- 1). Look at the laptop's available video ports. If you're unsure of what constitutes a video port, consult the laptop's user manual for additional guidance. Four common types of video ports exist: VGA, DVI, HDMI and S-Video. Consult the tips section for more information about each type.
- 2). Acquire the necessary components: a cable and a monitor of the corresponding type. Alternatively, adapters may be used to connect cable types. For instance, VGA-to-DVI adapters are very common and may allow you to attach a laptop with a VGA port to a DVI monitor.
- 3). Power the laptop on and boot its operating system.
- 4). Connect the laptop to the monitor with the cable while the monitor is powered on. It should automatically adjust the screen to display on the external monitor, but the display may look wrong due to conflicting resolution settings between the laptop screen and external monitor.
- 5). Open display settings on the laptop. Here you can change the screen resolution as necessary and adjust other settings, such as dual monitor display. In Windows, this can be done by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing "Properties" (in older versions) or "Personalize" (in Windows 7).
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