How to Close Your Laptop and Use an External Monitor
Laptops have long overtaken desktops. This means millions of people use portable PCs every day for entertainment, work and school activities. All laptops have built-in displays that are used for working with and creating content, but sometimes you need more screen real estate than the 12-17 inches provided by default.
All modern laptops make it easy to increase your productivity by connecting an external display via HDMI or USB-C/DisplayPort. best gaming monitor or best computer monitorMany people prefer to plug in an external monitor (or an external docking station with a monitor attached) and close the laptop lid. Close the lid to position all monitors at the same height and take advantage of the vertical docking station. It also generally leaves more available space on your desk.
However, by default, closing the laptop lid puts it into standby mode or forces it to hibernate. Obviously, this is no starter for anyone trying to get work done on Windows 10 or 11. So here’s a quick and easy way to keep your computer active when the lid is closed.
How to keep your laptop running when you close the lid
1. Search for “change the closing” in the Windows search bar Click on top result: “Change the behavior of closing the lid.”
2. Opens the system settings menu, where you can control the behavior of “when the lid is closed”. You have the option to choose what happens when the laptop is running on battery power or plugged into the wall.
3. Select “Do Nothing” from the drop down menu When you insert it, next to “When you close the lid”If you prefer, you can also apply this setting when your laptop is running on battery power, but if you’re using an external monitor or docked for increased power usage. I don’t recommend it if you do, but feel free to do so if you want.
Once plugged in and the lid closed, the laptop stays on unless I tell it otherwise.