Upgrade your new PC by extending your desktop
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This website is mostly about productivity. There are many quick and easy ways you can increase your personal productivity for free or on the cheap. One tip that requires a bit of an investment in money and desk space is using multiple monitors with your PC. I’ve been using dual monitors since Windows 95. If you haven’t committed to multi-monitors yet, I urge you to go ahead and do it. Frankly, I don’t think one mammoth monitor is a good substitute for multiple monitors. In fact two 19″ or even 17″ monitors are far more useful than a large 20+” monitor.
For dual screens, you’ll need two video cards in your PC or a video card with dual output support. Dual-head video cards from Matrox are what I’ve been using for years but other graphics cards vendors have them too.
You can have more than two monitors attached to your desktop. I read that Bill Gates has three screens attached to his desktop. Also checkout the picture of Al Gore’s 3 monitors on lifehacker.com.
Multiple monitors are not a unique feature of Windows OS. Mac and Linux distros support multiple monitors too. You can even run dual screen on many laptops. If your laptop does not support dual monitors, look for solutions from companies like Matrox.
To make your multi-monitor desktop even more useful, download and install Oscar’s Multi-monitor Taskbar. This is a great Freeware desktop enhancer that s
upports 2-3 monitors and adds functionality for manipulating open windows, adding taskbars to the additional monitors and even throws in a handy Windows Clipboard history manager.
Who can benefit from 2 or more monitors?
- Developers: They are the top candidates for using a dual screen setup on a PC or Mac. When you’re running time consuming tasks like compiling and building software, FTP-ing and downloading files, you can monitor the progress on one screen while being productive doing something else on the other screen. When you’re using your favorite text editor or IDE, you can have your email client or your document editor, a help file. PDF document or a web browser in the other screen.
- Administrators: How often do you run time consuming scripts for files or users maintenance? You can monitor the script on one screen while doing something else on the other. Of course you can let the script run in the background but having it visible on a second screen is far more useful and efficient. When you don’t have multiple PCs, a dual screen setup can be productivity booster. Use the dual screen to have more desktop space for displaying monitoring software screens.
- Helpdesk and Support Personnel: Have your ticketing system open on one screen and use the other screen for researching using knowledge bases or a web browser.
- Directors and Managers: One screen should always be dedicated to your email client. Use the other for everything else.
- Everyone else: I think you can see the benefits and get the point.
Read More:
- For Windows XP users, read Microsoft’s Expand your workspace with multiple monitors
