{"id":19167,"date":"2016-03-12T18:27:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T18:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=19167"},"modified":"2023-04-09T14:59:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T13:59:49","slug":"cast-a-long-shadow-with-windows-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=19167","title":{"rendered":"Cast a Long Shadow with Windows 10"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the more promising additional features in Windows 10 was the apparent ease with which you can display your computer display on to your TV set using the \u201ccast to\u2026\u201d feature. If only it were as easy as that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The web is full of half-assed articles thrown up by Google whenever you search for how to cast your Windows 10 display to a TV. None of them actually tell you how to do it on a PC \u2013 it\u2019s inevitably some American tablet or a smartphone they\u2019re talking about, running Android \u2013 not Windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Microsoft online support doesn\u2019t know exactly what it is talking about. I spent some time with them over the issue and they wanted to selectively begin to disable every installed service to \u201ccheck for conflicts\u201d. I told them that it wasn\u2019t that, because I can\u2019t cast from my Surface Pro 2, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the course of my investigations, I discovered that the casting technology in question \u2013 Miracast \u2013 needs to be supported by your graphics card (I\u2019ve since discovered that your WiFi card needs to support it, too). When I contacted NVIDIA to see if my GeForce GTX 660 had such compatibility, I was informed that NONE of their current graphics cards does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I found this link on Intel\u2019s website<\/a>. It is a small tool which checks to see if you can run WiDi (as it is called) on your system. Here\u2019s what it told me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If nothing else, I can now stop worrying about why I can\u2019t get it to work. On my desktop, at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because my Surface Pro 2 reports that it CAN support WiDi. Now I need to try and figure out why it won\u2019t bloody work when I try to cast to my Amazon FireStick \u2013 with Amazon\u2019s online support being pretty useless in not saying if Windows can cast to it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a nutshell, if you are having problems using the supposedly simple \u201ccast to\u2026\u201d feature of Windows 10, unless your PC is brand new, top of the range, and doesn\u2019t have an NVIDIA card, you are probably not going to be able to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Run the compatibility tool and go from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n