Here, you can choose to have the option of displaying the Taskbar buttons, only on the main monitor or you keep the default and have it on both. You will notice some new options on the Taskbar properties, Multiple Displays.

Right click the Taskbar, click Properties One of the things you will notice by default, Windows 8 displays the Taskbar on the main display and second display, you can change these options if you wish. In this case, I am adding it to my second monitor. You will notice you now have the option of selecting the monitor where you would like add the background. Ok, so there is nothing different about the interface, well, here is where the fun part comes in. Right click the desktop and click Personalize. For instance, you can have a different wallpaper just on one monitor. One of the other great things about muli-mon support in Windows 8 is the ability customize the user experience.

You also have the option of adjusting the orientation of the monitor if supported, so if you read a lot of web pages, you can change from land scape to portrait. This will open the Screen Resolution Panel, here you can make detailed adjustments for each monitor, for example, the default screen resolution for monitor 2 is 1366 x 768, I can specifically adjust this just for that monitor without affecting the main monitor. If you have unique requirements, you can adjust these using Screen Resolution Control Panel. One of the great things I have noticed about multi monitor support is, you can have both the Windows Desktop app one screen and Start Screen on second monitor. The above shows a physical idea of what it looks like. Extend will place a copy of the Windows desktop on the second monitor with its own options separate from the main monitor. In my case, I need some additional screen real estate, so I would go with Extend. This will bring up a Metro menu with a list of options. Lets take a look at how to add and configure a second monitor to a Windows 8 PC.įirst thing, Connect the monitor to your VGA port on the PC or if you have a discrete video card with support for DVI or your computer supports HDMI, you can connect it to that. Windows 8 makes it easy to add a second monitor using familiar commands available in Windows 7 today. One of the new improvements in the OS is better support for multiple monitors. Windows 8 includes some fun and innovative improvements when working with hardware.

Windows 8 external monitor