The use of multiple monitors is said to be more comfortable, make it easier for users to track multiple tasks, and ultimately, be more productive. But what happens when you encounter issues that prevent you from making the most of your increased visibility set-up?

Here are 3 common themes we discuss with customers using external monitors in their work stations.

Losing your mouse pointer

This might sound silly, but the few seconds it takes to find your mouse again can ruin your train of thought. To prevent this, there’s an option in ‘Settings’ – ‘Mouse’ – ‘Additional mouse options’ on Windows computers that, when enabled, means that pressing the CTRL key temporarily displays a ring around the pointer, making it much easier to spot.

Screen snapping

This is another useful feature, that allows you to align windows within your monitors. Screen snapping helps to organise your windows and ensure you’re maximising the screen space you have available.

Dragging the window to the top makes it full screen on that monitor, and dragging to the left and right makes the windows fill the half of the screen.  This works well for most uses, but Windows 11 takes this to the next level with ‘Snap Layouts’. Pressing the Windows key +  Z, or hovering over the minimise or maximise buttons on a window, will cause a feature to appear that gives various options to make the windows different sizes, and in set locations around the monitor.

Programmes I’m opening aren’t showing on my screen

Windows isn’t always aware when you turn the power off to one of your monitors. This can be incredibly confusing to users, as Windows can open a program on a screen that’s not turned on.

This is usually more of an issue if you use extra screens with a laptop, in which case it’s recommended that you physically unplug the cable from the laptop if you’re not planning on using your extra screen(s).