Laptop to HDTV

This is the second go round I have had with the monitor on my Gateway laptop going bad, they fixed it once under warranty but now I would have to pay, I had some thick brown lines on it the other day, so I am guessing that the monitor is not long for this world.
I am here to ask about making my laptop work with my HDTV, all I will need is a VGA cable right? Then I should be able to see what's on the laptop screen without the laptop screen working properly, or will that work ?? If its a simple as just that, is this ALL I will need or will I need some sort of software to go with it. :confused

 

As long as the HDTV has a VGA port, you can just plug a cable in to the laptop VGA port, the other end into the HDTV's VGA port, and then use the hotkey on the keyboard to send the signal to the TV. You're looking for one of the "F" keys (you know, F1, F2, F3, etc) that has a picture of a monitor on it, or might actually say "LCD/CRT" or just "CRT". Then after the cable is plugged in, hold down the "Fn" key (usually in the lower left corner of the keyboard) while pressing the hotkey, and VOILA' ! There it is!