our dual 4k displays
i'm going to use my hdmi cable for my
first one and you know what's nice about
thunderbolt is it supports hdmi
displayport usbc and thunderbolt all
those different variations for different
monitor types so let's now go back i've
got my first external monitor already
set up
i've selected a thunderbolt monitor so
in this case i'm going to use my
thunderbolt cable into my downstream
port on my dock and now i've got two 4k
monitors
next we just need to configure windows
11 so it knows more about the positions
and the setup of our monitors and to do
that we're going to right click on the
desktop
and we're going to choose display
settings
this brings up a visual of all our
monitors now we only see two and that's
because actually my laptop and one of my
displays is actually in duplicate mode
so let's go ahead and select that and
i'm going to change that from duplicate
to extend
it'll take a second we're going to say
keep changes now you can see all three
of my displays well this is great except
for they're not in the right order so
now i can simply drag around
my screens
now the problem is i may not know which
one is which so that's where you can use
the identify button
and it'll tell me which one's which so i
know my one i know my uh the one above
me is three so i'm going to place this
number three above one my one is my
laptop
and i'm gonna move my number two next to
my number three and i can hit apply
then i can always do this again i can
hit identify and check yes 1 3 and 2.
and i can still move this around to be
just perfect so i'm going to move my
laptop a little bit over off to the
right
i'm going to hit apply
and now when i move my mouse you can see
that it's just exactly in line where i
think it would be
so now i've completed and have
two 4k monitors configured with windows
11. next let's take a look at the
benefits of having two 4k displays all
over thunderbolt and the big thing is
having all your applications up all at
the same time you don't have to
minimize your application and then bring
up another application you physically
have all the screen real estate you need
especially with a 4k display and what's
even better when you add a second 4k
display you have that many more
applications that you could have up or
you simply have two or three
applications up at a bigger window let's
take a look at a cool thing in windows
11 called snap it allows you to quickly
arrange different applications in
different layouts what you do is you
take your mouse cursor you bring it over
the maximize button and you see all
these different layout options so for
example let's say i want my email in my
left quadrant i want my web browser in
the right and the weather application
down here in the lower right hand corner
so those are just some of the benefits
you get with driving two 4k displays all
over thunderbolt improving your overall
productivity and again all over a single
thunderbolt connection right to your
thunderbolt enabled pc we didn't forget
and i hope you didn't forget about the
thunderbolt tech tips contest
be sure to check out the contest link in
the video description below to enter to
win an anchor apex 12-1 thunderbolt
4-dot
compliments of anchor and thunderbolt
tech tips