In case you are looking forward to rotate screen physically, you can look for dual monitor stand which will allow you to physically rotate screen and yes they can provide more physical stability to the computer screen. Do spend some time on Internet to look for the ideal monitor stand as there are plenty of them available in the market out of which few allow only to fix the screen at a single place and other allow you to rotate the screen physically easily.

Screen Rotation options

However in case you are looking forward only to rotate the screen contents, you might wish to have a look at the software screenshot on left which provides option to create a keyboard shortcut key combination to rotate screen content in step of 90 degrees. The Screen Rotation using the shortcut keys can be done clockwise or anticlockwise. So let’s say you have Task Bar on the bottom of the computer screen and you rotate the screen by 180 degrees clockwise or anti clockwise, you will get an upside down image and your task bar would be visible on the top of the screen, also note that your mouse cursor movements will still be in context of the new screen display. Other Screen Rotation options you can have with dual monitor software are shortcut on desktop, a new menu in right click of Vista or Windows 7 Desktop and in case you do want to have any other option as well, shoot an email to the support team.

In case you have dual monitors connected to your windows computer in extended mode, then you can just move mouse cursor to the monitor whose rotation you wish to change and press the shortcut key to change screen rotation of the monitor. You can always revert back to the original screen orientation by rotating the screen in the opposite direction.

The Computer works with two programs, one is called BIOS and one is called the Operating System. A Computer starts with a program in BIOS and then hands the control over to Operating System. Now in case you do have a dual monitor graphics card connected to your computer and your secondary monitor is not working, there is something wrong somewhere and broadly speaking there can be a hardware or software problem.

• Power Connection from Power Supply to Monitor : Hardware Problem as Power Cable may not be well connected to the Secondary Monitor, does your monitor has a LED displaying power state?
• Data Cable connection from Computer to Monitor : Hardware Problem as the cable from computer to secondary monitor may be loose or any of the two ports of the data cable or port of graphics card may be loose or broken.
• Something wrong with BIOS Settings : Can be categorised as Software Problem as the BIOS settings can be changed easily by a person who fully understand the BIOS setting to be changed. The BIOS settings may have an option to select the display device, also remember that if you have connected  an extra graphics card to your desktop computer’s motherboard, then the mother board’s port would be disabled automatically and you will have to connect the monitors to the ports of graphics card.
• The Monitor itself may be broken : This can be categorised as Hardware problem. Is your Monitor Powered ON ? Does it has indicators to show monitor power state and whether it is connected to computer and receiving data? On Computer Startup, does it displays the boot sequence?
• The Graphics Card may be non functioning : In case the graphics card is broken you may not get display on any of the connected monitors or you may get display on primary monitor and no display on secondary monitor, it is really hard to say.
• There can be some settings issue or driver related issue in the Operating System : This Software problem can be figured out by asserting whether the problem is really due to a display driver or something like that. In case you have a Windows computer, power on the secondary monitor, make sure that it is well connected to the computer and start your computer in safe mode (by keep on pressing F8 when the computer starts) and check whether you do get display on secondary monitor or not. If you do get display on secondary monitor (might be in clone mode), then there may be some incorrect display setting or some display driver causing the issue.

There can be any other issue as well if your secondary monitor is not working. In case it was working previously, try to remember what changes you have done to the computer (if any) or you can even look for the problem in sequence at all the above said places. Also you may consider checking given below things with your computer

• Does the Secondary Monitor displays the boot sequence when it starts up? In case yes it does shows up the booting sequence (information about computer manufacturer, etc), then probably there may not be any hardware problem with your secondary monitor or associated hardware such as cable connections, graphics card, etc. In case the secondary monitor does not shows up the booting sequence, then you might need to make sure that the monitor is powered on and well connected to the computer at the appropriate port to the computer or if you are well versed with the cable connections and you do have an extra monitor or laptop to which you can connect the monitor and check whether there is any issue with dual monitor graphics card or monitor, it might save you a lot of time finding the problem due to which your secondary monitor is not working. Do not do change to your computer, cables, monitor or anything else if you are not sure and fully confident about the changes. In case you do have a friend who knows about computer’s cable connections to monitor and has done already, ask him / her for a hand.
• The Software issue can be solved with understanding of the problem and then finding the solution itself. Have a re look at Display Settings of your computer. In case you can change the display mode to clone mode, give it a try. In case the secondary monitor does not work even in clone mode, find out whether the secondary monitor is detected by the operating system in display settings or hardware list, you might need to update display drivers.

