Can I make my PC a dual monitor (2 different views) system?

General Questions
#1

I have a dandy laptop, that I can attach an additional monitor to and either have duplicate pictures on the screens, or have two different pictures, one on each monitor.
On my PC, I can’t do this. I can only have duplicate pictures on both screens. Is there a download that I can use to give me the same properties as my laptop?

I have Windows 7 on both machines.

Thanks,
hh

#2

There should be a ton of options available for this in your video control panel. Do you know what kind of GPU you have? Make sure you are running the latest drivers.

#3

This doesn’t work for you or at least help?

#4

Thank you for your quick response, Kinthalis. I am not sure what the GPU is; I am away from the PC right now, but I can check it out tomorrow, and get with you on the answer. And, I’ll check on the latest drivers. Thanks again,
hh

#5

Hmmm… reading it made me rethink my question. I’ll be able to recheck the PC tomorrow, so I’ll get back then

Thanks, Chimera!

hh

#6

GPU: graphics card.

#7

OK: just got back.
So, I checked my computer, etc…
What my difficulty seems to be is that there is only one output for a monitor. Now, I could only think, before taking further actions, to put a dual extension on the back of it. Would a new driver help for what I want? Anything else? I haven’t had much time to look at it further.

Thanks,
hh

#8

If you only have one video output, then yes if you use a splitter of some sort you can have two monitors but they’ll show exactly the same thing because there’s only one output.

To dual monitor, you’d need to add a video card with multiple outputs. These are available ranging in price from under $50 to over $500.

#9

to get a different view you would need a second graphic output (graphics card). if you could do this will depend on your computer motherboard and the graphics cards involved.

#10

Thanks, guys!

hh