If you want to play games on one screen and have discord on the other
or if you just want to run different programs on different screens
this is how you connect a second monitor on windows 10 and windows 11.
For laptops, there are two main connections HMDI and USB C. HDMI is the most straightforward-
take the cable and one end goes into the laptop while the other goes into the monitor. It doesn't
matter which end goes where as long as it's properly inserted. If the monitor
has multiple HDMI ports it also doesn't matter which ports you use. The other way
of connecting is through USB C. You can tell if your laptop supports it by this lightning symbol.
Now some monitors also support USB C but mine didn't so I needed an adapter.
This is a USB C to HDMI adapter and it's been working pretty well. I've linked a few in the
description below. If everything lights up then you're ready to go onto software.
The first thing you see is the mirror displays. Here when I move the window
on one screen it's mirrored on the other. To fix this, right-click the desktop and
hit display settings. It'll open up a new window. Click on duplicate these displays
and then click on extend these displays. Windows 10 is the same process, you just have to scroll
down a bit. Now depending on your setup, the displays might not be aligned properly.
In my case, can't move the file browser between the two screens
and if I move it to the other side then I get some weird results. And the reason for this is because
when I hit identify it shows that the monitor 2 is on the left and monitor one is on the right.
But this is reversed in the settings. To fix this, click and drag one of the screens and move it to
the other side. Hit apply and now I'm able to move the file browser between the two screens.
Now that was a really fast tutorial to get you started so I want to spend a bit
more time to go over a few settings that can help improve your overall experience.
The first setting is selecting which monitor to open programs on by default.
This is especially useful when you want to open full screen programs. To do this click
on your main monitor and then make this my main display for windows 10. This option is found if
you scroll down a bit. Now when I launch games they'll start on the correct screen.
The next setting is changing the resolution properly. Setting this will give you the
sharpest image for your display. Normally I just scroll to whatever is recommended but
it's always good to double check the setting so that it matches your monitor's resolution.
So you might be wondering what happens if you use different monitors with different resolutions.
Well don't worry everything will still work but the alignment will be a bit off. For example,
if you wanted to align both monitors to the top edge there is some overhang from the monitor with
a higher resolution. The mouse will get stuck here when traveling along the overhang. It's not
really a big deal and you get used to it pretty quickly. Sometimes on high density displays like
4k the text becomes too small. Here you want to use window scaling to increase both the text size
and the window size. The recommended option is a good place to start and adjust to whatever feels
comfortable to you. This only affects windowed programs and doesn't affect full screen ones.
You can adjust each display separately and use different scaling for different monitors.
Next, the option is display orientation. This can be extremely useful for coding, Reddit or TicTok.
First you'll need to physically rotate the monitor so that it's vertical.
Now some monitor stands don't have this option, so then you'll need to get a monitor
arm. There's plenty to choose from but the one from AmazonBasics has a lot of good reviews.
Before you buy though just double check that you have mounting holes in the back of your monitor.
After it's rotated we have to change it in the software to match. This option is found under
display orientation. Select it and you're done. The one main downside that I found is that full
screen programs will have black bars up at the top and bottom of the screen. The next setting
is refresh rate with modern gaming monitors a lot of them have high refresh rates like 144hz 165hz
and so on. To make the most out of it you want to change the refresh rate to match the monitor
go under advanced display and change it to the appropriate refresh rate. Sometimes you don't see
the option for a higher refresh rate and that's most likely because the laptop doesn't support it
or because the adapters just don't support it either. Unfortunately because this is a
hardware issue you'll either have to get a different adapter or a better laptop.
The next setting is brightness. For laptops this is done through keyboard shortcuts.
Different manufacturers position them differently but you're looking for the one with the sunshine.
For monitors it's slightly different and it's done through the on-screen menu. Your
menu might look different but it will have similar settings. Personally, to find the best brightness,
I use a piece of paper and try to match the monitor brightness to ambient. Eyeballing this is
fine because ambient brightness during the day is different compared to ambient brightness at night.
Next, I want to talk about a few miscellaneous things. A lot of people experience audio
disappearing when they first connect to the monitor and that's because sound settings
change to the monitor as the output. To change it back, you want to left-click the sound icon
in the taskbar then click on the arrow for the overflow options. Here you will be given several
options to select the output for your sound. To make the audio go through laptop speakers, just
select speakers. Another common question is how to use the monitor when the laptop lid is closed.
Here you want to go start and then type in lid, lid. Click on "change what closing the lid does"
to open up a new window. Here, there's an option that says do nothing. Select it save and now your
monitor should work with the laptop lid closed. If you want to connect two or more monitors then
your laptop will require two thunderbolt ports or a combination of HDMI and thunderbolt ports.
This is unique to each laptop and so you have to look up the specifications. Now one of the common
questions is which is better HDMI or USB C. And the short answer is that it doesn't really matter
as long as it works. But the long answer is that it really depends. USB C is good if you can pair
it with a high quality adapter. This is because USB C supports 4k 60hz right out of the box which
is good enough for modern monitors. The downside is that these adapters can get pretty expensive.
HDMI is a bit more complicated because there's several different versions. What's more different
versions have different specifications which makes everything super confusing. If you do want to use
HDMI, just make sure the HDMI version supports the monitor's resolution and refresh rate.
So that was a really fast rundown for connecting a second monitor on windows 10 and windows 11.
I also gone through some options to make your experience slightly better. It's not really
intuitive and it's one of those things where you do once and you forget about it. And if you
want to see a cool accessory for monitors, check out this video I've made about monitored lights.
Alright thanks for watching like and subscribe.