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How can I extend my Windows desktop across another screen?

Well, there's a few solutions.

First off, if your computer's video card has 2 display outputs (or more!) and lets you manage both of them as displays simultaniously - then you can just plug in another screen, and then you can just select "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor." in the Display settings.

In all likelihood, this is not what you wanted to hear. You are also probably aware that you can just install another video card in your computer (PCI+AGP didn't work for me. Actually, since two 8-lane slots of PCI Express, have the same bandwith as two AGP slots, it would be worth looking into...)

Next option: Networking

Let's say that you have another computer, connected via network to your main computer. You can control the keyboard and mouse of the secondary computer using a combination win2vnc/x2vnc and x0vncserver (I'll write something about that.) or Synergy. This solution is for Windows being the primary, and a unix/Linux being the secondary - but can be configured for another set of platforms easily enough.

However, that doesn't actually extend your desktop. All it does is let you control the keyboard and mouse of another computer (which is pretty nifty, especially when you're using 2 different operating systems.)

So here's a few solutions that actually do extend your desktop:

• ZoneOS - http://www.zoneos.com
  free (open-source, actually) but only runs on MS Windows, and I couldn't get it to work under wine.
• MaxiVista - http://www.maxivista.com/
  There's a trial-version available from their website. Didn't work under wine at all, but I have a confirmed report that the full version works. Amazing software solution for a hardware-lack problem. You can watch medium-sized videos on the second screen!
• SideWindow - http://www.innobec.com/en/products.php
  AFAIK, this was designed to juse use the PocketPC, but I never managed to get it to work under wine.

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