Introduction
Maybe you’re working from home and you want to use your personal laptop as an extended monitor for your work laptop. Or, maybe you have an older laptop at home that you’d like to use as a portable external monitor. No matter the reason Microsoft makes it possible to set up your Windows 11 laptop so you can connect another computer to it and use it as an external display. The only requirement is that the laptop you want to project to must support Miracast. You can confirm your device supports Miracast by pressing the “Windows” and “K” keys at the same time. If a box pops up that shows you casting options, then your laptop supports Miracast.
Some of the images associated with the steps are included inline below. All images associated with these steps can be seen in the embedded YouTube video. Also, please note that you’re not able to leave a comment directly on this article. If you have a question or feedback, please leave it on the YouTube video.
Steps to Use a Second Laptop as Extended Monitor in Windows 11
- Turn on the Windows 11 laptop you want to use as a second monitor, and then press the “Windows” and “I” keys at the same time to open the Settings screen.
- Make sure “System” is selected in the menu on the left side of the screen, and then click “Projecting to This PC” in the menu on the right side of the screen.
- Click “Optional Features.”
- Find Add an Optional Feature, and then click “View Features.” The Add an Optional Feature window pops up.
- Search for “Wireless Display.” Click to place a check mark next to Wireless Display in the returned search results, and then click “Next.” Click “Install” on the next screen. You’ll return to the Optional Features screen, where you’ll see the Wireless Display feature is being installed.
- Navigate back to the Projecting to This PC screen, where you’ll now see additional options associated with using this Windows 11 laptop as a wireless display. Specifically, you can choose to allow some Windows and Android devices to project to this Windows computer, you can require that other devices have to ask to use this computer as a wireless display, and you can also require a PIN for other devices to use this computer as an external display. Adjust each of these options as you want to.
- Click “Launch the Wireless Display App to Project to This PC.” A blue screen will appear with the name of your computer letting you know that it’s ready for you to connect wirelessly.
- Turn on your other Windows computer you want to use as your primary display, and then press the “Windows” and “I” keys at the same time to open the Settings screen.
- Click “Bluetooth and Devices” in the menu on the left side of the screen. The Bluetooth and Devices menu is shown on the right side of the screen.
- Find Devices and then click “Add Device.”
- Click “Wireless Display or Dock.” A list of detected devices you can connect to is shown.
- Find the name of the Windows computer you want to use as an external monitor in this list, and then click it. In this example, I required a PIN, so I’ll enter that and then click “Connect.” A message is shown letting you know that you’re connected. Click “Done.” You’ll now see the monitor of your primary computer screen duplicated to the monitor of your other computer. From here you can press the “Windows” and “P” keys as you normally would to choose whether you want to duplicate your computer screen to your other computer monitor, extend your display to the other monitor, or show your display only on the other computer monitor.
