Dual screen monitor win10

[Guest]

I have a perfectly working laptop win 10.
I have an old vista desktop pc. Dell inspiron 530
I want to project or extend my laptop screen to my monitor.

Hp stream 13 - not an issue at all

The question is do I only need the monitor laptop and hdmi cable to vga cable or do I also need to connect the monitor to the vista machine before I connect my laptop to project extend the screen.
Ps. The vista machine is now clean installed to win 10 but I have driver issues.

Without vista desktop machine, by only using laptop with monitor and cable, the monitor is not detected and shows black screen.

Sorry for the long text, but am I missing something. Please help, thank you

 

[James Mason]

If it's just a laptop to monitor there shouldn't be anything you need besides the CORRECT cable.
What video outputs does the laptop have?
What video inputs does the monitor have?

 

[Guest]

Video output monitor has dvi and vga
Laptop has hdmi
Cable is hdmi to vga

 

[James Mason]

HDMI to VGA cable probably won't work, but a HDMI to DVI cable should because they send the same digital signal.

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much, I will try that