Hello everyone,

There is nothing like adding a second monitor to your computer setup. The increased viewing area allows you to     multitask applications, extend the display across both screens, duplicate the image on both screens, and more.

Setting up a two monitor system is not difficult. All you need are the two monitors, a graphics card that has two monitor ports or two graphics cards inside of your computer system.

A client just asked me to do this for him a couple of days ago and in this post I’m going to tell you the exact steps that I took in order to accomplish the task:

1) Choose a video card and install it. I chose this PCI 2 Port VGA Card (inexpensive, somewhat older, but great!).

2) Connect both monitors to the newly installed card.

3) Go into your computers BIOS and deselect the onboard video card. Look for something like “Integrated Devices”, deselect the onboard video card and select the new video card (select “auto” or “PCI device”).

4) Log into your computer and install the drivers for the new video card. Go to the manufacturer of the video card and get the latest drivers. Don’t use the CD that came with the card (those drivers may not be the latest ones).

5) Access your computers “Device Manager” (Start>Control Panel>System>System Properties>Hardware>Device Manager) and disable the onboard video card drivers (right click and disable).

6) Go into your “Display Properties” Settings. You should now see the representation of your two monitors.

7) Select the inactive monitor, check the “Extend” box and hit Apply.

8) Adjust the screen resolution for each monitor and check the “Identify” box to see which monitor is #1 & #2.

9) You can now drag any open window between screens (but not if the screen is maximized).

10) You are done! Cool huh? Enjoy your increased screen “real estate” and increased productivity!

Professor Randy says: Once you experience the viewing pleasure and increased productivity of two monitors your computing will never be the same! Enjoy a two monitor setup by following the simple steps in the above post!