Set up Two Monitors to Double the Screen Space with Video Cable

Sometimes, a large screen such as a 24-inch monitor can feel a bit small when you have got multiple windows open on your system. If you are only confined to a laptop screen then things become even worse. Therefore, it becomes necessary to add a second monitor to your PC setup and spread out the space. 

It is important to note that any modern desktop or laptop PC has the ability to run dual displays and you only need a second monitor for it. During the pandemic, the supply chain of tech products was highly disturbed therefore, the prices went sky high. However, you can still get some really good deals.

There are products that won’t break your bank such as the HP’s V20 HD+ Monitor that comes with a 19.5-inch diagonal screen using TN technology. This technology will enable the monitor to give a faster response time with less clarity off-axis.

How to set up dual monitors?

Step 1: Connect the monitor cables

The first step is to plug your second monitor into a power outlet and connect its video cable to an available port on your PC. 

Step 2: Instruct Windows how to manage your dual displays

The second step is to right-click the Windows desktop and select either Screen resolution (Windows 7 and Windows 8) or Display settings (Windows 10 / 11).

You can also specify the display’s arrangement in the resulting dialog box. You would also see the multiple displays pull-down that allows you to control how the two screens are going to work together. After that, you need to choose extend these displays as they will prompt Windows to treat your displays as one contiguous screen.

Step 3: Choosing the monitor order

The next step is to tell the Windows that which monitor is on the left or right by dragging the screen icons at the top of the dialog box. If you get this wrong, scrolling the mouse is going to be very confusing. 

Step 4: Primary display

You need to look at the option of ‘make this my main display’ that controls which monitor gets the taskbar and start button. If the option is not visible to you, the already selected monitor is going to your main one.

Also, you can control many of these settings by just right-clicking the desktop and selecting the graphics control panel.