Do you have an additional iPad lying around your house you don’t utilize? I had the iPad 2 for years before eventually upgrading to an iPad Air 2 which meant that the iPad 2 just sat in the drawer of my desk. Why would you throw away an excellent iPad?

I’ve previously discussed how to set up dual monitors on Windows however this requires the use of a second monitor. However, thanks to some clever software, you can utilize old iPads (2nd 3rd, 4th, or the 4th generation), iPad Airs (1 and 2), and iPad Pros to act as a second screen or a second monitor for either your Mac as well as Windows PC. It is as simple as installing an application on your iPad as well as on your computer and connecting them directly with either the lightning cable or the 30-pin cable (dock connector).

My top choice and the only one I would recommend would be Duet Display. There are alternatives like Air Display and iDisplay, however, they cost around the same amount and do not work quite as effectively. Direct connections between your computer and iPad allow the user to experience the experience uninterruptible, which is important when you’re using another screen. The attempt to connect this via WiFi (i.e. the Air Display) was incredibly slow and was not a great implementation.

Duet Display

It’s worth noting the fact that Duet Display was created by former Apple engineers, and could be one of the reasons it is so compatible with iPads, as well as Macs. It costs $16 which seems quite expensive considering the prices of the majority of applications available in the App Store, however, I’d consider this as more of a normal Windows or Mac application.

Setting everything up is simple as it does not require any sort of account creation or anything similar to this. Start by attempting to install the app on your iPad. You can also make use of your iPhone as an additional screen, but it didn’t work during my testing. You will require a larger screen to complete anything effectively.

Duet Display – iTunes

After you launch the app and open it, you’ll be presented with simple instructions, which tell you to install the program on your personal computer first.

Click Get It and you’ll be presented with an interface asking you for a connection between your device and your laptop. Before doing this, however, we’ll just install the application on either the PC or Mac first.

You can download your PC or Mac software onto your PC and then install it. On the Mac, you’ll see an elegant rectangular installation screen when you start.

Simply click on the start link, then check I agree after which click authorize and then install in the following screen.

Once the installation has been completed You’ll be asked to start your PC. You can do this. When you are logged back on you will see an end-of-screen that tells you to look for the Duet icon on the menu bar on OS X or the system tray in Windows.

If you click that icon it’ll prompt for you to join your gadget to the PC.

After that, you can start it using the Duet Display app on your iPad and join it with your PC. It should detect your PC and then mirror your screen. This is what my configuration looked like in default.

Here’s a picture of the older MacBook Pro Mid-2009 with an iPad 2. Everything looked quite good. The display was slightly smaller on the iPad and that’s not because this is an old iPad 2 and I had it set up to mirror the screen. When you click the icon that appears in the bar menu, you’ll be able to modify the settings.

There’s an Extend display on the left, then Mirror Display, Framerate, and Pixel Quality. If you’d like to expand the display to the iPad rather than mirroring it, you can select one of four choices: Regular Resolution, iPad Pro Resolution, Retina Resolution, or High Resolution.

Be aware that you won’t be able to select any other resolution that Normal Resolution when you have an older iPad similar to iPad 2. iPad 2. It is possible to select High, Retina, and High when you own an iPad that is the retina. This iPad Pro option is only available for iPad Pro models.

The thing I liked most really liked about Duet Display is that the second screen is an additional screen. It’s like the user can move windows that you have on your primary monitor onto an iPad, and have various apps running on both screens. Here’s an example of Chrome running using my MacBook Pro and Maps open on my iPad.

On the iPad, there’s the menu bar as well as the dock. It’s amazing the fact that you can use different desktops both on the iPad as well as on your main Mac. When my mouse is on the iPad screen I can use all of the standard trackpad gestures for swiping between desktops, without altering any settings in the primary Mac.

Using a larger resolution iPad such as those with the Air or Pro makes everything look much more appealing.

I did not encounter any problems with my Mac However, I did experience some issues with the Windows laptop. The customer service is exceptional and I was able to get the issue solved within hours. I required an alternative video driver which I was emailed to fix the issue.

If you’re intending to use this in conjunction with an existing desktop computer, you’ll likely require an extension cable of 6 feet as well as a stand to ensure that your iPad can be placed in front of your monitor.

In the end, if you don’t use your iPad frequently changing it to two monitors is an excellent alternative that is much less expensive than traditional methods of having two monitors. If you have any concerns you’d like to ask, leave a message. Enjoy!