How to switch your Windows 7 display to a projector?

How to switch your Windows 7 display to a projector?

On numerous occasions, I've watched presenters struggle to get their laptops to display with a projector after attaching the cables. Windows 7 makes it easy. Here's how:

1. After attaching the video-out (VGA) port of your laptop to the projector's cable, press the Windows Logo key + P.
2. You'll see a pop-up box with four choices. The first is Computer Only, which is not what you want. You also probably don't want to Extend the Desktop. That leaves two choices. You can select to Duplicate the laptop display to the projector, so that you see the same screen on both (my preference) or you can select Projector Only, so that your desktop is displayed only on the projector screen.

This solution is quick, easy and elegant - far better than having to search for the correct key combination (which varied depending on the hardware) with XP and Vista.

How to change border thickness in Windows 7?

The thick borders on windows look great with Aero transparency, but if you prefer thinner borders, you can configure them to look the way you want. Or you can make them even thicker.

1. Right click an empty area on the desktop and select Personalize.
2. Click Window Color at the bottom.
3. Click the Advanced appearance settings... link
4. In the Advanced Appearance dialog box, in the drop-down box under "Item:" select Border Padding.
5. In the "Size" field, change the default (4) to a lower number to reduce the size of the borders or a large number to increase it.
6. Click OK.

How to create a password reset disk?

If you forget your password to log onto Windows 7, you can change it, without knowing the old one, by using a password reset disk. That's handy, especially for accounts that aren't used often. Remember to keep the disk in a safe place, though, because anyone else can also change your password and access your user account with it. Here's how to create it:

1. Log onto the account for which you're going to make the disc.
2. Decide what media you're going to use. It can be a floppy disk (if you have a floppy drive),
3. USB stick, flash card or external hard drive. Insert or connect the media.
4. Click Start Control Panel User Accounts.
5. In the left pane, click "Create a Password Reset Disk."
6. In the Forgotten Password Wizard dialog box, follow the instructions to make the disk.

Note: If your computer belongs to a domain, you cannot create a password reset disk. The domain administrator can reset your password for you.

How to make XP look and act like Windows 7

No, you can't turn XP into Win7; you can't even do a direct upgrade. However, if you like the sleek look of 7 but aren't ready to start over with a new OS, you can give your XP computer much the same look, and you can also download programs that will provide some of the same functionality as new Windows 7 features.

1. Install the Windows 7 Taskbar iconizer to make the taskbar icons look more like those in 7.
2. Install AeroPeek and Visual Task Tips to allow you to view thumbnails of open windows and highlight the active window while making all the other windows transparent (requires .NET Framework 3.5)
3. Install AeroSnap to make windows automatically resize to fill half the screen when dragged to the side of the monitor.
4. Download and run AeroShake to minimize all inactive windows by shaking with your mouse.
   

You can find links to download all of these programs, along with screenshots and more instructions, at make-windows-xp-vista-like-windows

How to install Windows 7 to dual boot with XP

Many people who have stuck with XP are getting the itch to give Windows 7 a try - but without making a commitment. Here's the procedure for installing 7 to dual boot with XP on a computer that already has XP installed:

1.If you only have one partition on your hard drive, you need to shrink it so you can create a second one on which to install Windows 7 (I recommend if you have less than 30 GB of free space, you should buy and install a second physical hard drive on which to install Win7).

2. Boot the system from the Windows 7 installation DVD and when you get to the "Where do you want to install Windows?" option, be sure to pick the partition, disk or unallocated space on which XP is not installed. Proceed through the Setup process.

3. Proceed through the Setup process

4. When the system reboots after installing, pick "Earlier Version of Windows" from the boot menu to boot into XP.
If you had XP installed on C:, when you boot into Windows 7 you'll see that it appears to be installed on C:. Don't panic - Windows 7 calls whatever drive it's installed on C:, which actually makes things easier for applications. The drive on which XP is installed won't show up at all by default, although it's there in Disk Management and you can assign it a drive letter if you want it to show up when you're in Win7 (for example, if it has data stored on it that you want to access). For example, you might assign it drive letter X: to denote that it's the XP drive, and you'll see it as X: in Win7 Explorer. However, when you boot back into XP, the drive it's installed on will be C: (or whatever it was originally) again.

Here's a detailed, illustrated tutorial on installing the dual boot configuration:
How to dual boot Windows XP and Windows 7 (XP installed first)