ZoomIt v3.01 by Sysinternals will allow you roughly the same screen-zoom capabilities that you have in a Linux desktop with 3D effects enabled (Compiz) or Mac OS X. It’s a nice small utility (only 129k before install!) and works in both XP and Vista.

If you use your computer screen on a live webcast or make presentations to people often using your computer, this is a must-have utility and you’ll make very good use out of it.

And yes, it’s free.

To those wondering if it has the same "smoothness" as Linux or OS X does, not quite. But it’s close and it works well.

For those with multi-monitor setups running Windows XP, you’ve probably run into the situation where whenever you launch a specific application it launches on the "wrong monitor". Sure, a reboot is a quick fix for this but you obviously don’t want to do this every time you want program windows to appear in their proper places.

Saving your last known window position is easy in XP if you do the following.

1. Launch the app. Yes, it will go to the "wrong monitor" as usual, but that’s okay.

2. Put the program into a "windowed" state (meaning not maximized).

3. Drag the window to the monitor where you want it to appear when launched.

4. Hold SHIFT and click the close button at the top right.

5. Re-launch the app. It should appear on the "correct" monitor this time.

Holding SHIFT and clicking the close button saves the window position of the app you just closed.

Why does this happen?

Here’s an example situation of what makes an app always launch on the "wrong monitor":

1. You launch an app and drag it to monitor 2.
2. You then launch a full-screen game that changes the resolution of both monitors.

When you launch that game, Windows resets all the current window positions to suit. If you have an app on monitor 2, Windows deems "Okay, this is where this app is supposed to be" and will re-launch it there each time you close and restart it until next boot.

To avoid this situation:

Minimize your open application windows before launching a full-screen game that changes resolution, or purposely run your game in the native resolution for monitor 1 (if the resolution isn’t reset, the window positions aren’t reset either).