I'm an engineering student and quite often I find myself working on assignments on my laptop at school and wishing that I had a second monitor to make life easier. The other day I read this article in lifehacker (Link) and decided that that was exactly what I needed.

Sadly, though, the app that they were talking about didn't work for me. So I decided to share the process I went through to find an app that worked.

Enjoy!

*Here is a link for my instructable where I created a mount for my tablet to attach it to my laptop. CLICK HERE

Step 1: Research

I did a fair bit of googling to find possible apps to use for my extended screen tablet setup and here are the apps that I found:

Twomonusb-http://devguru.co.kr/easynlight-en/products/twomon...

Twomonair-http://devguru.co.kr/easynlight-en/

iDisplay-http://www.getidisplay.com/

Air Display-https://avatron.com/applications/air-display/

Splashtop 2-http://www.splashtop.com/

MaxiVista-http://www.maxivista.com/ipad-as-second-monitor.ht...

Duet Display-http://www.duetdisplay.com/

Displaypad-http://fivesidedsoftware.com/displaypad.html

iScreen-http://www.made-apps.com/EN/Products/iPhone/iScree...

Each of these has their pros and cons. Some work exclusively over WIFI or USB while others work for both. Some are compatible between ios devices and android and others aren't. Some work for Windows but not Mac and vice versa.

I would recommend reading the reviews and making sure that it is what you want before buying it. If the app doesn't work as you hoped i'll explain what to do in a later step.

*I have had a few people message me and ask for some more specifics about the apps. The reason I didn't go into much detail is because I've only actually successfully used one of the apps. I don't want to give an unfair bias towards one or the other. Its for that reason that I recommend researching it and if its not to your liking, get a refund and try another. Thats what I did.

Step 2: Download App

Go to Google play for your android device or the App store for you apple device and search for your app.

Download the app and pay for it

I ended up picking Twomonusb because after trying several apps I realized that the wifi router that my apartment provides has built in security that caused issues with several of the wifi only apps.

Step 3: Download Computer Hosting Software

Each of the apps require a hosting software to be downloaded to your computer in order to be able to operate. These can be downloaded for free from their websites and are quick downloads.

After you download the computer software you should be ready to go!

Step 4: Connect Your Tablet to Your Computer

At this point you should be able to connect your tablet to your computer. For wifi enabled apps this will require setting a password on your computer then entering it on your tablet to grant access.

For twomon usb you just need to plug it in and click the Icon on your tablet and desktop.

Now I wish it actually worked that quickly for me the first time. Like I said, I had issues with the wifi enabled apps so I had to ask for several refunds. In case you run into the same situation here are the links for getting refunds from Apple and Android.

http://www.imore.com/how-request-refund-itunes-or-...

https://play.google.com/store/ftc

Step 5: Enjoy!

Once I got everything working it was awesome. It makes life so much easier when i'm on the go and need a second screen. On top of that Twomonusb keeps the Ipad's touch capabilities so that was extra fun to play around with.

Also, if you right click on your desktop and select screen resolution now your tablet shows up as an extra screen :)

*in a future instructable I'll be 3d printing clips to attach my tablet to my laptop screen for easy use while at school. Stay tuned!

*Here is the instructable for mounting your tablet to your laptop. CLICK HERE