LCD monitor as second laptop display

I have an HP ze4560us (AMD) laptop with XP. I am attempting to use a Westinghouse LCD as a larger display. At first attempt the lcd did not display anything, I adjusted settings and after which it displayed only my wallpaper. I downloaded the latest ATI drive. At first start up, both displays showed windows starting up and then during the next log-on screen the lcd goes black. After windows loads on the laptop the wallpaper displays again. When the cursor shows on the LCD I was able to open a word document via right-click but none of my icons are displayed. I did not attempt to play anything via media center as of yet. Any insight will be much appreciated.