Windows Vista has a cool feature built in if you are using a projector for a conference or meeting.  You can now set up Presentation Settings which only effect your laptop if you are connected to a projector.  The presentation settings will do many things such as:

• Your computer stays awake (no sleeping or hibernating)
• System notifications are turned off
• You can choose to turn off the screen saver
• Change the volume of the computer to a particular setting
• Show a certain background picture

These settings can be found in the Personalization control panel.  You can get to it by right clicking on an empty area of the desktop and click on Personalize.  Once that window opens, click on “Connect to a projector or other external display” on the left panel.

Once you click on this, it should open the Windows Mobility Center.  This window has a lot of options that you might use before your presentation.  The main one we’re looking at is in the middle center.  It will either say Not presenting or presenting.

If you click on Turn on, it will enable the presentation settings.  If you click on the picture of the projector, it will open the Presentation settings.  This is where a lot of the settings that I mentioned above are.

At the bottom of the Presentation Settings screen, there is a Connected displays screen.  This screen will allow you to tell your computer that everytime the display configuration is set up, to automatically turn on presentation mode.

That is basically it.  Once you get your settings configured, you can enable or disable presentation mode as you like.

As Windows XP’s life-cycle is coming to an end for OEM and Retail on June 30th, Microsoft is forcing everyone to switch to Windows Vista. However as you switch to Vista, you may have noticed that there are many different editions available. We’re going to go through the editions and point out the differences so that you can make the best choice for your business.

32 bit vs 64 bit

The first thing you’ll notice is that you can choose between 32 bit and 64 bit of Vista for certain versions. In general, you will have better compatibility with the 32 bit version. However there are some reasons why you would run 64:

• You can run more than 4GB of RAM. For most users, running 4GB of RAM or less is fine.
• 64 bit is faster.

Reasons why you might not run it:

• Application compatibility problems. A lot of the issues have been fixed as of this writing. However there might be older programs or printers that might not work with the 64 bit version of Vista. Your best bet is to check with the vendor that makes the application and make sure that it runs on 64 bit Vista.
• Existing 32 bit drivers will not work. This means you will have to download the drivers for printers, scanners, cameras, etc. and you will have to get the 64 bit version. If it exists..

Windows Vista Basic

• Not meant for businesses
• No remote desktop
• Not meant for laptops

Windows Vista Home Premium

• Not meant for businesses
• No remote desktop
• Prettier; Has Aero desktop (3D)
• No Windows Backup features built in

Windows Vista Business

• Meant for businesses
• Includes Windows Backup
• Has remote desktop

Windows Vista Ultimate

• Fail-safe; contains everything that is in all the other editions

Summary

So as you can see, most business will either want to run Windows Vista Business or Ultimate. Personally I will recommend 64 bit for a new computer, even though I have had some issues with driver compatibility however they have been fixed within the past year. The main reason I suggest 64 bit is not because it might be useful now but in the future. Applications will progress towards 64 bit and they will be faster.

Have you ever wanted to take a picture of your screen to show some one? Taking screenshots is actually very helpful to your tech company. If you can take a screenshot that shows exactly what the error is it will help them solve your issue easier and sometimes faster.

To take the screenshot is actually very easy, all you have to do is hit the “print screen” key on your keyboard. Once you do that the screenshot is copied to your clipboard. At this point you have many options of what to do with the screenshot. You can put it in Word, Paint or even directly into an email. Once you decide what you want to do with the screenshot, all you have to do is paste it (Edit -> Paste). You paste it just like you are pasting normal text that you have copied. Once you hit paste, your screenshot will appear.

Using Print Screen will take a screen shot of your ENTIRE screen and everything on it. If you only want to take a screenshot of just one window on your screen you can hold down Alt and press Print Screen at the same time. This will take a screenshot of just your currently active window.