How To Setup Dual Monitors On A Laptop – Complete Guide

Let’s suppose you’ve bought a laptop but the integrated display screen does not suit you for a number of reasons, it may be less bright or the color contrast may not be as crisp as you thought it would be or you may be in need of a bigger display just for the sake of having a better view. How to setup dual monitors on a laptop.

This is where you start to consider that you may need to set up other monitors on your laptop.

Honestly, if you’re in the same scenario as stated, there isn’t a better option other than setting up dual monitors on a laptop. You could set up and add either a single monitor or you may add dual monitors as well. Setting up multiple monitors will help you increase your productivity and will also make your tasks much easier in going about your work or whatever it may be.

You could open up different browser tabs on an either monitor or you may do your work on one screen and have a guide open on your second screen. Having multiple monitors significantly organizes your work tasks. The benefits of having multiple monitors are endless.

Now, for all those not too tech-savvy people out there, you may ask how to set up dual monitors on a laptop. Well, in this article/guide we will tell you exactly how to set up dual monitors on your laptop. Let’s begin.

STEP 1: Check Your Laptop Display Ports

Firstly, you need to check what kind of display ports does it have. Common display ports on a laptop are HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort connectors.

Having this port information would also help you narrow down your options and pick the best-suited monitor for your need. Usually, there will only be one laptop display port given, since we want to set up dual monitors, this can be achieved by the use of a “display hub”.

If the laptop connection is a DisplayPort, then daisy-chaining or MST (Multi-stream technology) method could be done to connect multiple monitors together with each other.

This means that one monitor display would be connected to the laptop while all the others are connected to each other. Once all the cables are connected with the ports properly, we will advance to the next step.

STEP 2: Setting Up Display Configurations

Switch on your laptop, once you’ve reached the home screen, you will need to right-click on an empty space and select Display Settings.

It will open up the display section in your windows settings and your connected displays will be shown at the top. The primary and secondary displays will be shown numerically marked. You can also click the ‘Identify’ option and each assigned number would appear on individual monitors to easily identify between your primary and secondary display.

You can switch their positions by dragging and switching between both screen numbers. You could also physically arrange your displays in whatever sequence you prefer.

If one of your displays does not show up, be sure to check the cables and ensure a proper connection, you could also try unplugging them and plugging them back again. If you scroll down, you will see an option, “connect to a wireless display”. Click on Detect if you have a wireless display and it will automatically detect the display for you.

‘TMB Other Guides For More Knowledge’

“Best Portable Gaming Monitor”	“How Do I Get A 165Hz Monitor?”
“Can You Run 144Hz Through USB-C?”	“Can I Play PS5 On A 144Hz Monitor?”

STEP 3: Choose The Display Option

Once, you’re all done with step 2, you will then need to assign each monitor a display option. You could scroll down and click on the Multiple Display list to select an option.

You could also press the Windows key + the letter ‘P’ at the same time as a shortcut key to bring about the Multiple Display list menu. You will be presented with two options. You could select the Extend option and your dual monitors will operate as two different displays. You could do a completely different set of things on both displays.

If you select the Duplicate option, this would allow both the dual monitors to display the same home screen and whatever task you do on your primary screen will also be shown on the secondary screen.

Selecting the PC screen only option will present your home screen on just your laptop screen. Selecting the Second screen only option will present your home screen on just one of your dual monitors.

STEP 4: Adjust Additional Options

Once you are done with assigning display options for your dual monitors, you can also adjust some other additional options in the Display settings.

Though this step is totally up to your personal preference. Here you can change the orientation and resolution of each individual display. For example, you can change your display orientation to either Portrait or Landscape. You can also change the resolution for each individual display.

This option is especially important for photographers editing photos, as it gives them the option to bump up to the highest resolution so that they can get those extra pixels to get a sharper image.

You can also adjust the screen brightness level for each display. You cannot get all these benefits by using a standard integrated display that you get with your laptop right out of the box.

Most of the procedure goes the same for setting up dual monitors on a Mac device. Just connect the dual monitors the same way as stated earlier in steps 1 and step 2.

After that to go to display settings, simply click on Apple Menu and then select System preferences. Then click on the Apple logo and then select Displays. A window will appear on your main screen and from there select Arrangement from the top menu. You can rearrange the blue boxes to match your physical monitor arrangement.

At the bottom, you will see an option called Mirror Displays. If you want to duplicate your dual monitors to show and follow the same home screen tasks as your main monitor, then simply check off the Mirror Displays option. On the other hand, if you want to extend your dual monitors to work separately as two different displays, simply uncheck it.

Hope this article gave you enough information as to why and how you can set up dual monitors on your laptop. Follow this whole guide and you will easily be able to set up dual monitors with laptop.