How To Set Up Dual Monitors - A Tutorial For Newbies - Easy As 1-2-3

Really the most expensive part of setting up dual monitors is the cost of the second monitor. I've had dual monitors for about two years and I love it. Not only is it fun but if you're a multi-tasker like me its awesome, and who isn't nowadays? I can get so much more done having them, not only work-wise, but personally as well. So here is my set up at home:


This is where I brag, I have 2 Acer 22" widescreens so I'm almost 4 ft. of monitors. The picture shows generally how you can find me, office work on the one side and play on the other. The nice part is say I have a large excel spread sheet - I can stretch it across both screens.

So how can you set up your monitors to go dual?

Well first thing you need to do is look on the back of your computer. When you look you will see one or more of these:

OK, so what if your tower doesn't have that? Does it mean you have to add a Video Card (some use motherboard on-board video and have no card)? No, you don't. If you don't have this, or any other combination of ports (see note in red above), then you can get what they call a USB Graphics Adapter that looks like these:

With a second monitor its not a must to go DVI, you can use D-Sub, or any other connection type we mentioned and be just fine. If you get a USB graphics adapter you simply hook it up to your computer via USB and now you have two monitor hookups!

Now, once you have 2 different places to plug your 2 monitors into, simply hook up both monitors up, each into it's own port (plug). After you do that you'll need to go into your computer's display settings and you'll see this:





Now regardless which OS you are using you want to "identify" the monitors (see below) to make sure you know which is your main monitor, and which is your second, and you want to go to the advanced settings to make sure they're setup the way you want them to be - tweak the rest of the settings to your own needs.







Now if you do decide to go dual monitors then let me let you in on an awesome program called Ultramon. It has a bunch of nice little features for multiple monitors (more then just duals but also triple and quad monitors as well). I use Ultramon and I love it! A few of the perks is the way it allows you to play with your wallpaper and screensavers (different wallpaper and screensavers for different monitors), but the best part is the buttons it adds to the top of each window, next to the normal Minimize / Maximize buttons: