I look back on my days using a single monitor and wonder how I lived like that. Having multiple monitors hasn’t just improved my productivity and focus, but has added utility to gaming, too. To ensure your multi-monitors are perfect, tweak these settings.
Everything You Need to Configure Your Multi-Monitors
While the process of stringing another monitor to your setup is more or less plug-and-play, it’s important to double-check you’ve got everything you need:
Some PCs have dedicated GPUs while others have integrated graphics, which rely on the processor. Always use the GPU’s video ports; otherwise, your computer may not recognize your monitors correctly.
Additionally, even if you’re using the right port on your GPU, it may take one last adjustment from the monitor’s on-screen display (OSD) and to switch the monitor to the correct input, just like you would with a television.
Get Your Monitors Aligned the Right Way
Once your monitors are up and running—and actually display your desktop—Windows should, by default, make the alignment functional, but you still want to tweak the settings to make transitioning between displays make sense. Otherwise, you might be moving your cursor to the left to reach a monitor on your right. It becomes more complicated with more than two monitors.
Now, to align your monitors, click and drag the monitor on the diagram into your desired position. Up, down, left, right, in the corner—it’s your choice. After your monitors are in position, click “Apply” and you’re ready to go. You’ll be able to transition between each monitor based on their positions.
Tweak Your Monitor’s Scaling to Avoid UI Mismatch
You’re not done with your display settings just yet. If your monitors are of different resolutions, like 4K and 1080p, then it would be wise to fix the scaling on your higher-resolution monitors. Your taskbar, icons, and text appear too small and harder to navigate on higher resolutions. Not to mention, it’s very distracting when one monitor has a smaller UI while another is 50% bigger.
To adjust the scaling, revisit “Display” in Windows’s “Settings” once again. Pick a monitor from the diagram at the top, then adjust the percentage set in Scale and layout. Windows lets you pick between 100% to 175%. For a higher resolution monitor, like 4K, I’d recommend 125% or 150% scaling.
Smooth Navigation By Properly Setting the Refresh Rate
Therefresh of your monitorsdetermines how smooth your experience is, like adding more frames to an animation makes it look less choppy. While you don’t need both monitors to have the same refresh rate, it may look distracting if they’re too different. However, this does require that all your monitors have the same refresh rate options.
Do this for each of your monitors. For gaming PCs, you generally want it higher if your GPU can handle it and preferably no lower than 60Hz (although I personally do just fine with 30Hz).
Get More Out of Your Taskbar With These Settings
Last but not least,fix your Windows taskbar. There are a handful of settings you may tweak to change the behavior of your taskbar, like whether you want it on all your displays or just the main one.
Being able to access my Start menu and programs no matter what display I’m on is key to my productivity and is also quite practical. When I game, it’s fullscreen, so my taskbar is gone, but with this enabled, I can still access my browser or Steam.
It’s with these tweaks that I’ve been able to get the most out of my multi-monitor setup, boosting my productivity with easily accessible icons, proper scaling, and layout. I’ll never return to a single monitor ever again!
