47
votes
Accepted
Is it safe to unplug an extra monitor from a laptop without turning off the monitor?
Best practice is to always power off any devices that are not designed to be hot-pluggable before disconnecting them. VGA is not hot-pluggable, therefore its cables are not designed to be ...
- 73.6k
45
votes
Does Windows know physical size of external monitor?
Yes, it does know
Monitors are sending EDID data which contains some information about the display, including its physical dimensions. Here's an example from my older question/answer:
Note the ...
- 57.5k
31
votes
Accepted
Can an HDMI cable carry a mouse a keyboard signal?
No, HDMI cables don't support this functionality.
HDMI does have a backchannel (CEC) which in principle could be used to carry mouse and keyboard signals, but I don't know of any hardware which ...
- 17k
29
votes
How to move Desktop from one display to another display in Mac OSX El Capitan
I don't know about El Capitan, but on current macOS, Ventura, it is possible to move desktops between displays:
Open mission control (eg: 3-finger swipe up, or on the F3 key). The "spaces bar&...
- 6,431
29
votes
Accepted
How to prevent clipped screen edges on my TV, HDMI-connected?
I know you have answered your own question. But in case others don't have the same setting on their TV, but are still getting the image cropped all round, I'll leave this answer.
My TV, an 8 year old ...
- 316
28
votes
Turn on Windows 10 laptop without opening it if external monitor is attached?
EDIT:
Wake-On-Mouse
Change what closing the lid does by setting it to 'Do Nothing':
Hit the ⊞ Win key and type lid, or else go:
Control Panel → Hardware & Sound → Power Options → System ...
- 616
28
votes
Accepted
What is it called when a monitor adds black areas to the displayed content because the resolution doesn't match?
What is this phenomena called?
It is not quite 100% clear what you are asking about, but I guess the best answer would be "basic geometry". In television and movies, it is called ...
- 3,432
18
votes
Accepted
Windows 10: Run virtual desktop on one monitor only?
I do it by displaying the apps on the laptop's screen on all virtual desktops ( Win+Tab -> right click on the window -> Show this window on all desktops.
- 196
16
votes
Does Windows know physical size of external monitor?
Windows works in logical units (inches). Its simply dpi divided into monitor's resolution. A logical inch is bigger on a bigger display.
This tells you what windows knows. Type in a command prompt.
...
- 169
14
votes
How to prevent clipped screen edges on my TV, HDMI-connected?
It turned out, there is a setting I have never needed in this TV:
Changhong Chiq UHD43E6000ISN
It was the Aspect Ratio = PTP (Pixel-To-Pixel? Feel free to comment, if you found a link to wiki or ...
- 4,135
10
votes
Accepted
Microsoft Wireless Display: black border around image (screen image is scaled down)
OK I feel stupid: the answer is to open the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel (right click the desktop and choose Intel Graphics Settings, then go to the Wireless Display section and increase the ...
- 884
9
votes
Accepted
Preview second screen in main one
Multi-monitor management software is very helpful for situations it sound like you are in, however to accomplish the specific goal of accessing windows on other desktops you mention it is easily done ...
- 1,130
9
votes
Chrome Remote Desktop: How to turn off the display of the remote computer?
On windows chrome remote desktop, access remote machine and don't display at remote:
First option is turn off the monitor of remote machine manually of possible.
Second option is to Enable Curtain ...
- 101
9
votes
Turn on Windows 10 laptop without opening it if external monitor is attached?
Late answer I know - but I thought I'd give my two cents in case someone in the future comes across it.
I have 3 external monitors running off my Dell XPS 15 laptop, with the lid closed.
Obviously,...
- 221
7
votes
macOS Sierra doesn't scale for 4k monitor
Immediately I thought to recommend enabling HiDPI mode, which basically allows you to change the display to use half of the real pixel density without changing the resolution:
sudo defaults write /...
- 131
7
votes
External monitor is washed out with Intel HD Graphics
This is what worked in my case. My monitor was being incorrectly detected as a HDTV with limited range and adding a custom resolution with "CVT-RB" timing fixed it.
You can add a custom resolution ...
- 366
7
votes
How to keep display settings after opening laptop lid? (it resets to first screen)
I have a Dell G5 5587 with an NVIDIA and Intel video cards. It have an HDMI port where I plugged an external monitor.
Now the trick is, that the HDMI port seems to be shorcircuited to the NVIDIA card ...
- 1,804
6
votes
Accepted
Who makes Dell's monitors?
BenQ make a lot of them.
When a new model is made - at least in the USA, a "FCC Declaration of Conformity" must be issued - stating that the screen complies with all required legislation and ...
- 12.8k
6
votes
Does Windows know physical size of external monitor?
Often, but not always.
At work we have an application that needs to know the physical sizes of monitors in order to display maps with the correct scale. We request the EDID information from Windows ...
- 207
6
votes
Is it safe to unplug an extra monitor from a laptop without turning off the monitor?
Some monitors might have problems with incorrect timing. (I don't want to describe how CRT and LCD monitors work, etc. See Wikipedia pages or OSDev for that.)
Some monitors, both CRT and LCD, ...
- 349
6
votes
Accepted
How can I see which monitor correspond to display X in Windows 10?
It is not sure if you want to identify the physical monitors or as the in devices list. If you meant the latter, replace the part "display X" with "display X in the devices list".
...
6
votes
How can I see which monitor correspond to display X in Windows 10?
Another solution, which works in case one doesn't have physical access to the monitors: clicking on Advanced display settings:
It'll display the monitor name for each display:
- 21.8k
5
votes
Cannot enter BIOS due to broken screen
I had the same problem. I took the bezel off my screen and disconnected the laptops monitor. This forces the computer to use the external monitor and shows the bios menus.
- 51
5
votes
Cannot enter BIOS due to broken screen
You say you're having problems trying to get the "boot with lid closed" method working; I just want to make sure you're actually trying to boot with the lid closed, and not pressing the power button/...
- 285
5
votes
Accepted
Dark Region on Dell UltraSharp U3415W 34-Inch Curved LED-Lit Monitor
The answer is simple: your backlighting, or its drive, is defective. The LED strip on the bottom has multiple sections, and one is either short or open, resulting in a blackened spot.
Since you're ...
- 1,004
5
votes
Does Windows know physical size of external monitor?
According to industry EDID specs, monitors are supposed to supply quite a bit of information to the OS/video driver about its capabilities. That includes pixel resolutions available, clock frequencies,...
- 4,703
5
votes
Accepted
Arrange dual monitors up and down instead of side by side
Go to Start > Settings > System > Display and under Rearrange your displays you can drag the monitors arround to correspond with their real world placement.
- 448
5
votes
Accepted
Screen itself larger than monitor at recommended res? Software solution? How to zoom out?
You need to look for a setting on your TV which will be called "Overscan" or something similar. You need to turn this off and you should be able to see the whole picture again.
- 1,402
4
votes
External monitor turning black intermittently
I had this exact same problem with a Surface Pro 4, Monoprice monitor MP-28UHDSS. Seemed to start happening after the Windows 2018 May Update. I tried various suggestions, none worked for me until I ...
- 338
4
votes
Why DisplayPort, HDMI port etc. while USB can do the job?
The profusion of interfaces largely comes down to the timing of developments.
USB, as its name says, is a universal interface and was developed to allow the interchange of multiple types of digital ...
- 17.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible