Using Android tablet as a second screen for Windows PC

[Madmarcus]

I would like to use an android tablet as a second/extended screen for my PC. Both would be connected to the same wifi. A little Googling seems to suggest that with an iPad and Macbook this would be the Sidecar mode/app and would work fine. Is there such a thing for Windows? If so, how effective is it? Could you do light gaming? Netflix? How does it work with the on screen keyboard/Gboard for light typing?

Note that Lenovo seems to have its Project Unity that used to work for this application but earlier this year it seemingly updated to Freestyle which gets royally panned everywhere.

[Victoria Raverna]

If it is one of Samsung's newer tablets, you can do it but I haven't tried it myself with my Tab S8.

https://www.samsung.com/ca/support/mobi ... n-feature/

Also an optional Windows 10 app from Samsung that might help it works better:

https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail ... n-us&gl=us

[Madmarcus]

Nice. Unfortunately that link doesn't say if it is a wifi link or bluetooth link but I guess it is wifi. I didn't want to buy a Samsung tablet but that would be a nice feature.

I do wish there was some way to make this type of thing work without having to activate it on the Windows PC each time. I'd love to be able to sit in the living room and use a tablet with stylus as a screen. It would be fairly close to having a Android tablet plus a Surface in one device. But running upstairs to start it every time would get old fast! Yes it is a silly little trick but doing some work in Fusion 360 or playing certain games without retreating into my hobby room has some advantages.

[gilraen]

You could try something like Splashtop to just remote into your PC from the tablet - I think it's free if the devices are on the same network. Depends on what applications you are trying to use, though (there are limitations on responsiveness).

[Victoria Raverna]

You can try Steam link app. You can run almost anything that doesn't require administrator permission with it. I think if you run Steam as administrator (not recommended from security point), you can also run applications that require administrator permission.

[Madmarcus]

Steam Link? I'd always figured that was limited to your Steam library. I'd never thought of it as a generic way to log in.

As it is I'm going to put all of this on hold. My wife feels we shouldn't buy anything or really bring anything into the house until after the move. I might argue that a new tablet isn't much to move but it would tend to distract me from packing or cleaning so it is a bad idea. Plus I'm not seeing any terrific Black Friday deals unless I want to go all the way up to a new Surface Pro which wouldn't need to use these type of apps! Thanks for the info everyone!