Activating Dual Display in Windows

Once your computer hardware is properly setup you will need to activate dual display from within windows.

1. Make sure your projector is connected to your computer and start your machine.  This is particularly important when setting up a laptop because most laptops cannot be properly setup for dual display unless the projector is connected on startup.
   
   
   
2. Once windows has loaded right-click on the desktop and choose personalise (properties in xp).
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Windows 7

   • Click personalise
   • Click display
   • Click adjust resolution

   XP

• Click the settings tab




3. In the settings property page you will typically see two monitors.  In windows XP Click on the second monitor and check the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" box. In Windows 7 Select expand my desktop; Always make sure both monitors are set to 32 bit color.  It is also helpful to set your primary monitor's screen resolution high

Note: Some laptops and desktop graphics cards use a different interface to enable the dual display.  If you cannot extend the desktop using this settings property page click the "Advanced" button and look through those settings..

Check to see if it worked

• If you have setup the dual display properly you will see your windows desktop background appear on both your projector and your monitor, but the desktop icons will only appear on your monitor.  If the icons appear on both your monitor and your projector then you are in a clone mode and you need to follow the steps above to enable the extended desktop.  If the icons appear on your projector and not your monitor you need to go back into the settings page and switch which monitor is considered the primary monitor.
• In presentation manager
  • click on edit
  • click on screen setup you will see the software report how many output "Monitors" are avaialble