A workspace is forever a work in progress as the needs and projects of the user change.

For those of you who strive to improve your productivity, one of the best ways is to double your desktop workspace by adding a second computer monitor to your computer. By using multiple monitors, many computing tasks become easier by allowing you to keep more windows visible. You can benefit from multiple monitors if you do any of the following things:

• E-mail and instant messaging. Work on one monitor while keeping your instant messaging clients open on the other so you won’t have to be switching between multiple windows every time a new message arrives.

• Research online. Have your Web browser up or other research tool on one monitor, and keep a Word pad open on the second monitor for taking notes.

• Viewing and editing digital pictures. Browse through digital images quickly and more efficiently by displaying thumbnails on one monitor and full-sized previews on the other.

How to go about connecting a second monitor can vary slightly depending on what type of computer you’re working with. Creating a dual monitor desktop can be one of the best things you can do and easy to do on desktops as well as laptops and Tablet PCs.

How to connect computer monitors to your desktop computer:

There are a few ways to connect that extra monitor. Generally computer monitors are connected through either a VGA or DVI port. Here’s a brief definition of the three main connectors.

As we see here there are the VGA , S-Video, and DVI. All dual monitor video cards are pretty much going to have one or more of these connectors. Video Graphics Array (VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread adoption has also come to mean either an analog computer display standard, having 15 pin holes. VGA was the last graphical standard introduced by IBM that the majority of PC clone manufacturers conformed to, making it the universal graphics hardware supported by most systems support without any additional device specific drivers loaded on the computer.

Separate Video, more commonly known as S-Video, and sometimes incorrectly referred to as Super Video, is also an analog video signal that carries video data as two separate signals and have resolutions at 480i and 576i making it impractical as a extended desktop to read text, but may suffice for easily adding a TV for videos.

(DVI) or Digital Visual Interface is a video interface standard designed to provide very high visual quality on digital display devices such as flat panel LCD computer displays and digital projectors. Designed to carry uncompressed digital video data to a display, and compatible with (HDMI) and (VGA).  DVI is becoming more and more the standard as digital high definition demand increases.

Just like plugging in any monitor whether its DVI or VGA (DVI shown here), you will need to tighten both sides of the connector. Many computers have support for multiple monitors built into the Windows operating system, and if your computer manufacturer included the hardware, you may be good to go. Look on the back of your computer to determine if you have an available VGA or DVI port. If you do, you can most likely connect a second monitor and take advantage of the dual view capabilities.

If your computer doesn’t have an available VGA or DVI port, you can buy an additional video adapter.  Note: Make sure that your new monitor matches any video adapter before purchasing. Monitors will use either a VGA or DVI connector (sometimes both). S-Video connectors are used to connect to televisions.

When you get that second monitor hooked up, you will need to enable it by extending your desktop to that monitor.  This is done a little differently on each Windows operating system. On XP it will look something like this. Later versions of Windows work fairly the same however the appearance is a little different. Once you get this down, you’ll be able to do it on any Windows Operating Systems. 1st 

Right-click the desktop, and then click Properties.

2. Click the Settings tab in the Display Properties.

3.Click on the Display list to select the new monitor, and then check the box “Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor.”

4. You may want to adjust the positioning of the monitors to match that on your desk. This way the mouse will be able to move around correctly in accordance to your visual display.

Once you have this done you will be able to drag windows between multiple monitors as if the two monitors are connected, and when you maximize a window, it will expand to fill the current monitor.

Also here’s a link for some really cool ways to utilize multiple LCD Displays.