[SOLVED] Switching to external VGA output

Hi. Having major issues with my laptop and I really need some help.

I made the mistake of leaving my laptop in the same house as my young nephew for the first time -- big mistake. I got home and the LCD screen was broken. I'm in a money crunch so I can't afford to buy a new laptop, but I do have an extra monitor lying around.

I was informed that it was possible to plug said monitor into the external VGA port and switch the output to the monitor instead of the broken screen. The problem is that the LCD screen itself is broken beyond any repair; the computer will boot, attach to wireless, and work entirely perfectly by all indications, but I can't see anything going on, so I am having an understandable problem changing the settings.

Is there anything I can do to switch to the external VGA and monitor?

Specs: a Compaq Presario 2200 laptop running Windows XP Service Pack 2 and an HP Pavilion MX50 monitor.

Thanks a lot.

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I solved this problem myself.