Dual monitors for a laptop | How to connect two monitors

Whether in the office, home office, or for gaming – two screens are better than one. However, setting up dual monitors depends somewhat on available con­nec­tions and cables. Read on to find out how to connect a second screen to a laptop or PC.

When splitting your Windows screen no longer suffices, you’ll need an ad­di­tion­al monitor. Added screen space is easier on the eyes and sim­pli­fies working with several ap­pli­ca­tions si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly. Gamers can enjoy high-res­o­lu­tion graphics by in­stalling an ad­di­tion­al monitor.

The majority of modern laptops and PCs support con­nect­ing a second monitor by default. All you need to consider are the ports on your end device and which monitor you’d like to connect. Before you head out to purchase one, be sure to check the type and number of ports on the laptop or PC.

Ad­di­tion­al monitors can be connected using the following types of con­nec­tors:

HDMI (High-De­f­i­n­i­tion Mul­ti­me­dia Interface) is one of the most common con­nec­tion types of modern monitors and many TV users will already be familiar with it. The con­nec­tion type is compact and transmits video and audio signals. A modern HDMI con­nec­tion is suitable for 4K res­o­lu­tions and a frame rate of 60 Hz. If your monitor and laptop or PC have one or two HDMI ports, you just need a single HDMI cable. If you want to connect two monitors but only have one HDMI port, use an HDMI splitter. Be sure that the splitter has the same refresh rate as the HDMI cable.

USB-C is a USB port format that’s often found on new, slim laptop models. The advantage of USB-C is that it can be used for charging while also sup­port­ing the trans­mis­sion of audio and Dis­play­Port signals with Alternate Mode. Dis­play­Port refers to monitor in­ter­faces for image and sound signals and high transfer rates. The USB-C down­stream and Dis­play­Port Alternate Mode can be used to link several monitors. If you only have a few USB-C ports, use a USB-C dongle. Ideally, a USB-C dongle has at least two HDMI in­ter­faces for monitors. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, a dongle can be paired with a HDMI splitter.

Dis­play­Port is similar to HDMI and transmits audio and image signals at high frame rates. Thus, the con­nec­tion is par­tic­u­lar­ly suitable for 4K. Laptops often have a Dis­play­Port or mini­Dis­play­Port and can be connected to monitors that have a Dis­play­Port port. For monitors without Dis­play­Port, a cor­re­spond­ing adapter is required. Thanks to multi-stream transport, multiple monitors can be connected via Dis­play­Port and coupled to a laptop via a splitter or adapter.

DVI and VGA are analog, older con­nec­tion standards that only transmit image signals. If the monitor and end device have DVI or VGA ports, they can be connected via the cor­re­spond­ing DVI or VGA cable. With the ap­pro­pri­ate DVI-HDMI or VGA-HDMI adapter, older monitors can be connected to laptops and PCs to transmit HDMI signals. Modern con­nec­tion standards are prefer­able in any case, as they offer better res­o­lu­tion, refresh rates, and color values.

Even if your laptop only has a single HDMI or USB-C port, you can connect dual monitors. Using a suitable HDMI splitter, a USB-C dongle, or a USB-C dongle with HDMI interface, you can easily connect two or more monitors to your laptop.

When con­nect­ing multiple monitors, Windows may not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly detect older models. In this case, select “Detect” in the “Display” menu.

Another problem could be that Windows displays a second monitor as the main monitor. If you want to keep the PC or laptop as your main monitor, go to “Settings” > “System” > “Display Device” and select the “Rearrange Display Devices” option. Then click on “Identify”. You should be able to see the assigned digit on each screen. If you wish to change the order, go to “Advanced display settings”.