Windows XP on a big screen - font size, etc.

YO!!!

So, got FiOS and a 55" Vizio HDTV. Running Windows XP to the TV to play music, watch .avi-converted movies, etc.

I've done all the things I can find to customize the views, but can't get it to my liking. As default, everything was SUPER tiny, so I did right click on desktop > properties > appearance > advanced and then changed a bunch of the items (i.e. active menu, icon, scroll bar, etc.)...I played with all of it.

Some stuff worked, but not everything. I can't figure it out. I wish there was a "make everything proportionally bigger slider" so I could just drag that and happily sit on my couch from 15 feet away drinking Bud Light and be able to see.

I attached a screen shot. I have others that show other problems (i.e. button fonts are too small), but I figured I would start with this.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I've Googled the crap out of this, but you get the standard "lower your resolution" or "select 'Use large icons'" which are not taking care of everything.

Thanks,
Danny

Yes, lowering your resolution is the only way to achieve what you are looking to achieve. From your screenshot it appears you have not done so.

Honestly, you don't want to do that anyway because running at anything other than the native resolution is going to make media (and everything else) look like crap.

XP just wasn't designed with this purpose in mind (10 years ago). Going to Windows 7 will provide you much more intelligent resizing options that will allow you to maintain proper (native) resolution...

Bud Light?

Wes: Well that's stupid, XP sucks. Haha. You would think with all the other size options XP gives you, that they would have thought to make it more infinitely adjustable. Yeah I tried the resolution thing but wasn't happy because it wasn't crisp, and it also still wasn't enough to make the taskbar "panes" (?) big enough to see from far away. I guess I'll just have to live with it. At least the text size is super large - that was my main problem, not being able to see what movie I was trying to start.

Brett: I'm a simple man. Haha. In my defense, I love ALL beer - I just don't care. Bud Light was just my "I'm going to get drunk now on cheap house beer" choice last night. I've been really into the Belgian strongs lately like Delerium (we just got a Yardhouse so that is cool).

I recently bought a case of that Racer 5 IPA due to the IPA thread, and it's now one of my favorites.

Cable Car Amber is my favorite Amber now, too.

I'll drink Bud Light at someone else's house if there is nothing else to drink at all, but that's about it.

Hijack over.

Yeah the Racer 5 is great. You had Trois Pistoles? It's really good. I haven't had Cable Car.

Call me an alcy, but most Saturday nights, I'm drinking to get drunk, not to taste a good beer. Sometimes with the better beers, it's not as easy to drink a bunch of them, plus I don't want to spend the $$$.

Second Windows 7 if you want windows - just upgraded my parents machine from XP to Win 7 this morning - sweet.

I recently switched from XP to Ubuntu with compiz and there ain't no going back after that.

Thanks for the tips, guys, but not interested in upgrading this computer to Windows 7...I don't think it will run it well because it has relatively little RAM, and I don't want to upgrade it because it's that unpopular RDRAM that is very expensive. Right now, XP actually runs really, really well on this computer for what I use it for. All this machine does is store movies/music and provide a way to access the network to get movies/music off my other computer. I'll just have to deal with the sizing thing, which isn't that big of a deal.

Probably in the next couple years, I'll just start fresh with 2 brand new computers with Windows 7 and migrate everything over one shot. I want the hardware and capabilities so that Windows 7 will run like a champ and not have any weird little gremlins going on.

Danny