A. I've been playing around with monitor configurations and I recently added two GTX 275 video cards, which gives me four dual DVI ports. I have monitors on three of them, but then in a mad monitor lust I wondered if I could also extend my desktop onto my laptop screen, which sits next to my main computer terminal.
There's no native solution to do this in Windows, but there are a number of third party solutions that run software on the computer whose display you want to use. A client on your computer creates a virtual device with a display that's redirected to the target computer. Below is a breakdown of the solutions I found. Check out the tools—depending on your environment and budget, one will probably be a better fit than the others.
- ZoneOS—A hobbyist-created solution. It doesn't used signed drivers, so ZoneOS will be problematic on 64-bit platforms.
- ShareKMC—A free download. ShareKMC is available from various websites, but doesn't seem to have an official site, so check out this Google search.
- Synergy—Another free solution.
- MaxiVista—A commercial solution. This product seems to be very popular.
Microsoft also has an internal tool to extend your desktop to a laptop. The tool isn't available to the public now, but it may be available in future.
Related Reading:
Check out hundreds more useful Q&As like this in John Savill's FAQ for Windows. Also, watch instructional videos made by John at ITTV.net.
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