The $200 (as of April 4, 2012) Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421 monitor provides a simple, one-cable option for adding a second display to your setup. A second monitor is useful for many reasons, and whether you just want more screen real estate on your already-crowded desk, or you need a second display to take on the go with your laptop, the ThinkVision LT1421 fits the bill.
This portable monitor is slim and lightweight, measuring about 0.37 inch thick and weighing 1.8 pounds on its own, or about 0.85 inch and 2.4 pounds with its protective cover attached. The 14-inch screen gives you 1366 by 768 pixels to work with, an acceptable resolution for a display of this size.
On the back of the ThinkVision LT1421 is a small raised box that houses the kickstand, the Micro-USB port for connecting the monitor to your PC, and the brightness controls. The only cable you'll need to take with you is the included USB cable, as the monitor draws all of the power it needs from the USB connection. On the end that plugs into your computer, the cable splits into two USB connectors in case one does not provide enough power.
The included cover protects the display in transport and can act as a base for you to set the monitor on atop a desk or table. The kickstand can slot into grooves in the cover to help hold the monitor securely, but I found the kickstand to be strong and grippy enough to maintain the viewing angle even without the cover underneath it. The one drawback: The cover can be awkward to put on, and difficult to remove.
DisplayLink software and drivers power this USB-connected monitor. It's the same arrangement as on the Mobile Monitor Technology Field Monitor Pro Classic I tested previously, which means it suffers from the same inability to render smooth gradients and the same odd color profile that you can't edit. You’ll need to install the DisplayLink software on any system you plan to use with the monitor. In my tests, Windows 7 could not install the drivers automatically, so you'll have to install from the included CD, or download drivers from DisplayLink's website. Drivers are also available for OS X.
In use, I found that the ThinkVision LT1421 has fairly narrow viewing angles. It'll work if you're giving a presentation to a few people, as the side-to-side viewing angle is decent, but colors shift significantly if you move too high or too low. Colors look a little washed out, and text is not supercrisp due to the lower resolution being stretched out over 14 inches. In my tests, the matte screen was great under office lighting, with no glare and good brightness, even when I had plugged only one of the two ends of the USB cable into my laptop (a five-year-old Lenovo x61t). In fact, all of the test laptops I tried plugging the monitor into were able to supply sufficient power through just one USB port.
Video playback over the USB connection is lag-free and mostly smooth; a test YouTube video dropped a few frames in full-screen mode, but played back smoothly in the browser window.
The Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421 portable USB-powered monitor makes for a great addition to your travel bag with its slim profile, included cover, and straightforward, one-cable connection. The monitor performs best as a secondary display for email, text, and reference material, though I wouldn't rule out sneaking in the occasional video while you work on your main screen.
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ZBar lets you place a different wallpaper on every monitor, and control how it is cropped and resized.ZBar comes from Zhorn Software, makers of the fantastic sticky-note freeware utility Stickies. Much like Stickies, ZBar feels very low-fat and focused. But whereas Stickies is a mature utility with lots of features, ZBar offers more narrow functionality, and does exactly two things: Wallpapers and taskbar.
ZBar's Options dialog is sensible and to the point.When you drag an application onto the secondary monitor, its icon disappears off the primary taskbar, and shows up only on the secondary one. This usually works well, but can be confusing with some pinned applications. I have Total Commander pinned to my taskbar; With ZBar, when I drag a Total Commander window to the secondary monitor, its pinned button doesn't disappear off the primary taskbar, but clicking it runs a new instance of Total Commander instead of switching to the one that's currently running.
ZBar can display a large, comfortable, six-month calendar.ZBar's wallpaper support is very basic. It just lets you pick a different background image for each screen, and that's about it. It supports only JPG, BMP, and GIF images, not PNGs. If you are looking for a more powerful tool that would randomly rotate wallpapers or pull wallpapers off the Internet, you might be better off with popular freeware utility John's Background Switcher.
MultiMon Taskbar Free feels old, but if your taskbar needs are very basic, it may suffice.The application is as bare-bones as they get. The MultiMon taskbar is horizontal and fixed to the bottom of the screen. It is "Windows default" gray, a color that is increasingly rare in today's Aero-drenched translucent interfaces. If you have fond memories of the taskbar used in Windows NT 4, that's pretty much what you'll see here.
MultiMonitor Taskbar Pro offers a lean and simple taskbar, as well as a way to quickly shuttle windows between monitors.MultiMon Taskbar Pro lets you place a simple horizontal taskbar on your secondary monitor. It comes with five color schemes, ranging from "Classic Gray Style" all the way to Windows 7. No matter what color scheme you choose, the application always feels like the Windows XP taskbar: Each application gets a wide button with a tiny icon and a long text label.