- Hi. I'm Agent Villegas from Best Buy.
Here's how to add an additional monitor to your laptop in your in-home workspace.
First, you'll want to connect your monitor to your laptop.
This will likely be with an HDMI cable,
a display port cable, a VGA cable, or a thunderbolt cable.
If your monitor and your laptop have different ports,
you may need to use a cable that has two different connections
or an adapter to change the connection type on the cable.
Once the monitor is connected to the laptop,
power it on and wait for an image to be displayed.
Now that there is an image on the monitor,
let's go over some of the basic settings in Windows
to get an additional monitor configured for your workspace.
Let's set up the viewing mode for your laptop
with the additional screen.
This can be done by pressing the Windows key
and the letter P key on the keyboard.
This will bring up four options--
PC Screen Only means the built-in screen on the laptop
will be the only screen that will get an image.
Duplicate is the option
to have both the built-in screen and the additional monitor
to have the same image.
Extend will allow the monitor to extend the desktop of the computer,
giving more screen real estate for open programs
and get some real multitasking done.
The last option is Second Screen Only.
And this will be used if the image only needed to be
on the additional monitor--
a good option if you intend to close the laptop
and only use the monitor for your display.
I'm gonna be using the Extend option,
as I want to be able to have a larger workspace for my applications.
Now that the viewing mode has been set,
let's move on to arranging the displays.
You may have placed your additional monitor
to the left side of your laptop,
but when you move your cursor to the left side of the screen,
it won't move to the monitor.
You don't have to physically move your monitor or laptop around
to get things working correctly.
All that is necessary is to tell Windows how you have your screens arranged.
To do this, first open Settings and then click on System.
Depending on what was selected the last time under Settings,
you may need to click on Display.
Click on Identify, and there will be some large numbers shown on the screen
so you know which one will be moved around in Windows.
Now drag and drop the displays
to arrange them the same way you have them set up in your workspace.
You can even move screen displays up or down
if they are not sitting level with each other.
Click on Apply, and that's it.
Now Windows should have your arrangement settings locked in.
Let's move on to Resolution.
Windows will do a pretty good job at detecting the appropriate resolution
for the displays that are connected.
Sometimes, though, you may need to adjust things yourself.
I would suggest using the native resolution of your monitor.
You can find this in the documentation for your monitor
or on the website of the manufacturer of your monitor.
Okay, let's get on to the steps.
Let's get back into the display settings by clicking on Settings,
then clicking on System,
and then, lastly, click on Display.
Select the Display that needs the resolution changed
by clicking on the appropriate screen under the Display section.
Now scroll to the Scale and Layout section
and click on the drop-down menu under Resolution
and choose the appropriate resolution.
After you have selected the desired resolution,
you can scroll back to the Display area.
Select your other display
and then change the resolution for that display if necessary.
When changing the resolution,
you may be tempted to lower the resolution
to make the font or other items larger on the screen.
But that really isn't the best way to do that.
For this, you'll want to change the Scaling settings.
This can also be done under the Display settings.
But first, you'll want to select the correct displays at the top.
Next, scroll to the Scale and Layout section again
and click on the drop-down menu
under the Change the size of text, apps, and other items
and select the best scale option for you.
There you go.
You should have an additional monitor set up with your laptop.
I just love having all the extra desktop space.
For links to more tips on setting up a workspace in your home,
look below this video.
Bye.