Keith O Hudson

I’ve been using an external monitor with my laptop for a couple of years and would have a hard time living without the extra screen real estate. The multiple monitor feature built into Windows XP is great, but not well documented within Windows. I struggled for a long time to try and figure out how to control where my start bar and desktop items would display. Windows displays them on your “Primary Monitor”.  However, sometimes my laptop screen was the primary monitor and sometimes my external monitor was primary, and there did not appear to be any logic to it.

I accidentally discovered the secret to mastering multiple monitors while helping a new co-worker.  Here’s the secret: make sure only one display is active. Then, move that display to the monitor you want as your primary monitor, using the function keys on your laptop keyboard. Then attach the second monitor in your windows monitor settings dialogue box.

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