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A+ Exam Cram: Setting Up a Multiple Monitor Configuration in Windows Vista

Not enough room on your monitor for all the applications you want to run simultaneously? David Prowse, author of CompTIA A+ 220-701 and 220-702 Exam Cram, suggests you consider using the Multiple Monitor feature in Windows Vista. It’s quick and easy, and you can run as many as 10 monitors!
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One of the nice video features in Windows Vista is called Multiple Monitor which, as the name implies, gives the user the ability to use multiple monitors to display the Windows desktop.

By using more than one monitor, a user can stretch out the desktop so that very wide applications can encompass two or more screens. It is common for a user to configure this for use with Excel spreadsheets or audio and video editing programs. A user can also have one application running on one screen and another on the second screen. For example, Microsoft Outlook could be running on the primary screen and Internet Explorer could run on the secondary screen. Add more screens and the combinations become almost endless! The additional screens used in Multiple Monitor do not have a taskbar; they just have the wallpaper or background that was originally selected.

Multiple Monitor Setup

To produce the multiple monitor effect on a PC, you need a video card with two outputs or two like video cards (or more), and two or more monitors. Then you need to configure the display properties in Windows Vista as shown in the following screencast. With a regular desktop PC, a maximum of 10 monitors can be used; however, with laptops, users are limited to two displays. In a laptop scenario, this version of Multiple Monitor is known as Dualview, and will only work if the laptop has a secondary video output.

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