I have 2 laptops, both Toshiba Satellites. Laptop #1 is my main computer. It contains all my data. It was given to me by a friend after he picked it up by the screen and mashed his thumb through the LCD. I removed the screen and hooked it up to an external LCD monitor. Laptop #1 is RUNNING Windows XP Home Edition.

Laptop # 2 is brand new and still in the box. It runs Vista. I don't want to go there, and plan to upgrade it to Windows 7 when it is released to the public.

I want to take the external monitor off Laptop # 1, and move it into my hotel lobby. That leaves me without a screen for laptop # 1.

I want to run laptop # 1 through Laptop # 2 so I can use laptop # 2 as an external monitor. Or in other words, possibly turn laptop # 1 into an external hard drive of laptop # 2.

I just went out and bought a 10 foot Cat5e Crossover network cable. (ethernet cable with 2 male ends).

Question #1--What do I do next?

Question # 2-- Which Wi-Fi card do I use to go online? Laptop #1 or Laptop # 2?
23 hours ago - 3 days left to answer.

1. Share the Monitor. You must have a lot of "free" time... I'm not sure you can "share" the monitor on laptop 2 (use as external monitor for laptop 1).

2. Remote Desktop Connection. If you're willing to boot up laptop 2 into the Vista operating system, I assume it supports remote logon to laptop 1 using Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection. If SUCCESSFUL, you would be operating within Windows XP on laptop 1, using keyboard, mouse, and monitor of laptop 2. Use "Help and Support" function available within your laptop operating systems for more information on this. Or research on internet.

3. Transfer Data to Laptop 2. While the "external" monitor is still available, boot up both laptop 1 and laptop 2 and transfer your "data" to laptop 2. You may do this either using "crossover" cable, USB thumb drives, CD/DVD burns, or direct cable connection (serial or parallel). Yes, I saw you don't want to use Vista.

4. External Hard Drive. PULL hard drive out of laptop 1 and place in an external hard drive enclosure which will interface to laptop 2 thru USB port. Or transfer all laptop 1 data to USB thumb drive or USB external drive. Then use laptop 2 with Vista to access the data. Yes, I saw you don't want to use Vista.

5. Swap Hard Drives. How closely related are the two Toshiba Satellite laptops. Are they the same model? If not the same model, do they use the same chipset and CPU. Windows XP is meant to be used on the same system it was installed on. However, if they're CLOSE, MAYBE you could replace the hard drive of laptop 2 with the one from laptop 1.

6. Can Someone Walk Me Through This? I'm not volunteering. You're the one with the free time. You could just pick up another external monitor for laptop 1.