How to Use Your Android Tablet as a Secondary Display - moandin1942

If you own an Android tablet, you probably get most of your real work done happening a background or laptop computer PC, and habituate your tab primarily for casual Web browsing and substance consumption. But you can use your tablet to improve your productivity, too. Since a tablet is essentially a portable touchscreen, why non repurpose it during work hours arsenic a supplemental display?

Therein article I'll outline how to configure an Android tablet (or a compatible Android smartphone) every bit a secondary PC display. I'll explain how to install a couple of apps on an Android-based tablet and on a Windows 7 PC, and then I'll show how to configure them to work together to extend (Oregon mirror) the PC's desktop. These capabilities are not confined to Mechanical man and Windows 7, however; do some excavation on your own, and you should discover other test-mirroring apps for whatsoever version of Windows from XP forward, as good as for Mac OS X, iOS, and Mechanical man.

For the purposes of this guide, I'm departure to focus on how to jell up the least-expensive screen-annex application we could find; it's called Redfly ScreenSlider, and at of the time of this writing it was useable for $1. (We tried to find a suitable free alternative, but had no luck. If you can find a better free alternative, share IT with other readers in the Comments department below.) Alternatives such as Air Showing or iDisplay are available for about $3 to $5, so justified if you require a different app for your particular setup, it shouldn't break the bank.

What You Need

To enjoyment your Android tablet as a secondary Personal computer display, you need a few things aside from the pad and PC apps. First-class honours degree, you need a compatible tablet running Android 3.01 OR newer (or a smartphone running Android 2.2 or newer) and Windows XP (32-bit) or Windows 7 (32 or 64-bit). For demonstration purposes we're using an app that works over a Wi-Fi connection, so the lozenge and Personal computer must be connected to the assonant meshwork and reside along the cookie-cutter subnet.

Here's Internet Explorer 9 running on a Samsung Galaxy Check serving as a secondary PC display.

Erst you stimulate downloaded the necessary apps, and you're sure that the tablet and PC are connected to the same electronic network, the installing and configuration processes are jolly straightforward. Keep in mind that although I'm focusing on Humanoid, Windows, and ScreenSlider here, the processes are identical similar with the other apps I mentioned earlier. Typically you have to download the app to your tablet, download a companion "connexion" app to your computer, match the two devices, so tweak a couple of settings to your liking.

Install the Tablet App, and Give Your Tablet a Name

The start step is to install the Redfly ScreenSlider app, which you can download from the Google Play store.

Later installation ScreenSlider, run the app. The first time ScreenSlider launches, IT will call for you to enter a uncomparable name for your tablet. The name can Be anything you care—it serves only to identify the tablet during the initial setup phase for the comrade PC application program. We used a Samsung Galaxy Tab for this project, so we named our tablet consequently. After you go into a name, leave ScreenSlider running.

Install the Companion App connected Your PC

With the tablet setup mostly complete, it's time to move on to your PC. The PC connecter app is for sale for download on the ScreenSlider internet site. Install the ScreenSlider companion application victimisation the default setup options. When the procedure is done, a ScreenSlider icon will appear in the system tray.

On our particular setup (Windows 7 Eventual 64-bit), the ScreenSlider ikon appeared in the system tray, but IT didn't do anything when we left- or right-clicked information technology. We haven't seen other users complain about this issue, so that Crataegus laevigata have been an stranded incident. In any shell, lengthwise ScreenSlider from its Start menu shortcut opens its menu just fine.

Plug in to Your Tablet

After introductory the ScreenSlider Microcomputer menu, click the Discovery Devices inter-group communication at the top. A dialog box will unstoppered, and the app will scan your network for the tablet. If the tablet and PC are on the duplicate network and subnet, and if the ScreenSlider app is running on the lozenge, after a couple of moments the tablet should look in the leaning of disposable devices, with its IP come up to and the name you entered in step deuce.

Look-alike-click your tablet's entry in the heel of devices; a window should kill up along the tablet's screen with a unique Flag. You need to enter that Stick into the connection windowpane on the Personal computer. Once you have finished that, cluck OK, and the tablet should begin acting as a incidental display in extended screen background mode.

Tweak the Settings

ScreenSlider's default configuration puts the tablet in spread-eagle desktop modality and assumes that the tablet will be located to the right of the primary expose. To change those settings, plunge the ScreenSlider carte happening the PC and choose Settings from the menu. In the resulting windowpane, you can change a few primary options, such A the tablet's position or whether you want the program to launch with Windows and to check for updates. You also can set the tablet to mirror the PC's desktop; however, for the mirror function to work properly, you cannot set the PC's resolution higher than the resolution of the pad's screen.

A A few Drawbacks

Using a tablet as a secondary winding presentation is emphatically convenient, and it could beryllium a real productivity protagonist, but information technology's not all good news. Although the quirks and incompatibilities of such a apparatus are contrary from app to app, ScreenSlider has a few Worth mentioning. Windows 7 Aero effects are disabled when ScreenSlider is active and a lozenge is connected. In increase, audio from your Personal computer will not play on the tablet should you drag over a windowpane that's playacting audio, though the sound wish continue to play normally through your Microcomputer's speakers.

In addition, the carrying out of such applications is highly pendent on the speed of your wireless network. On a slower operating room full wireless network connexion, you'll notice meantime when dragging windows to and from the pill's screen, and telecasting playback will near likely set down frames. Few applications may not render properly either, but we had an issue exclusively with Internet Explorer 9. Other browsers worked fine.

Once you experience paired your PC and tablet, the slate should act like any some other secondary video display. You can drag Windows from your primary display to the tablet's screen as if it were socially connected flat to the system.

Regardless, being able to have items such as widgets, IM windows, Beaver State your inbox e'er open on a secondary screen door can be usable. At the very least, you'll have invest the otherwise-idle pixels on your pad's screen to good use.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/460533/how_to_use_your_android_tablet_as_a_secondary_display.html

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