Washington - Think about how much time you spend switching from one application to another, searching for windows that are hidden behind other windows, or opening and re-opening applications.

It adds up. And depending upon the type of work you do, it can add up to a lot - a lot of frustration and a lot of lost productivity. The solution may be to add a second monitor.

With today's PCs, adding another monitor to your setup is fairly easy, and the advantages are manifold. Not only will you be able to give an entire application - such as your e-mail program - a permanent home of its own during the day.

But you can also use a second monitor to store parts of applications - such as the toolbar or toolbox palette of your favourite photo or video editing application - so that the other monitor can be used for your working space or documents.

In short, most people who get a taste of working with two monitors don't want to go back to using just one. Here's how to get started.

--- Assemble what you need

First of all, you need to be using Windows XP, Vista, or another operating system that supports two (or more) monitors. Most do today.

Now it's on to the hardware. To use two monitors, you must have either a single video card that has two monitor outputs and supports dual monitors, or you'll need to buy a second video card and install it in your PC.

By far the most elegant and least troublesome option is to have one video card that supports two displays. The reason: if you want to add a second video card to your current system, you'll need to determine the type of card to buy, and you'll need to try to get a card that uses a similar video chipset as your existing card.

Let's say your current computer supports only one monitor, and you'd like to add a second video card. You'll need to find out, first, what type of bus connections are available in your PC. You can buy video cards using PCI Express, PCI, or AGP interfaces to the motherboard, but most motherboards have only PCI Express, PCI, or AGP slot, and that slot is probably already taken up by your current video card. To add another video card, you'll likely have to buy a PCI video card, since PCI slots may be the only ones free in your system.

If you do add a second card this way, try to get one that uses a chip set from the manufacturer of the card currently in your computer. For example, if your current computer uses a chip set from Nvidia, get another Nvidia card. If it uses a chip set from ATI, get another ATI card. The reason: running graphics drivers from two different manufacturers can be a recipe for disaster - or at least headaches.

The simpler route if you do not have a graphics card that supports two monitors is simply to replace your current video card with one that does. Chances are good that if your computer is so old that dual monitors are not supported, you'll benefit greatly from an updated graphics card anyway, and you won't pay much more for one with dual- monitor support than you would for an additional single-monitor card.

Just find out which connector type - PCI Express, PCI, or AGP - your current motherboard uses for your video card, and buy a dual- monitor card that has the same connection. You'll find a plethora of reasonably-priced dual-monitor video cards from online retailers such as Newegg. com. Most video cards sold today, in fact, support two monitors.

Once you have your additional card or your replacement card, install it, or have it installed. Replacing a video card is quite easy. But if you've not done it before, you're well advised to find some illustrated instructions on the Web, such as the "Installing a video card" page at http://www.fonerbooks.com/r_video.htm. Just be sure not to force any video card out of the computer.

If it's resisting being removed, chances are that there's a small plastic latch close to the motherboard that clips into the video card. Be sure to move the latch away from the video card before pulling the card out of its socket. If this part of the operation frightens you, have an experienced computer technician help.

--- Selecting the monitor

Thankfully, selecting and configuring your second monitor is much less complicated than making sure your computer can run two screens. This is the fun part.

First, there are a few rules about which type of monitor you can add to your system. One of them, however, is not about size. You do not need to match the size or brand of your current display. A dual- monitor graphics cards - or two separate cards - can drive two monitors of very different size.

For aesthetic reasons, you may want both of your monitors to be roughly equivalent in size, but once you get both set up and running, you probably won't even notice if one of them is, say, 21 inches and

=the other is 17. You'll probably use them for different types of applications, so there's no reason to worry overly much about matching them.

If you're adding a second monitor, you will, though, want to be sure that it can run from the type of connectors that your graphics cards support. For instance, if your current display uses a DVI connector and your current dual-monitor graphics card has one DVI and one AGP connector, then you'll want to be sure that the second monitor can use the AGP connector.

If you're starting from scratch with a new dual-monitor card and you're using flat panel screens, make sure you get a dual monitor card with two DVI outputs, and then you should be fine using the DVI connectors on the flat panel monitors themselves.

If you have deep pockets and you want to get a very large second monitor to add to your smaller current monitor, be sure that the graphics card you use can support the maximum - and optimal - resolution of the new, larger display. Most current dual-monitor graphics cards today can support resolutions up to 2560 x 1600, which is enough to drive even very large, 30-inch LCD displays, so you probably won't have a monitor size concern unless you're using an older video card.

--- Software configuration

If you're replacing your current video card, uninstall any video drivers in your computer, install the new card, and then install the new drivers that came with the card. Then hook the monitors up.

If you're adding a second video card, shut down the computer, install the card, restart it, and see whether your current drivers work with the new card. They may if the card uses the same chipset as the currently-installed video card. If not, install the new drivers after your computer boots up.

Once the video card drivers are installed and working properly, you'll need to configure your operating system to recognise and use the dual monitor setup. Sometimes, with newer graphics cards and drivers, a configuration utility for dual monitors is included. But even without that, you can configure your operating system to use two monitors. We'll assume you're using Windows.

When Windows first boots up after you've installed the second monitor, one of your monitors probably will not display anything at first. You'll need to instruct Windows that you have a second monitor and how it should be used.

To do that, right-click an empty area of your desktop. If you're using Window XP, select Properties from the resulting pop-up menu, and then choose the Settings tab. If you're using Vista, select Personalise from the pop-up menu, and then select Display Settings.

In either case, you'll end up in the Display Settings dialog box, where you'll see two numbered boxes that represent the two monitors connected to your computer. Click the box with the number 2 in it - this represents your second monitor - and then select the box labeled "Extend the desktop onto this monitor." Once you click OK, you should see your second monitor come to life.

When it does, you can drag applications to it and leave them there. Better yet, enlist the help of a dual monitor utility such as UltraMon
(http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon), which gives dual- monitor users lots of nifty tools, including the ability to set up separate taskbars on each monitor.

Whether you have a spare monitor sitting around or you intend to buy another monitor for the purpose of setting up a dual display system, you're going to love working with two monitors - and you'll reach new levels of productivity that simply weren't possible before. (dpa)