Turn Mac Into External Monitor For Windows

If you have an iMac made in mid-2011 or later, then one thing you can do with it is to use it as an external monitor. Similar to Target Disk mode, where one Mac's internal hard drives can be.

Recently (less than one year ago) i bought an iMac 21,5'. Now i would like to use it as secondary monitor for my laptop. (My laptop runs Windows 7).

Is it possible? (I found conflicting opinions on the web, even on the Apple forum).

What type of cable do I need? (I will appreciate also a link to the product on some online store: amazon, ebay etc.) Thank you in advance. UPDATE: I tried air display. I'm not satisfied at all. Typical scenario: browser window on the main Windows laptop, dev tools/firebug on the secondary iMac screen.

The mouse goes fast between the 2 screens (GOOD), but when i changed the selected tab nothing happens. I had to drag the dev tools window to the main screen to get an update of the selected tab. Trial office 365 for mac. My test is ended here. I'm still waiting for other answers. I will prefer an answer that suggest me what kind of cable i've to buy, and where i can find it on the web.

Equipped iMacs prior to iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) (see ), like your iMac (Mid 2011), support: Target Display Mode lets you use your iMac as the external display for another, “primary” computer. Thunderbolt-only solution NOTE: This won't work for iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) and later iMac models as they. If you happen to own a follow these simple steps to extend your display (Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable required) (from ): • Connect the Thunderbolt cable to the Thunderbolt ports on each computer. • Make sure the iMac and the primary computer are turned on and awake. • Press ⌘ F2 on the keyboard of the iMac. (As a side note: with also support Target Display Mode. Kapersky internet security for mac amazon.

The steps to configure and enable Target Display mode.). A comment on DVI to Thunderbolt adaptors You can't use Mini DisplayPort to DVI or VGA adaptors: to connect a computer with a DVI/VGA port to a Thunderbolt display (from ): I can confirm that Mini DisplayPort to DVI converter works ONLY from a Mini DisplayPort computer port to a DVI display. The reverse direction is not supported by those converters, There is some hope, though, as the post goes on to say: but there are other much more expensive ones that will convert DVI computer ports to Mini DisplayPort display. The poster is probably refering to a product mentioned earlier in the thread: the, advertised like this: Connect a (.) LED Cinema Display to your DVI-equipped MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, or PC with this (.) Kanex solution. However, opinions diverge on whether it will work with a Thunderbolt display at all: • I am sure that Kanex don't do anything that will help you no matter how expensive it may be.

• As far as I am aware, and I have done a lot of reading about this, you can connect an older display to the new Thunderbolt port of a new MAC but you CANNOT connect the Thunderbolt display to anything other than a MAC with a Thunderbolt port. The Kanex thing works from a Thunderbolt port into an older display, DVI or whatever but you cannot convert MAC DVI into Thunderbolt.I think I've noticed that the LED Cinema Display is listed as a Mini DisplayPort display (from ): so the adaptor may indeed only work with Mini DisplayPort displays, not with Thunderbolt displays, and as far as I can tell, your iMac will act like a Thunderbolt display. It's up to you to try it, although $129.90 (as of this writing) is a steep price to pay for the Kanex adaptor just to test it.

Software-based solution If the solutions described above aren't feasible or cost-effective, you can use several software solutions. One is: Use your iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac or Windows PC as a second (or third) monitor with no messy cables or wires There is a free trial version. Note: Windows 7 Starter edition is not supported.

In addition to the above, other software solutions are, who offers a product called ScreenRecycler. Couple this with a VNC client like TightVNC or JollysFastVNC (from Jinx), you pay once for the main computer, and can use any number (one at a time) of other computers as a remote display. This software is currently in Beta, and I found that after 5-10 minutes of use, the remote display slowed and became very choppy. I don't know if this was because my main computer is running OS X 10.11 Beta, but I suspect it is just issues with the ScreenRecycler product. Also, the VNC Client does not detect the screen resolution of the host (remote) computer, and so does not allow you to take full screen unless it happens to be one of the predefined resolutions. I found Air Display to work very well with acceptable performance, using 2 laptops (1 Windows, 1 Mac) over WiFi 802.11n. Mac was primary, Windows was remote monitor.