Microsoft’s Wireless Display Adapter lets you stream stuff from your PC via Miracast

By Konrad Krawczyk Published September 23, 2014

microsofts wireless display adapter lets stream stuff pc tv pre order now microsoft — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Intel may have designs on reshaping the PC landscape with wireless display mirroring and other cable-less computing concepts. For now, though, if you want to cut cords while mirroring and streaming stuff from your PC to your TV, you might want to check out Microsoft’s new Wireless Display Adapter, which the company just announced.

The adapter requires that your device is enabled with Miracast technology to work. If it is, and you want to project whatever is on your PC to your HDTV, all you have to do is plug the adapter into your TV via its USB and HDMI connectors.

Recommended Videos

Your TV should then show up as a connect-able device in Windows 8.1. If the adapter works as described, this could be a great way to run a meeting, share photos from a recent vacation, or host a movie night by streaming a video from your laptop to your TV.

The adapter also works with projectors and monitors as well. However, as we mentioned, you need a Miracast-compatible Windows 8.1 machine, or a Miracast-compatible Android device running version 4.2.1 of Google’s mobile OS to mirror stuff. It doesn’t appear to be compatible with iOS, or Windows 7.

Also, the cable separating the USB and HDMI ports on the Wireless Display Adapter doesn’t appear to be too lengthy. So, if you want to stream stuff to your TV using this adapter, the HDMI and USB connections on your TV will have to be pretty close together. The USB port provides power to the adapter, so it has to be plugged in order for the whole setup to work.

You can pre-order the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter right now from the company’s official site for $59.95. The adapter will begin shipping October 31.

Check out a video of the adapter in action below, courtesy of Microsoft, and YouTube.

Topics

Konrad Krawczyk

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…

Computing

Bid farewell to this small but helpful Windows 11 feature

The Surface Pro 11 on a white table in front of a window.

As Microsoft mentions in a December 12 blog post, Windows 11 users will soon no longer receive future updates for the suggested actions menu. The helpful feature would offer you related actions when you copy items like dates or phone numbers with actions to create an event or make a call.

Microsoft first introduced the feature in a Windows 11 2022 update. It made the suggested actions menu appear and gave contextual information based on the copied data. Microsoft describes the feature as follows: "Suggested actions that appear when you copy a phone number or future date in Windows 11 are deprecated and will be removed in a future Windows 11 update."

Computing

AMD’s next-gen gaming laptop chips may have just leaked

AMD's CEO delivering the Computex 2024 presentation.

AMD is readying its Strix Point Halo and Krackan Point APUs, with a potential launch in January at CES 2025. Ahead of launch, details about an Acer Swift Go 16 laptop with an upcoming AMD laptop chip have been spotted on Geekbench.

According to the leaked listing, the laptop is powered by a Krackan Point engineering sample with an OPN Code of "100-000000713-40_Y," which is most likely the Ryzen AI 7 350. It features eight cores, divided into two clusters of four cores each, utilizing Zen 5 and Zen 5c architectures. It has a base frequency of 2GHz, which can reach a maximum boost clock of 5.05GHz, along with 16MB of L3 cache and 8MB of L2 cache.

Computing

Today only: 55% off the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 5 opened up on a table.

Today is the last day of Lenovo's 4-Day Sale, which means there are plenty of great laptop deals happening, but you have to act fast. We’ve picked out one of our very favorites: the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 is down to $1,080. According to Lenovo, that’s reduced from $2,399, but as experienced folk know, Lenovo tends to be a little optimistic with its estimated value system. What we do know though is that $1,080 is a great price for the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4. Here’s a deeper look at what it has to offer, but remember: the sale ends today so you only have hours to snag this offer.

Why you should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4
Lenovo is one of the best laptop brands, particularly for business laptops, so the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 is built to last. With this particular model, you get a 13th-generation Intel Core i5-1335U CPU along with 16GB of memory and 512GB of SSD storage. That trio forms essentially the core things you need from a business laptop. There’s also a great looking 14-inch WUXGA screen with 1920 x 1200 resolution, 45% NTSC, 300 nits of brightness, and anti-glare properties. It’s a little smaller than some other laptops, but that means it’s very portable and you can easily take it with you on your travels.