Dual Monitor Bullshit

So, why the hell can I never just install Windows, and have both my monitors work?
It seems that the only way I can ever get them to work, in every iteration of dual-monitor setup I've had, is by unplugging the secondary, installing the drivers that are on the CD (god forbid you try and use updated ones), and reboot 3-5 times, then plug the 2nd in, boot into VGA mode, enable it, configure it, then finally go about my way.

I actually called ViewSonic yesterday; From what I read online, my issue is that my ViewSonic VA2012wb is not telling Win7 that that's what it is. Therefore, windows is pushing some unsupported resolution; This is corroborated because I can tell windows it trying to push to the monitor, because my mouse will go over there, though I can't see it. Also, when I have the widescreen plugged into port#1 on the card, It displays for the entire bootup. It even displays while Win7 is installing from disk, all the way until it reboots to do the 2nd step. As soon as it displays at greater than VGA/XGA/whatever, it shits on my face.
So anyway, I call ViewSonic, because I can't find drivers for the monitor. They tell me the monitor is too old, so they don't have drivers for x64Win7. Fair enough; I ask him if I can use newer drivers. He says yes. I download both the 'Signed Win7 x64' and the 'Unsigned Win x64' drivers. Neither work. The signed one says I don't have a monitor to use the drivers, so it refuses to install, while the unsigned one just errors out.

There's no way I'm going to buy a new monitor because it's "too old" it's a 20-bloody-inch widescreen that still works beautifully. I've never seen something this ridiculous happen before. Now, if I could find out how to specify frequency... Actually, I didn't check my nVidia control panel to see if I could do that. Ok, that's step 1 tonight. Step 2 is find nVidia phone support number...