All above information is for reference purpose only. Do not make any software or hardware change to you computer unless you are really sure and confident about the change.

In case you want only to duplicate display of your main monitor to another monitor, you would need an extra monitor, connecting cables with appropriate port and a video splitter. The Video splitter is an external hardware device which can be used to duplicate your computer’s output to dual or multiple monitors. The data cable connections from computer to monitor will be so that a data cable will connect your computer to video splitter and all monitors will be connected to the Video Splitter.

You can also visualize it as one to many connections. In order to look for a video splitter, you can even use the word Display Switch, although display switches can be real complex and costly as well, however a simple one to many video splitter should be really cheap and readily available.

In case you would like to control dual monitors by extending your desktop area to the other monitor, move window to second monitor and even duplicate output of your computer to both monitors, you would need a dual monitor graphics card, required monitors and associated cables. You can browse to the post named as Hardware for Dual Monitor Computer to know more about this option of connecting dual monitors to a desktop computer.

You can even have a look at the Dual Monitor Software to know what options you can have to control and manage dual monitors. Once you have got 2 Monitors connected to a Desktop computer, the one with Start Menu would be referred to as Primary Monitor and the other one would can be referred to as Secondary or Second Monitor.

• How many Monitors you need to connect to your computer ?
• Are you planning to add more RAM to your computer ?
• Do you have required Monitor(s) or other display device such as Projector? In case you do have the required Monitor or other display device such as Projector, then take a note of the port type of the display device. Port type referred to in the previous line refers to the type of connector which is connected to computer or laptop. Few Port types are VGA, DVI, S Video, DVI D, DVI A, DVI I, or any other port type.
• Depending on the distance of Monitor from your computer, would you require extra cables (Power Cord or Data Cord)?

There are many other factors such as cost, availability, brand , purpose of the extra Monitor and much more. In case you are buying a dual monitor video card, be patient, do enough research with possible friends such as google, amazon and any other websites you can locate.

Dual Monitor Graphics cards can be identified with two ports connected to the same graphics card. There are many types of ports (or connectors on the graphics card to which you can connect your monitor to) such as VGA Port, DVI Port, DisplayPort, S Video Port and many other types of ports. VGA Port is blue in color and has 3 rows of holes in it with 15 holes in it whereas DVI Port is white in color. A simple Dual Monitor Graphics card can have 3 ports i.e. One VGA Port, One DVI Port and one S Vide o Port or it can have 2 DVI Ports and one S Video ports or may be some other combination of ports.

Browse to the Hardware Category from the top of the page to know exactly what you are looking regarding hardware for setting up and using dual monitors. From Dual Monitor Software perspective, Windows does have good support for dual monitors for latest operating system users.

Dual Monitors on Windows can work in many different ways on a windows computer. The way in which the external monitor or projector can display depends on how you have configured your computer’s settings. Let’s call the settings controlling display of computer and projector as mode.

Windows can drive dual monitors or other display devices in many modes. Given below is a short description which can be helpful to understand your computer’s working.

• Clone Mode : This is the mode or way in which the display of your computer will be visible on both of the Monitors or Display Devices connected to the computer. Here an important thing to note is that the maximum resolution of the clone mode will be the minimum resolution supported by any of the Display Device and associated hardware. Now in case you have a Projector connected to your computer, then in this mode you will be able to see the same computer’s output on your computer screen and on projector as well. The Document Clone Mode talks more in detail about the Clone Mode.
• Extended Mode : Here with dual monitors connected to your computer, you will get more desktop area or in other words you desktop will encompass two monitor’s screens. In order to move mouse cursor to the second monitor, you will need to move the mouse cursor in the direction where your next monitor is connected virtually to your primary monitor. The Extended ModeDocument talks in more detail about the mode and discusses possible uses of the mode.
• Projector Only : Now here the name may be different in other documents or technical papers but the concept is that in this mode the output of the computer is displayed only on the external display device (which can be a Monitor or a Projector). The Keyboard and Mouse work as normal and you will be able to do normal computer operations, however in case the external display device is a projector projecting onto a screen or something, you will have to look to the projection in order to move mouse or do some typing etc instead of looking onto your Computer’s Monitor.
• Computer Monitor Only : Just like the Projector only mode, here the output of the computer would be visible only on your computer’s monitor and the external display device (projector or secondary monitor) would be disabled. By saying disabled here i mean to say that the secondary display device would not display anything and will go into low power state, depending on your hardware your secondary device may have an LED indicator to indicate the low power state.

