using dual-monitors

[K8AC]

I don't know how much you've researched upgrading the laptop to Win 7, but please do a thorough job of that.  I was going to upgrade my XP HP laptop to Win 7 because I needed it to test some things on Win 7.  It turns out that the vendors are not providing updated drivers for the older laptops for Win 7.  So, you might find that something no longer works properly and there's no solution for it. 

[W8JX]

I don't know how much you've researched upgrading the laptop to Win 7, but please do a thorough job of that.  I was going to upgrade my XP HP laptop to Win 7 because I needed it to test some things on Win 7.  It turns out that the vendors are not providing updated drivers for the older laptops for Win 7.  So, you might find that something no longer works properly and there's no solution for it. 

If you have a machine the is fully Vista complaint you will likely not have any problems. Many Vistas machines (particularly Dells) were only Vista computable which is a lower standard. With XP it is a crap shoot and likely will not go well because XP era machines lack CPU and graphic resources needed. I was a Best buy today and you can get a decent basic new Toshiba Win7 laptop for 299 and with 3 gigs of ram too.

[GRADY]

If your hardware supports it, it is easy enough to set up in window xp and up.
1) right click on your desktop
2) click on properties
3) click on settings
You should now see 2 boxes representing monitors 1 and 2
Beneath this is a drop down so you can select which one is to be primary and secondary
Beneath that there are some radio boxes where you can select extend my desktop. This is the way to go. You don't want to clone your desktop or you always have the same thing on both screens. If you extend your desktop you can be seeing 2 applications running side by side.

I run dual monitors at work all day long. At a minimum it cuts in half the number of clicks to jump from one app to another. A lot of times it is great to have 2 applications running where you can cut and paste from one to another, etc.

Good luck.

[W8JX]

XP era hardware if it supports dual monitors is going to be a slug and slow with monitors of good to serious resolution as hardware of that era had limited graphic power. Again more reason to get new laptop.

[VE3ZXQ]

In regards to the new laptop idea....we check out Office Depot in Canada and ACER is the very least that ever visit the
repair dept. Toshiba's are the worst....just visit one and ask the repair dept. and see for yourself....plus they usually have lots of Acers on sale...plus some on the clearance table...just thought i past that along for those that are looking.
James VE3ZXQ

[VE3ZXQ]

And on another note....Win 7 SP1 update has a problem with 64 bit systems....do a search on this...32 bit hasn't any problems when it comes to SP1...did on 3 machines no problem(32bit)

James VE3ZXQ

[N8EMR]

its going to depend on the laptop you have. Some have a single frame buffer, some have multi buffers and you can get two monitors to show different display. A lot of new monitors have a "projector" mode that allows the external monitor jack to show different than the display.

I love multi montors.... Have dual at home and quad monitors at work...

[KM3K]

I don't know how much you've researched upgrading the laptop to Win 7, but please do a thorough job of that.  I was going to upgrade my XP HP laptop to Win 7 because I needed it to test some things on Win 7.  It turns out that the vendors are not providing updated drivers for the older laptops for Win 7.  So, you might find that something no longer works properly and there's no solution for it. 

After a lot of consideration about which direction to take on these dual-monitors, I've decided to not spend any money on a new computer.

1. I won't be using a dual-monitor set-up.
Instead, I'm going have two separate computers, each with its own display.
That way a CPU does not get stressed trying to handle two monitors.

2. One of the two computers would be my laptop.
I'm not going to up-grade the laptop to Win7; it'll stay with Vista.
Microsoft has a test, which I ran, that they say checks Win7's compatibility with existing hardware/software.
The test reported that a upgrade to Win7 would not know what to do with the laptop's built-in wireless-device or the HP-Deskjet printer.
So I'm not going to spend money on a upgrade that cannot use my wireless-device or my printer.

3. The other computer will be my old E-machines and I'll put a light Linux operating-system on it.
Eventually, I'd put Fldigi on it to do digital-modes.
I'd put a new monitor here.

4. This way, the left-over cash that I have goes towards getting a portable HF set-up…something I don't have right now.
It ultimately came down to this…I'd be a lot happier having portable capability rather than having a new computer.

I'd like to again thank those who provided replies; the replies weighed heavily in my deciding what direction to take.

73 Jerry KM3K

[W8JX]

And on another note....Win 7 SP1 update has a problem with 64 bit systems..

News to me. I have seen no problems here either with upgrade from 64 bit vista and plain Win7 64 bit install with SP1.

[N9IAG]

With most laptops the vga output is used to mirror what is on the small laptop screen.  This is used for one of 2 reasons, first the tiny laptop screen is to small to read, or second to send to a projector that way you can do presentations with the laptop on a big 80-120" display.

The function f5 key lets you swap between 3 modes typically, laptop screen only, external display only, or both mirrored. 

Some more high end laptops, or most desktops have true dual video card dual display capability.  This is found in the more expensive video cards.  This allows you to drive 2 separate displays with 2 separate images.  It basically needs double the video processing power.

To make dual screen work well, you need both screens to have the same resolution, and preferrably refresh rate.  Ideally the monitors will be identical.  This way when you move from one screen to another its smothe and works like one very wide screen.

I use 2 monitors on my hamstation pc.  One screen has my psk / digital software running, and the other has my logging software.  This way I can easily see both, and dint need to swap between them, I can easily view and access both at the same time.  Its a great help.  I can also have qrz on one screen and digital software on the other, or whatever I need that way.

[W8JX]

Actually resolution on the screens does not matter or refresh rate because for separate displays you have separate display/frame buffers and while the GPU to service both buffers for writing, each buffer has its own support hardware for writing frame buffer to a monitor. The only limiting factor as to how "much" you can do here (like watch a video on one screen and text on other and resolution) is GPU power and video memory.  Many modern laptop with even entry level ATI video chip sets can easily support dual separate displays and even HDMI output too for a few bucks more. (this is on AMD powered laptops because AMD also owns ATI)