1. No.
2. No.
3. Both monitors need to be connected and powered on. You'll need a video card that supports dual monitor, there are many these days that have DVI and a VGA connector and those will work. If your current video card doesn't have dual monitor support then you can buy another video card. PCI video cards tend to be more expensive than what they are worth but a PCIe video card can come dirt cheap (as low as $20). I'd pursue a single video card that supports dual monitor though as it will provide the same video quality to both monitors.
4. Just download drivers for the video card. If it supports dual monitor then when you look at your Display Settings you will see the additional monitor. Select it and check "Extend desktop" and it will extend your display to the second monitor. Some various video adapters have different ways going about this but they are all relatively the same.
5. Using dual monitor too much will cause you to die of happiness. I have a 22-inch widescreen LCD at home so it's a plus but at work I run dual 17-inch Dell LCD monitors. I work so much more effectively with dual monitor. It really helps you multitask if that's your thing.

Typically the video card will say that it has dual DVI.

I also completely agree with JonMCC33... I have 3 monitors, and I die of happiness all the time with my setup... here's a pic of the old setup (I've upgraded the monitor in the middle now)

Thanks for the help =) I've been trying to get a DVI-D=VGA adapter but no luck, =( I want to know if I can connect a DVI-I(male)=VGA(female) adapter on my DVI-D(female) graphic card, would it give me trouble? the little 4 pins seem to be a problem nevertheless if you think it could work im buying the DVI-I=VGA.

I have an nVidia GeForce 7100 yet it has a DVI-D dual link(no pins, only the little bar) port, not a DVI-I dual link port (little bar + pins) wich is the only one I found at stores .. much like theese: http://www.cs.unc.edu/Research.....dvicon.gif

As I said I have found adapters but only DVI-I not DVI-D this is why I need to know if it could work.. or else I think I may have to buy a VGA-VGA splitter to connect both my monitors to my PC but they're far more expensive than the DVI-VGA adapters I've found

Question for you. I have two monitors, setup to extend to the second. One monitor is of course a laptop monitor, and the 2nd is a 19" monitor. What I want to be able to do is have the laptop for the user to use, but the 2nd monitor setup up and turned lengthwise to allow for complete document viewing.

When I rotate the 2nd screen physically, the viewable is now on it's side. I have tried to go into the nvida software and rotate the screen with software, and that works on the 2nd screen, but then my laptop is now sideways.

What do I need to do to get this to work?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I was wondering, can I use my DVi and HDMi and do a dual monitor set up. If I could that would be great, if i couldn't what would be an alternative?