How to Extend Desktop to LCD/Monitor/TV?
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How many of you know that you can Extend your desktop on to your Monitor or TV or LCD?
If you have Television or extra monitor lying around at your home, you can use it along with your PC/Laptop to get extra desktop space. Having a second monitor allows you to extend your desktop and have a lot of extra usable space.
If you don’t have extra monitor / lcd / television set, Don’t worry.. Check on How to Split the Screen of Laptop/Monitor in Windows XP / Vista / 7 – SplitView
Why do you want to extend your desktop?
Well i use it to watch movies or live cricket matches 
. What i do is i move the application that is playing video on to TV (which is extended desktop here) and continue working on my Notebook. Here i am enjoying the movie/cricket match and also working.
For you it might be something else. for ex: You can open the HTML editor on your left screen and see the output in an internet browser on your right screen; you can have a pdf open on your right screen and write an e-mail about it on your left screen, etc. This way you will save a lot of time from switching between different programs.
How to Extend Desktop to LCD / Monitor /TV ?
1) Check whether you have extra video connector/port on your PC/Laptop or not?
There are different types of video connectors/ports. one is RGB port other one is S-Video port.
After you check the connector/port in your PC/Laptop then check the device on which you want to extend the desktop. It can be Monitor or LCD or Television.
For me both Television and Laptop has S-Video.
2) If both Laptop/PC and Monitor/LCD/Television has video connectors/ports, then go to S-Video. Here you can find all type of cables which connect two video connectors.
3) After you purchase it from any of electronics store. Connect both cables and do the following.
Windows XP
- Click the Start button and choose Settings -> Control Panel.
- In the Control Panel, double-click Display to open the Display Properties dialog box and click the Settings tab.
- Click the monitor icon representing the monitor you are adding to your system.
- Place a check mark in the Extend My Windows Desktop Onto This Monitor check box.
- Click OK.
Windows Vista
- Click the Start button and choose Control Panel.
- Click Personalize, then click Display Settings.
- Click the monitor icon representing the monitor you are adding to your system.
- Place a check mark in the Extend The Desktop Onto This Monitor check box.
- Click OK.
Note:
- You can also extend your desktop to a TV.
- When purchasing the second monitor, it would be a good idea to be similar to the one you already own (if not exactly the same) so that you would have the same color configuration and aspect ratio.
I started using it a few days back only and let me tell you it will make your life easier
If you don’t have extra Monitor / TV / LCD, don’t worry, Try to Split The screen into 2 or 3 parts.
Try it. If you have any suggestions or doubts just leave a comment. I will be happy to respond…
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Article by Nihar
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I’ll see if I can find a spare old monitor from my store and try to use this tip. Thanks for sharing
Damn, is it you own setup on the picture? This one is amazing… I however have some problems working on a TV screen. When you work on a PC, you are very close to the screen. It isn’t possible for a TV screen, it would be to tiring…
Oliviers last blog post..Lamentable
Olivier,
I know it is hard to work on TV screen but watching video is very good on TV and working on screen simultaneously..
nice tip .. i’ll try it now
ameos last blog post..3 Firefox Tips
Nihar
Thanks for this update. And like always – this was a great value addition. You are doing a great job and ido read all your tips and have found it of geat use to me.
Ihave a problem though. I am having HP Laptop with Windows XP. and LG LCD TV.
I tried connecting the Laptop to my big screen TV as you said but it isn’t working. TV Shows no signal.
I am using RGB port.
Can you please give more simplified version.
Regards
Walter
Walter,
Have put your TV in AV mode?
let me know. if you have more assistance give your chat id so that we can have a chat
Regards,
Nihar
Hi Nihar
Really nice to an article on this. I always wanted to connect my laptop with my TV. Anyways i purchased an S-video ( 7 pin ) to 3 RCA converter. So i have my laptop and TV properly connected. The problem isdon’t see any display on my TV even when i have extended my desktop to TV by following your procedure. I have set my TV in AV mode. Please help me out on this. We can have a live chat via my id ansmehta@gmail.com. This would solve the problem easily.
Thanks in advance
Anshul
@Anshul Mehta, Even i am facing similar problem. I think it is due to incompatible cable that we are pluging from laptop to TV. Try to get a working cable from any of your friends who have actually done it. If it works, then purchase the cable from where that guy has purchased.
Thanks man i’ll try that
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It makes work twice as fast when do you some programming. I recently bought 22″ LCD monitor for less than $150:)
Firanys last blog post..Odplamianie – cz??? ostatnia.
