Possible to Use Surface Pro as Extended Monitor via Mini DisplayPort (In-bound)?

[Mike-EEE]

Hello Community,

I have a Surface Pro that has been sitting around for a while now. I have had the crazy idea of connecting it to the PC as an additional monitor that enables touchscreen capabilities.

All the searching I have done suggests the other way. That is, you can attach a 2nd monitor to the Surface, but what I want to to do is connect it to an existing PC via its existing mini DisplayPort and have it function as an extended monitor from my primary PC, but in a touch screen capacity.

Is this possible?

Thank you for any assistance/consideration you can provide,
Michael

 

[T Moore]

All video is output only, no way

 

[Mike-EEE]

Not *all* video, @T Moore: https://www.howtogeek.com/269093/how-to-cast-your-windows-or-android-display-to-a-windows-10-pc/



I'm basically looking for the equivalent of that, but with wires out of my primary PC to the Surface Pro.

 

[Mike-EEE]

This is exactly what I would like to do, but when I go to Connect on my primary PC, I see the message "Your PC or mobile device doesn't support Miracast, so it can't project wirelessly."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-4rK98lseI

 

[jnjroach]

This is exactly what I would like to do, but when I go to Connect on my primary PC, I see the message "Your PC or mobile device doesn't support Miracast, so it can't project wirelessly."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-4rK98lseI

It means your wireless card on your PC does not support WiFi Direct Connections that Miracast uses, you can get an inexpensive WiFi USB Dongle for your desktop and it should work.

 

[Mike-EEE]

Oh man you might be onto something there, @jnjroach. I do have a Belkin USB N and while I can get online/internet with it, the message still remains and I do not see my Surface Pro from my PC. I was able to connect/pair with it through Bluetooth, however. That doesn't seem to provide any additional options as far as display though.

 

[jnjroach]

Oh man you might be onto something there, @jnjroach. I do have a Belkin USB N and while I can get online/internet with it, the message still remains and I do not see my Surface Pro from my PC. I was able to connect/pair with it through Bluetooth, however. That doesn't seem to provide any additional options as far as display though.

Is it one of the adapters that require additional drivers?

 

[Mike-EEE]

Is it one of the adapters that require additional drivers?

There is an install, but I did try it and rebooted, resulting in the same message. If you know if a dongle, in particular, I would be interested in checking it out.

 

[jnjroach]

There is an install, but I did try it and rebooted, resulting in the same message. If you know if a dongle, in particular, I would be interested in checking it out.

It's possible that the dongle doesn't support Miracast..

I would get a newer one...Netgear or Linksys

 

[Mike-EEE]

It's possible that the dongle doesn't support Miracast..

I would get a newer one...Netgear or Linksys

Ah!

You reminded me that I have this sucker on another laptop in the house, @jnjroach. I plugged it into my workstation PC, and the message was removed! Unfortunately, I still cannot cast to my Surface Pro but, ironically, I can now cast from my Surface Pro to my PC! LOL.

That said, I think I have what I need. Things obviously "work" (or, at least, on the right path here). I am going to get a Miracast transmitter and see how that does.

Thank you for your assistance!

 

[ochhanz]

Ah!

You reminded me that I have this sucker on another laptop in the house, @jnjroach. I plugged it into my workstation PC, and the message was removed! Unfortunately, I still cannot cast to my Surface Pro but, ironically, I can now cast from my Surface Pro to my PC! LOL.

That said, I think I have what I need. Things obviously "work" (or, at least, on the right path here). I am going to get a Miracast transmitter and see how that does.

Thank you for your assistance!

, could you tell use how your experience is when you have the Miracast transmitter? Tia

 

[Mike-EEE]

, could you tell use how your experience is when you have the Miracast transmitter? Tia

Sure thing. FWIW I was incorrect with the previous item as it is HDMI and am braving into this thing instead. Not too happy about that 3-star rating, but it's the only transmitter I found. Other products are labelled as transmitters but are actually receivers.

In any case, I will report any success/failure here.

 

[CrippsCorner]

I love the idea of Miracast but man it's so laggy... just need to get rid of that final (video) cable for the dream of a drop and go solution from Surface to full desktop without having to plug anything in.

 

[Mike-EEE]

I love the idea of Miracast but man it's so laggy... just need to get rid of that final (video) cable for the dream of a drop and go solution from Surface to full desktop without having to plug anything in.

Yes that would be nice. :amaze:

What I don't get is... why does this all have to be wireless? Why can we not simply stream video over the network like ala RDP? Wayyy overcomplicated here IMO. Especially with how buggy/laggy wireless has proven to be. Seems like you would provide wired monitor streaming first and foremost, and then wireless as the cherry-on-top... if you can make it work.

 

[Mike-EEE]

OK... I *FINALLY* got this working! First off, that ScreenBeam didn't work at all. It actually requires a receiver which plugs into an HDMI port like a TV or Monitor. Totally not what I want to do here.

I got this working by the time-honored, traditional, good ol' fashioned rebooting of machines. I had to reboot both my workstation PC and my Surface Pro. I also removed the WiFi usb adapter before doing so.

After both machines rebooted, I first went into the Surface Pro -> Connect (lower right settings action center) -> Projecting to this PC, and set the first dropdown to "Available everywhere". What this does is create a new WiFi network adapter if you look in your network connections.

I then inserted the WiFi usb adapter into my workstation, connected to my local network, and went to its Connect in the lower right settings (action center), where it began to search for my Surface.

In the past attempts I tried this, nothing appeared. But this time I got the Surface Pro and other devices on my network that the Surface Pro sees.

So, in short, rebooting solved this problem. I should have thought of that sooner.

ALSO... and this is a total headscratcher and incredibly infuriating... but, I took out the WiFi usb adapter to return it to the machine that it was installed on, and my display was still active on the Surface Pro! So, it appears it requires a WiFi to connect to the device, but then it does establish a connection through the wire if it exists. icanteven with that!!!

Hopefully this will help someone out there with a similiar situation.

 

[ochhanz]

ALSO... and this is a total headscratcher and incredibly infuriating... but, I took out the WiFi usb adapter to return it to the machine that it was installed on, and my display was still active on the Surface Pro! So, it appears it requires a WiFi to connect to the device, but then it does establish a connection through the wire if it exists. icanteven with that!!!

Hopefully this will help someone out there with a similiar situation.

[SUB][/SUB], that it is interesting. Were both of your devices connected to the network with a ethernet cable? Would that mean that we could use Windows 10 Project/Connect with a crappy wifi as long as network cables are plugged in?

 

[Mike-EEE]

[SUB][/SUB], that it is interesting. Were both of your devices connected to the network with a ethernet cable? Would that mean that we could use Windows 10 Project/Connect with a crappy wifi as long as network cables are plugged in?

Indeed, both machines are plugged into a hub that I have nearby. My impression is that this is all possible and designed exclusively to work via WiFi (or more accurately, WiFi Direct). The destination machine establishes its own WiFi Direct Network Adapter that shows up in its network connections. The ONLY way the destination machine makes itself available to the source machine is if the source machine also has a wifi connection on the same network as the destination machine. However, once the connection has been established, this appears to be unnecessary altogether as traffic is routed through the wired network if it exists. Truly perplexing.