How Multiple Displays Work on Windows 10/11?

Many teachers and students out there that I've met always had issue with connect their laptop to the projector, "Why isn't my video show on the projector?? Why is it only showing my wallpaper?? And where the heil is my cursor?????....". These issue thanks to the mess that the Multiple displays feature made on Windows.

What are multiple displays?
Multiple display windows, often referred to as multi-monitor setups, allow users to extend their desktop across two or more monitors, enhancing productivity and multitasking capabilities. This setup is supported by most modern operating systems, including Windows 10 and 11.

In simple terms, imagine your main display (e.g: your laptop screen) on the left, and the second one (e.g: another monitor, or a projector let say) on the right. Let say we open Google Chrome, or let say a Microsoft Word window, if you only see the MS Word window on your main display and not the other, that means your setup is in the Extend Mode, otherwise if you see both of them displaying the same thing, that's Duplicate Mode. If your device only display thing on the second monitor when you plug it in, it would be the Second-screen Only Mode. And if nothing displayed on the second screen, it could either be your cable broken, or if you're sure the cable is working, there's a chance that your device is in the PC screen only Mode.

The concept of this feature

1. PC screen only Mode

2. Duplicate Mode

3. Extend Mode

4. Second-screen only Mode

🧃 Step-by-step Guide

1. Plug in your second display

- HDMI, DisplayPort, or whatever cable you found under your bed.

- If nothing happens:

a) Panic briefly 😱 Check your port/cable connection, sometimes it could be your cable or port being broken, if you're unsure, the first thing you wanna try is, yes, reboot your device :\

b) If you're sure the port/cable function properly, then it could be in PC screen only Mode, if so, you can proceed to step 2 to continue.

2. Choose your mode

- Press Windows+P combination to open the display mode menu.

- Duplicate – Both screens show the same thing. Safe, boring. Good for presentations.

- Extend – One super wide screen. Now you can drag windows across and pretend you’re busy. Best mode 🔥

- Second screen only – Your main screen goes dark. Great if you’re hiding something from nosy people 😳

3. [Optional] Rearrange screens

- This one only applies to Extend Mode

- Open Windows Settings (Start menu -> Settings gear, or press Windows+I)

Windows 10 Settings

Windows 11 Settings

- Select "System"

- You can then drag the main (1) display or the second (2) display to your desired place and hit Apply

How to use each mode properly

1. PC screen only Mode

- Select this mode if you prefer only wanna use your main display.

2. Duplicate Mode

- This mode replicate the exact thing from your main display on the second display

3. Extend Mode

- Use this mode to have 2 workspace at the same time. This mode is best for situation where you have 2 monitor side-by-side on PC, or if you wanna display different thing on the projector when you're using a laptop. There are many more case this feature could be useful, but sometimes also made people confused, especially when they try to plug their laptop for teaching or presentation.

Example of how this works

- Say you having a PDF files that you wanna show on the projector, and then you wanna do something else on your laptop, in these such case you need to use imagination a bit, yes you heard me right, imagination. This is your setup.

- The projector screen is behind, so obviously you can't see it :D What we wanna do is imagine that there's a dummy little screen on your right, right next to your laptop screen

- Now, we wanna drag the PDF window all the way, yes, ALLLLLLLL THE WAYYYYY to the right dummy display that you imagine (or the left, bottom, top, whatever settings you've set on the optional step 3 above), when the window gone from your main display, take a look at the projector screen, BOOM! THE PDF WINDOW IS THERE!!!! :D

Animated GIF

- And then this is where it gets a bit confused for beginner, your mouse cursor can move between the display, so if you move your cursor all the way to the right, your cursor is currently at the second screen, or the projector, some people get confused of where their mouse cursor is, it's on the second screen if you wanna take a look, you can use the cursor on the second screen to do whatever you want, scrolling, annnotating, fullscreening, showing videos,... but you will need to bend your back and neck to look and control the cursor on the projector screen behind you!

- Same thing applies to when you plug in a monitor, just that this time, you don't have to use imagination, you can actually see the monitor next to your laptop screen.

- Or when you use a pc, this mode makes much more sense! Because this time, it's not the matter of small screen and big screen, they're now both big, giant, seperate and side-by-side monitor, and this setup is what this mode supposed to be used on, especially when you're a gamer/streamer, you'll see what I mean.