Being able to work from home is one of the many benefits of Unified communications and Microsoft 365. However due to the current situation in the UK and worldwide, a lot of people have been suddenly thrown into ‘working from home’ for the first time.  

1UC would like to help those new to working from home and using windows and office 365. We will be sharing a series of blog posts with helpful hints and tips to help those of you that may be new to working from home to make things as easy and efficient as possible. 

Today we are sharing our second post in our series about our most useful keyboard shortcuts and features for rearranging windows on Windows 10, this will focus on moving windows between laptop and display monitors. 

Moving windows between laptop & display monitors

Why use multiple monitors? 

When working from home you may find using an additional monitor with your laptop really helpful as it gives you much more screen space even though you may not be used to doing this in the office. These tips should hopefully help if you haven’t worked in this way before.  

When using multiple monitors with your computer, you can move your mouse between them as if they are one continuous display. You can also drag programs between them as if you had an extra large display, rather than using Alt+Tab to switch between windows you can just glance between the programs you are using.

Display Settings 

To configure your displays on Windows 10: 

  • Right-click your desktop and select “Display Settings” or navigate to Settings > System > Display.  
  • Click the “Identify” button to see the display’s number appear on the display, and then drag and drop the displays so Windows understands how they’re physically positioned.  

‘Display number one is your primary display’.  

  • Click “Apply” to save any changes you make. 

Extend/Duplicate sidebar shortcut 

If you press Windows key + P this will open up a sidebar and you can choose which display mode you would like. There are four options, extend is the one you will most likely use as it literally extends the desktop between your computer and an addition monitor.  

  • PC Screen only– this setting only uses your primary monitor, any additional screens will be black. 
  • Duplicate- All monitor will show the same image. This setting is useful if you are doing a presentation. 
  • Extend- This setting will expand your desktop over another screen. 
  • Second screen only- this setting will turn off your primary display and only use the secondary display 

Move active window between displays 

Another useful tip is that if you use multiple monitors and you have extended your desktop between them you can quickly move the active window between displays. You can do this by pressing Windows+Shift+Left (or right) Arrow. 

A brief video guide that walks you through these functions is available on our Youtube channel and below. 

Window Management Cheat Sheet

Here’s a handy cheat sheet of everything we covered above. Practice these, and you’ll be a window ninja in no time: 

  • Alt+Tab: Open task switcher. 
  • Windows+P: Will duplicate your screen/extend your desktop to an additional monitor 
  • Windows+Shift+Left or Right Arrow: Move a window from one monitor to another.