magnifier.exe - options grayed out (this is urgent!)

[jeffk]

help! this is a bit urgent - i have to give a presentation/mini-lesson in a job interview in a couple of days & need to use the magnifier tool in win7 but i'm having problems......

laptop 1: acer aspire 5732z, win7 ultimate, 64-bit
laptop 2: fujitsu-siemens amilo-d 7830, win7 pro, 32-bit

• when i open the magnifier on laptop 1 i can open the views drop down & select full screen, lens, or docked but on laptop 2 full screen & lens are greyed out..................i ideally need to set it to lens (even full screen would be better than docked)
  
  
• when i open the magnifier on laptop 1 i can adjust the lens size, under settings. That option is not there at all on laptop 2........because lens is disabled/unavailable?

....any ideas what's going on & how to activate those options?
could it be a difference between W7 Ult & Pro? or between 64 & 32 bit?
i think laptop 2 is too old to take a 64-bit OS

any help welcome!

[Geek-9pm]

First of all, 32 bit or 64 bit is not the issue.
Please state clearly  what you want to do.
The magnifier in Windows 7 is suitable for some help reading find print.  It is not a universal tool to enlarge images.  Some things it won't do.

Windows n7 magnifier tool does work. Just not they way you would like.

I personally use it and hate it., because it is far from perfect.  I also have at hand several optical magnifiers for those times when the windows magnifier just does not help me enough. Is reading fine print  the problem?

But are you trying to enlarge your presentation before a group of people? What kind of presentation? Power Point?  Is it a video? a Web page? A word document?

Without knowing why you need it, it is hard ton guess.  Please reply

[jeffk]

i'm being interviewed for a job teaching people with disabilities & have to do a 10 minute mini teaching session to demonstrate my abilities. I wanted to teach the use of a couple of the simple assistive technology tools in W7 - the on-screen keyboard & magnifier & was planning on having two laptops for the learners to use........as I said in my OP, magnifier works on one, but not the other.

Anyway, I’ve since found out why – aero has been automatically disabled because the windows experience index is too low (<3.3)

[patio]

What happens if you run it from Ease of Access Center ? ?

[jeffk]

it didn't make any difference where i ran it from, it was the same - but i've got it sorted: windows had automatically disabled aero because the windows experience index (start > R click on computer > properties) was less than 3.3 (+/-8yr old laptop) & aero is necessary for the magnifier to work in the full screen or lens modes

thanks for your input though, everyone