In an office based environment it is not uncommon to see a computer screen cluttered with windows while seeing the user constantly minimise and maximise the various windows to find the data they need. Productivity in this type of setup is quite low due to the wasted time needed to take your hand off the keyboard and move the mouse around. So, what can be done to increase productivity? You can always add another screen to give your computer two displays to work with.
How Two Displays make you more Productive
When you run two displays on your PC you give yourself more screen real estate. In turn, this allows you to work quicker in your daily tasks. This is achieved by opening windows on each screen. Rather then having to maximise and minimise the various windows, you just keep the ones you want open on a second screen while working on a primary screen. Microsoft did research on a two display setup and found in all cases that productivity was increased a number of times.
Ways in which two displays could make you more productive is by using one screen for editing photos while the other screen shows the full image to see what the finished result looks like. Another way would be to have emails opened on the second screen so you can keep an eye on emails coming in. The next way could be to have Excel opened on 1 monitor while you type on Word on another screen.
You are not limited to just two displays
The beauty of Windows is that you are not restricted to one or two screens. You can have many screens connected. If you have the right graphics card(s) which support multiple monitors you can connect three, four, five or more screens to your computer giving you virtually unlimited screen space to work with.
How to attach a second display
A number of graphics cards have dual outputs on the back. If yours is one of them then you just need to connect a second monitor to your graphics card and then enable it in the Display Properties window. Once enabled you are able to drag the monitors around to their physical locations so that when you slide a window from one screen to another the motion is seamless.
More information can be found over at Microsoft.
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