I have had this issue with a few laptops now and it looks like it is some sort of user account problem. Specifics of the system are: Dell Laptop Windows XP Pro SP3 Non-domain member computer DLP Projector connected to laptop via VGA

I use this setup almost daily to do presentations, always the mirrored display mode where I can see on the laptop monitor the same thing that is displayed on the projector.

Today, when I boot up, I get the mirrored display at the login screen, but after I log in, it switches to Extended Desktop (like two desktops side-by-side). Fn+F8 just cycles through all the normal settings except the mirrored display.

I created a new user account on the computer and it performs normally. Mirrored display works as normal.

I have run into this about 4 times now and it always can be solved by creating a new user account on the computer, and then all is well.

I would like to either: 1. Find a way to reset the customized settings for a specific user account which would hopefully make this go away, or 2. Find the specific setting that causes this so that I can easily fix it when the problem comes up.

Creating new user accounts is kind of a pain and a easy fix must be out there somewhere.