If I hook up two monitors to my computer, can two people work on the system at the same time?

Answer: Adding a second display to your computer is a great way increase your "screen real estate," or how much screen space you have to work with. If you have two monitors, you can use one display for Web browsing and another for e-mail. With a program like Photoshop, you can place all the palettes in one screen and use the other display for your main work space.

However, adding another screen does not enable two people to work on a single computer at the same time. Even if you connect two mice and two keyboards to the computer, the computer will not split up the input. Therefore, if one person moves her mouse to the right and the other person moves his mouse downward, the cursor on the screen will move towards the lower-right corner.

Working with two displays can help a single user be more productive, but will not allow two users to work independently on the same machine. The only way for two users to work simultaneously is to have to computers.

Published: March 24, 2005 — by Per Christensson