Windows and projectors

Some urgent help please.

A while back I was using an old laptop with windows XP Windows Media Centre Ediition (MCE) to give presentations on with a projector and screen.

This worked well as ONLY the active window was projected onto the screen whcih meant I could work on the laptop getting the next Powerpoint presentation or film ready whilst the audience were watching the current one. All they saw was the active one on the projector screen.

Does that make sense so far?

The actual laptop screen was full of windows, text files and normal desktop bits, but only the active PowerPoint screen or film was being shown on the projector.

HOWEVER, the other day I changed over to a new laptop with vista on it and EVERYTHING SHOWS via the projector, the lot, the whole of my desktop shows even when the powerpoint is showing in a small window like before and is the only active windows, it just replicates whatever is on my laptop desktop straight onto the projector screen and ignores what window is actually active or not.

This looks a total mess now! I am unable to go back to the old laptop as this has been given away!!!!

Does anyone know which part made the old laptop setup made it show just the active window via the projector, was it some software on the laptop or was it that I was using Windows XP Media Centre Edition?

Any urgent help would be appreciated as I have to get this fixed asap ! ! !

That would be the graphics card software, however, I think there might be another way of doing this...

Right Click on your desktop
Click on Personalize
In the personalization window click on "Display Settings"
On the new window that opens, select the 2nd display and put a tick in "extend my desktop onto this monitor"
Click on ok

You may have to mess around with if you need to enable the vga port first with the "fn+f key" combination. What graphics card does this laptop have? There might be an extend desktop option in its options somewhere...

Yup,

I see exactly what you are getting at, only the new laptop was a much higher spec, although I will try exactly what you suggest in a second.

But I think it was more software based, because.......

I didn't have to do anything with the old laptop, whatever window you clicked on and started playing, say a film, then I could minimise that and get a powerpoint presentation ready for when it finished and then click straight onto that when the film finished and no one was any the wiser!

But I will try what you suggest. Thanks.

What graphics card is it running?

Sorry for the delay, family visit, they have just gone, back to you in a couple of minutes!

On the new Laptop I am using it not only runs vista but it also has an integrated video chipset with the model of:

Mobile Intel(R) 945 Chipset Family, which is built in on the motherboard I am sure!

It does have a facility for a second monitor or projector or normal desktop screen so I will see what I can do by fiddling with the settings you suggested and see what happens,

It was all so much easier in WinXP this sort of thing!

Edited by TrevorSP (Thu 25-Jun-09 13:32:26)

Intel should be easy to sort out - make sure it has the most up to date drivers, then right click the desktop and select the intel graphics option. Somewhere in there (I can't remember where) there is an option for how to use the external display. This will more than likely be set to "Clone Desktop", click on the drop down menu and choose extend. That should sort the issue out

You are absolutely right, and it does EXACTLY what you say. I can work on the laptop and show a film on the projector at the same time, which is perfect, however, when I try and do the same with a powerpoint presentation it insists on playing on the laptop and not the monitor !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH ! ! ! !

So half way there. Someone has suggested to me that there is some CHURCH software out there, which allows for control of up to three projectors, showing words on one, pictures on another and a video on another, example, obviously!

I will have a look at that as well, because that sounds ideal, it talks about cueing up the next thing to be shown on the projector after the current item finishes etc.
Which sounds ideal to me..............

Best of all it is free ! ! ! ! !
http://www.easislides.com/

If it is any good I will post a link to it so others can take advantage of it if they wish!

Edited by TrevorSP (Fri 26-Jun-09 09:45:38)

In reply to a post by TrevorSP:

You are absolutely right, and it does EXACTLY what you say. I can work on the laptop and show a film on the projector at the same time, which is perfect, however, when I try and do the same with a powerpoint presentation it insists on playing on the laptop and not the monitor !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH ! ! ! !

There is an option in Powerpoint to force it to display the slide show on the projector (don't remember exactly where, but it should be under 'Slide show setup' or something like that)..

If your using Powerpoint 2003 then click on Slide Show then Set Up Show. There are some options there you can play with... I don't have a clue with 2007 though...

I appreciate your help, it is doing my head in, I think I will answer some emails and get on with this again on Monday!

Thanks for all your help, it is appreciated.............