Does above information sounds useful and something like you can use when doing the next presentation with Power Point or with any other Software? Do you wish that if you could have some software feature or some software utility that could help you when giving out presentations, leave a comment here and we will try to provide the feature to you.

So you connect Keyboard, Mouse & Dual Monitors to the Dual Monitor KVM Switch & the you connect two CPU’s to the switch. The KVM switch may provide a button or some pre configred keyboard command to switch between computers.

When done with installing & configuring the Dual Monitor KVM with one Mouse Cursor, one Keyboard, two CPU’s and two Monitors, you will be able to work on any of Computer’s CPU at a time with dual monitors.

The KVM switch may allow Windows only, UNIX only or both platforms for the type of CPU’s that can be connected to the Dual Monitor KVM. With the Dual Monitor KVM switch installed, you can be working on Dual Monitors at your Desk and switching between UNIX and Windows Machines.

Instead of going too much technical details of DVI, here basic information is provided to easily know & use the concept. A Basic Desktop Computers need to be connected to Monitors or Display Devices to display output. Now the display output of the Desktop Computer travels to Monitor using a Cable. The Cable has two ends, one end is connected to Monitor & other end is connected to the Computer. Technically the ends joining the cable are known as ports or connectors. 

In many Desktop Computers you can find a 15 pin blue colored port to connect the cable to Monitor which is called as VGA Port. Similarily there is another type of port to connect the output of computer to Monitor with the name of DVI Port. Computers are known to work in digital format, however VGA port transfers analog signals to drive the monitor. In contrast DVI ports transfers data to Monitor in Digital, Analog or both formats. There are many types of DVI connectors available such as DVI-D, DVI-A & DVI-I. Each type of DVI connector can be identified by different pin configurations. There are various port converters (such as DVI to VGA) available out in the market as well.

When looking for a Dual Monitor Graphics Card or when buying a Monitor, you must make sure that you would be able to connect the output of the graphics card to Monitor. This is where you might require information related with DVI such as DVI Cable, DVI to VGA Converter, DVI Ports (D, A & I types), etc.

A Dual Monitor Card can be of two types and you can select any one of them depending on your requirement as given below:-

Internal Dual Monitor Card : An internal card can be typically be connected to a Desktop Computer’s Motherboard. In case you do not have any other graphics card then after inserting the dual monitor card into the motherboard, you will be able to connect two display devices to that card. In Case you have two VGA Monitors, then you will require a DVI to VGA port in case your dual monitor card does not have 2 VGA ports. Similarily depending on which ports are there in your display device and which ports are available in your dual monitor card, you might or might not need converter. This blog does have more information about Radeon Dual Monitor Card which also has more information on dual monitor cards.

External Dual Monitor Card : An External Dual Monitor Card can be useful when you wish to connect dual monitors temporarily and need flexibility. They can also be useful when you wish to connect dual monitors to a Laptop where laptop does not have an extra port to connect an extra Monitor. You can get an external dual monitor card with USB connection from lots of online shops. The term USB Graphics Card can also be useful when searching for it. The Speed of an external Monitor Card can be slower than an internal dual monitor card.

In case you would like to read more about Dual Monitor Cards and delve deep into the topic, do have a look at the post of Dual Monitor Graphics Cards.

As Dual Monitors extend your work space, a Dual Monitor Stand can save you some space & provide safe & secure place for your Monitors either on your Desk or may be mounted on a wall. You can find lcd dual monitor stand & other accessories at many online shops. There can be many things to consider when looking out for dual monitor stands such as weight they can handle, whether they are fixed or movable, whether the stand is supposed to mount monitors horizontally or vertically, whether the mount is supposed to be fixed on wall or to be kept on computer desk and of course the cost of the dual monitor mount. Also do make sure to study your Monitor’s physical aspects before looking out for the mount.