@Firany, Yeah it really makes life easy.
hi im not sure if anyone would even read this as the last comments were such a while back. but if you could help please, im having troubles getting my desktop pic to my lcd tv. last time i tried it worked automoatically, the pic was perfect i didnt even touch display options. now i have sound and only no pic. i somehow managed to get the wallpaper on the tv but then i got rid of even that much. i have tried so many different resolutions and extending the desktop.
many thanks if anyone gets a chance.
@amela, I haven’t faced this kind of problem in the past. Right now i don’t have an answer to it.
Sorry.
Hi i did this but my desktop pictures are small on my 1080I hdtv i have one those new video cards with the HDMI out i did the extended desktop and it works. But my pictures are small on my HDTV how do i get them to stretch over there. everything else movies and videos work ok. can you help me thanks.
@Tony, Sorry, i don’t have exp in HDMI. I have never tried it.
Thanks for these info…
@rikt, Good to know that it helped you…
do you know how to do it with 3 monitors ;o)
@seo china, Not sure. never done and thought of it. If you find please let me know by leaving a comment.
Thanks for sharing !! now my girlfriend is watching her drama on the external LCD while im surfing the web on my laptop screen
@Randy, I am glad that my post helped you. Enjoy…
Hi,
i want to extend my pc with 3 HDTV
both my pc and 3 HDTV has VGA
is this possible…..can any one help me out
Thanks…..
I have a desktop with only one vga female. But i want to buy a one VGA Splitter cable (like this one: http://www.cartft.com/image_db....._Cable.jpg).
My question is. Will the computer reconize the two monitors with only one VGA female?
http://www.cartft.com/image_db....._Cable.jpg
hai dtjth
the cable you r using only splits the same screen to two moniters
http://www.cartft.com/image_db….._Cable.jpg
instead try out with a new graphics card
Hi Nihar, dtjh,
I have got a splitter as mentioned by @dtjh, and i have connected to monitors to my pc. however, on both the monitors the samescreen is appearing. if i go to display settings, i see only one monitor. i want to extend to the second monitor but i dont see any option for the same.
if you have an answer, do let me know.
Regards
Bidur
Hi me again, if i need to check hardware compatibility, what do i need to check please. i have surfed the net, but do not see a solution to my problem.
Regards
Bidur
I am very thankful to this technology.
We have office laptop extended to a 24″ monitor which really helps eliminating eye strain.
Hey there,
I have a question. I know this post is old, but it’s the closest I’ve seen to my problem.
I want to watch movies from online on my extended desktop on my TV while I work on my computer. But every time I get things started, when I put the video on full screen on the extended desktop, then start to use my computer, the full screen shrinks to normal size.
I know how to extend the desktop and all that works great, but I want to watch the movies in full screen AND continue working on whatever project I’m doing, whether it be another online task or using WORD or EXCELL.
Is there a way to do this? MY DH and I have tried everything we can think of, but no matter what we do, it shrinks back to small size video window.
HELP!!!
Thanks in advance.
CJ
tried doing this with 2 vga monitors. i have a card with a dvi-i port an a vga port. i plugged the one in directly to the vga port an got a dvi-vga converter for the 2nd. an only one monitor will say its recieving video signal. any idea what i did wrong? no matter how i switch them around i cn only get one monitor on at a time. i can tell it has extended because i cn move my moouse off screen . but cnt get ti to show anything. i have even tried using 2 separate cards. stil nothing. only thing i havnt tried is with a splitter cuz i was told that doesnt work all it does is clone the screen. an i also havnt been able to find a dvi-i dual link splitter that splits to 2 vga
any help is appreciated.
Hi Josh i have the same issue, did you resolve this?
Hey,
)
Thankyou so much this helped me so much!
[...] a second monitor. then you can play a video on the TV and do other things on the laptop screen. TExtend Desktopake a look at this link Reply With Quote + Reply to Thread « [...]
I am not sure if this has already been mentionedd but I am trying to extend my old laptop onto my TV – the cables were VGA on the laptop and HDMi on the telly so I bought a converter.
I adjusted the resolution settings on on the laptop (windows XP) and it said I had to restart in order for the second monitor setting to start – while the laptop was restarting the picture/loading screen was displayed on the TV screen but as soon as the laptop had started up properly it disappeared – when I went into the setting the ‘extend onto this monitor’ setting was unchecked so I clicked on it and was told to restart – I have been in this holding pattern for days lol – help please – what am I doing wrong – why won’t it stay ont he setting I am adjusting it to???