For a long time there, it was pretty rare to find a mainstream PC running multiple monitors. A configuration like that would have been considered high-end, desired mostly by professionals in a business environment, like a graphics design studio or financial firm. Back when PCI was the go-to interface for graphics cards, home users looking for a second display had to arm their machine with an additional graphics card. That was an expensive proposition, and generally more costly than it was worth.
However, times are changing. Today, the PCI Express bus is standard, and the performance of graphics cards has increased significantly. Even the cheapest cards, such as AMD's Radeon HD 3450, available for about $25, offers a second display output ready to take an additional monitor. In addition, CRT monitors have almost exclusively made way for LCDs, making larger screen sizes relatively affordable. Once upon a time, a 19" CRT monitor was an object of envy. Now, few enthusiasts bother to buy an LCD display if it measures fewer than 20".
Higher Productivity
As the financial burden of owning and using several monitors has fallen, such configurations are now much more common in work and home environments. The reason for using one, two, or more monitors varies, though. Amateur photographers, for example, may benefit from a large display surface by dragging the toolbar of the image editing program onto the second monitor. Working with large Excel sheets is easier, as is using two full-size Word documents arranged side by side. The volume of work can easily be increased, since one either has more room to arrange various open program windows, or simply because one can view more information at the same time on the extended surface. No doubt, almost anyone who has worked on a computer with two monitors will be unwilling to give one of them up.
Cost and space requirements
With all the advantages mentioned above, we shouldn't forget that, even though an additional monitor indeed can be purchased for a relatively low cost, it might of course still be beyond the limits of a mainstream user at home. Also, finding the desk space for an extra LCD monitor isn't always easy. Additionally, there are probably quite a few users interested in the idea of a dual-monitor configuration, but not sure to what extent they may benefit from it.
Software solutions?
For those who have both the budget and the space required for a second monitor, but hesitate with the purchase due to worries over potential productivity gains, the MaxiVista software provides an inexpensive way to try such a dual monitor configuration--without having to purchase an extra monitor. The only requirement is that, in addition to your primary computer, you also have to own a notebook or a second desktop PC with its own monitor. These computers must be connected through a network. MaxiVista lets your primary computer use the screen of your secondary computer as a second monitor.
This probably has something to do with Media Player's DRM-related features which block video overlay (can't remember the correct name for this sort of DRM).
And I have no commercial interests to love Teamviewer, neither do my old relatives who love it too, because they get their problems solved without any installations on their side.
That said, if you just want to have your inbox, twitter or facebook sitting on that old pentium 3 laptop screen beside your main computer then its great (as long as you are prepared to wait the 10 minutes it would take for windows xp to boot up!).
http://www.stardock.com/products/multiplicity/
Toms should do a side-by-side comparison.
still sad its only a trial!
You should have used more exciting terminology when talking about the power consumption of running multiple systems. From the looks of video card related articles and posts on here, it is a much bigger deal than actual performance with much colorful and bombastic wording surrounding the issue.
For controlling a remote computer I use the free
XP software Synergy :
http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/
From my WiFi laptop I control HD video display on TV from my desktop player.
But synergy is great, plus it's cross platform. The sourcforge version of synergy hasn't been updated since '06 but is confirmed to work with XP. Have a look at
http://code.google.com/p/synergy-plus/
for an update version.
This product might work very well in a classroom environment ...
I can see having an ATOM/Projector presentation client and a hard wired GB-Ethernet connection.
Also might come in very handy for classroom tech training, if the whole class could mirror the instructor.
= Alvin =
Which is fine if you like your PC infected with the malware they infect ALL of their 'products' with.
As a side benefit, if you (say) play a movie on one computer and play games on the other, neither computer experiences significant slowdown. I sometimes use it at work when I have a spare computer so Outlook can have an entire box to itself