laptop screen to tv

[rh71]

Laptop: HP Pavilion G7-1070us on WIN 7
new TV: Samsung 55" LED SMART tv (just plugged in today)
previous TV: Samsung 42" LCD TV

With the old tv, we would be able to use an HDMI cable from the laptop to the tv without issue. We could see the cursor move and desktop icons on both the tv and the laptop itself.

Now that we've plugged it into the new tv (same HDMI cable into tv's HDMI port 2), what happens on the laptop is only the desktop background is shown, no cursor, no desktop icons. The laptop keys still operate fine, as it displays on the tv just fine. If I remove the HDMI cable from the laptop, the laptop returns to normal.

Anyone know why this is happening on the laptop when it worked fine for the old Samsung? Seems like it puts it into a special mode of some sort? This is not desirable because we don't want to have to keep plugging/unplugging the HDMI cable on the laptop in order to use it.

 

[fralexandr]

right click on desktop and select screen resolution
there should be a way to set it to mirror the displays

it seems like you've somehow set it to extend desktop with the TV as the primary display?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/understanding-multiple-monitors

 

[spacejamz]

Extending your display is the better way to go IMO...

You can move the window that you want to display over to your TV screen and still 'work/play' on your laptop screen...

 

[rh71]

got it, thanks - parents want to keep it simple. 😉

 

[MongGrel]

I extend mine, I agree.

Duplicate works if you want to do one thing on both I guess, or I had one in the past it was clone depending.

 

[tential]

I duplicate personally. A lot of video watching gets messed up for me when I don't use duplicate and try to extend.