GBMShortCut: StarTech’s USB to VGA Dock

The good folks at StarTech.com sent along an evaluation unit of their USB to VGA Dock for us to take a look at and here we go. This is a very lightweight docking solution that in addition to providing USB ports, a Lan Port, and audio ports for you to hook your Tablet PC or notebook into, it also allows you to run a VGA signal to a second monitor as well. In my evaluation everything works as advertised. Once you install the drivers you can control a second monitor via Windows (XP or Vista) controls or an icon in the Task Tray. You can choose to extend or mirror you screen up to WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution. Of course your monitor and display card need to handle that as well.

The plug and play aspect works well as you’ll see when I test it out using Lenovo’s ThinkPad X301. Yes, I’ve got one of those in for evaluation as well and will be talking more about that soon.