Skip to Content

Two Ways to Connect Multiple Monitors to Your Laptop (HDMI and VGA)

One of the oldest tricks in the book to double your productivity on a laptop is to connect another monitor to it, but why stop there? If two screens can double your productivity, wouldn’t three triple it? So, how do you connect two monitors to a single laptop?

To connect your laptop to two monitors, plug one end of a video cable into your laptop’s output port and plug the other end into your monitor’s input port. Repeat this process with the other monitor to get two monitors. If you only have one port on your laptop, a splitter can turn it into two.

A common issue that people run into when doing this is not knowing which video port to use: VGA or HDMI. Let’s go through how to do it on both so that you can get your monitors working the way you want them to.

Connecting Two Monitors Using HDMI

Female Arabic creative professional working at home office on desktop computer with dual screen monitor top view

Before we begin this process, your device needs to have at least two HDMI ports for you to plug in two external monitors. If your device has two HDMI ports, then you’re good to go. However, if your device only has one HDMI port, then you have a bit of a problem.

Thankfully, this problem is entirely fixable. What you need in this case is an HDMI splitter. An HDMI splitter is a little adapter that you plug into your computer’s HDMI port, which then converts your one HDMI port into two HDMI ports.

If you don’t have an HDMI splitter, they can usually be found for pretty cheap. For example, you can find a SENGKOB HDMI splitter (on Amazon) for less than $10.

Once you have a laptop with two HDMI ports (or an HDMI splitter) and two HDMI cables, you’re ready to plug your laptop into your two monitors. All you have to do is follow these steps:

  1. Turn on your laptop and both monitors.

  2. If you need an HDMI splitter, plug it into your laptop’s HDMI port, converting your one HDMI port into two.

  3. Plug one end of an HDMI cable into one of your laptop’s HDMI ports and plug the other end of the same cable into the HDMI input port on one of your external monitors.

  4. Repeat this same process with the other monitor.

  5. Right click on an empty portion of your desktop and click “Display Settings”.

  6. Under “Multiple displays”, select display 2, open the Multiple Displays drop down menu, and select “Extend desktop to this display”.

  7. Click Apply to save your changes.

  8. Repeat this process with display 3.

After this, you should have three distinct displays working on your laptop. If you ever unplug your laptop from the two monitors, it should remember these settings you set the next time you plug it in and switch to them automatically.

Connecting Two Monitors Using VGA

Unfortunately, VGA is very limited compared to HDMI. For instance, it is very uncommon for a laptop to have two different VGA ports. In the previous section, we solved this issue by getting an HDMI splitter to turn one HDMI port into two, but this doesn’t work the same with VGA.

VGA splitters that turn one VGA port into two do exist, but they are only capable of mirroring connection and not extending display. This means that if you plug two external monitors in using a VGA splitter, then those two monitors would have the exact same things displayed on them at the same time. For instance, if you were to open Google on one of the external monitors, it would also open on the other.

This isn’t what people typically imagine when they imagine having three screens on their laptop. However, if you are interested, you can get a PASOW brand VGA splitter here (on Amazon). To get this set up, all you have to do is follow these steps:

  1. Turn on your laptop and both monitors.

  2. Plug your VGA splitter into your laptop’s VGA port, turning your laptop’s one VGA port into two.

  3. Plug one end of a VGA cable into one of your splitter’s VGA ports and plug the other end of the same cable into the VGA input port on one of your external monitors.

  4. Repeat this same process with the other monitor.

  5. Right click on an empty portion of your desktop and click “Display Settings”.

  6. Under “Multiple displays”, select display 2, open the Multiple Displays drop down menu, and select “Extend desktop to this display”.

  7. Click Apply to save your changes.

After this, you should have two distinct displays: one on your laptop’s screen and one shared between your two monitors. If you ever unplug your laptop from the two monitors, it should remember these settings you set the next time you plug it in and switch to them automatically.

VGA vs HDMI: Which is Better?

Choise between modern HDMI and old VGA connection

As you’ve likely guessed from the previous section, HDMI is much less limited than VGA is, making HDMI better in most people’s eyes. This is due to one simple reason: HDMI is much newer than VGA is and takes advantage of newer technology.

A VGA cable transfers analog data, meaning that it transmits information through electrical waves. An HDMI cable transfers digital data, meaning that it simply moves ones and zeroes through the cable to transmit information. This makes an HDMI cable much faster and much more efficient than a VGA cable.

Nowadays, the HDMI cable has pretty much become the universal standard in the tech industry. The only times you ever really deal with VGA cables anymore are if you are dealing with older obsolete technology.