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How to Control the LG 27UD88-W Monitor Directly From your MacBook over USB Type-C

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The LG 27 inch Class Ultra HD IPS 4K 27UD88-W Monitor is a gorgeous 4K display that you can directly connect to your Apple MacBook (Early 2015) directly over USB Type-C.  Not only does this monitor serve as a large secondary display for your smaller MacBook screen, it provides charging and USB port expansion for the MacBook.  The good news is that LG has released the OnScreen Control App for both Windows and Mac, allowing you a great deal more control of the monitor directly from your computer.

If you directly connect the LG 27 inch Class Ultra HD IPS 4K 27UD88-W Monitor to the Apple MacBook (Early 2015) without installing this OnScreen Control App, you can simply mirror or extend your MacBook screen to the LG monitor.  

Here I used the black USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable that came with the LG monitor (LG communicates through messages on the display that they want you to only use their cables). 

Note that many other USB Type-C to Type-C cables sold together with charging accessories like the Apple USB-C Charge Cable (2m) or the cable that came with the LG Google Nexus 5X only support charging and USB 2.0 connections and can't be used with the LG monitor for DisplayPort over USB Type-C.   If you need to use another USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable other than the one that came with the LG monitor, make sure you use a certified USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable like this one from Belkin.

In order to see all the resolutions the LG monitor supports, remember that in the Mac's System Preferences -> Displays, you need to go to the 'LG Ultra HD' display settings window on the monitor, hold down the option key and select 'Scaled'.

In the Mac's System Information, you can also see all the LG Monitor connected and also all the USB chips in the LG Monitor and USB devices connected downstream of the monitor.

To go beyond simple controls on the Mac System Preferences -> Displays menu, go to this link and select the 'Software, Firmware, & Drivers' tab to find and download the Mac OS X version of the OnScreen Control App.

Once downloaded, you can unzip the file and then run the resulting installer package.

After installation is completed, you'll need to open System Preferences -> Privacy -> Accessibility and then enable OnScreen Control.

You'll need to make you restart the Mac before continuing.

If the LG monitor is not connected to the Mac, if you select the OnScreen Control icon on the top right of the screen, all the Screen Split options will be grayed out.


Once you connect the MacBook to the LG monitor, you can see the Screen Split options will now be selectable.

If you open the OnScreen Control App itself, the following screenshots show all the controls possible with the App.

 

Here you can also directly select your Screen Split options.  Screen Split allows you to decide how you want to populate various windows on your screen.  After you select the split configuration, once you drag a window into one of the screen split partitions, the window will automatically resize and reshape to fit into that partition's shape.  No more fooling around with moving windows around and dragging them until they are just the right size- the Screen Split function does this automatically for you.

The LG 27 inch Class Ultra HD IPS 4K 27UD88-W Monitor works well with the Apple MacBook (Early 2015) and it's great that LG has enabled more direct control over the monitor through the OnScreen Control App.  Professional users, gamers, and media editing enthusiasts will all enjoy using the LG monitor as a color accurate 4K monitor that also serves as a USB docking station that charges your MacBook.

For even more fun on using the USB port of the LG monitor to enable a third display, click here.

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