receiving, at an adaptive display engine, a request for recommended settings for an external display device that has been connected to a client computing device, the request identifying a display configuration, the display configuration including one or more current settings or characteristics of the external display device and one or more current settings or characteristics of an internal display device of the client computing device, the request also including device information for the client computing device;

providing the display configuration to a predictor of the adaptive display engine;

using, by the predictor, the device information to locate a plurality of entries in a settings prediction data structure that are associated with the device information, each of the plurality of entries defining a different set of relationships between one or more possible settings or characteristics of the external display device and one or more possible settings or characteristics of the internal display device;

determining that a set of relationships between the one or more current settings or characteristics of the external display device and the one or more current settings or characteristics of the internal display device matches the set of relationships defined in a first entry of the plurality of entries;

in response to the determination, selecting settings defined in the first entry as recommended settings for the external display device; and

providing the recommend settings to the client computing device to thereby enable the client computing device to automatically apply the recommended settings to configure the external display device.