Working from home - laptop and two monitors set-up help PLEASE!

pepipootles · 07 Oct 2021

Hello!

I am working from home, and have a dell laptop, and two monitors, one large and the other smaller.

My desk set up is: Laptop, then to the right - a large monitor (1) and then to the right of that - a smaller monitor (2).

I have extended the screen in settings so that I can work from my two monitors.

It's all good until I open my laptop (which I have to do to use the camera for Teams and Zoom meetings).

The laptop screen is replicating monitor 2 (the smaller of the two monitors). How can I adjust this so that it replicates monitor 1, which visually makes more sense. Please help!

cereberus · 07 Oct 2021

This is always tricky and may be hardware dependent.

How are monitors connected e.g. 2 HDMI slots - maybe all you need to do is swap cables around?

In the end, it is probably easier to just buy a usb webcam device.

jimbo45 · 07 Oct 2021

Hi there
With a multi-monitor setup running from a laptop with an integral webcam -- my advice as per others would be if you want the external monitor to use the webcam is to just get a reasonably cheap usb webcam. If the monitor(s) are connected via HDMI then the laptops internal speakers won't be used but any HDMI audio device.

Cheap webcams though while picture is OK can sound really hideous to other people in the zoom / teams etc setups so you might also be better off looking at a webcam with no internal microphone and getting a separate microphone. - Powered multi-hub USB port should be good enough for that.

Enabling what is the primary and secondary screen on Windows running on a typical laptop though I don't think is choosable.

I'm on two totally different remote projects with different clients currently and run each project on a separate Windows Virtual machine on its own monitor - but that I think is a bit more complex than what the OP is after. That way it's eminiently doable but each VM needs its own webcam for zoom etc. (Again easily done via VM passthru - on HYPER-V for example you can assign physical USB devices to a VM as you can in KVM/QEMU).

You can switch a single webcam between USB connections on a VM using say some sort of KVM box (keyboard video/mouse ) type of thing but that's not very convenient if you want to have more than 1 zoom / video conference session running concurrently.

To any Windows GURUS out there -- on a typical laptop running a physical copy of Windows (not a VM) are there any settings to specify if the primary screen could be the external monitor when extending screen. I confess my ignorance on this topic.

Desktops etc don't normally have that problem as you can just plug the appropriate monitor into the relevant socket on the graphics adapter.

A "get around" might be to use a USB->VGA adapter if your monitor(s) still have a VGA port - graphics would still be OK at HD (1080p) -- perfectly OK for reasonable size screens.

E.g from Amazon UK

Amazon.co.uk : USB to VGA Adapters

Cheers
jimbo

MaloK · 10 Oct 2021

Hi,

I'm trying to imagine your setup... I Think you need a Dual-GPU laptop to do it, or a way to swap your monitors ports and re arrange order in properties.

You need to open the laptop to use your camera. then you must include that laptop screen as part of the setup, so you can set "APM close lid" option to "do nothing" if you want, this will stop Windows from rearranging displays when you open / close the lid.

From left to right 1-Laptop, 2-large screen 3-small screen. the easiest way to do is to show taskbar on all screen and extend desktop to the 2 other monitors (if available) this way application will open on the same screen as taskbar used.

If you select any other monitor as Primary screen. Windows will always bring it back to your laptop monitor if no other screen are present and alive. in the case you close the laptop lid Windows will remove this screen immediately and move all working windows to next available display.

While this feature often saves the day when playing around with multi-monitor setup... It been bugging large Multimedia setups by moving displays around.

You should keep all 3 monitor alive and ready all the time. Once you started you session you can move the application to your centre screen if you want, But the cam wont be facing you directly. If it's not a major issue You can also run the whole session on you laptop screen leaving your main and smaller monitor free for your work.

spunk · 10 Oct 2021

What is the make and model # of your laptop?
It sounds like you are using a Docking Station to use 2 monitors. If not, you should be. If you right click the desktop and choose Display Properties. You should see the two external monitors, and your laptop screen. If you press the Identify button it should number the monitors as Windows sees them (ie) 1.2,3 etc. You can drag the monitor boxes into the configuration you want. Highlight the monitor you want to be your Main screen then drag that window to this monitor, scroll down and put a check in Make this My Main Monitor, it will be greyed out if it's not selected monitor in the upper part of Display Properties Window. If you go to Power Options, and choose What the Lid does when closed you can also adjust whether the screen is disabled or not
This is all dependent of course if you are using a Docking Station, what make and model# it is or some monitor adapter Y Cable etc. and