Programming a PC for touch panel capability

Hello:

The IT guy at my Church recently quit. He basically set up all the computers, projectors and LCD televisions himself. He linked all the functionality of these devices into a single laptop. When you log-on to the desktop you see different groups of icons that control different things in the Church. So, in the projector-icon group, you can hit the "screen on" icon, and it lowers the screen. When you hit the "screen off" icon it raises it. He also programmed the PC to control stuff like lighting in the room.

So, basically, this laptop is similar to a touch-panel interface that you would find at a conference center. All the functionality of the room is patched into the PC, so that you don't have to put on the lights manually or lower the screen manually.

The problem is that my Church wants too purchase a new laptop which is more powerful. Unfortunately, we have no idea how to duplicate the touch-screen functionality that our previous IT guy programmed. The laptop we want to replace may be a "proxy laptop" that is connected to another one. I don't know.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas...

I would backup/image that laptop immediately in case something happen to it

As long as you can install the same programs on the new laptop, I don't see any reason not to get the same functionality. You may have to experiment a lot and copy files across, do some registry export and merges though.

I am not sure if I can be more descriptive as it all depends on the software used.

Ya, the IT guy leaving wasn't pretty.

There must be some special program on the laptop that interfaces with the projector and the screens. Now that I think of it, every time I click one of the projector icons (like to lower the screen) a command-prompt window comes up and I see some IP addresses being accessed. So I'm assuming it's all being done through the network. I just don't know how he set up the network link between the screen and the laptop. It looks like he used something that is a part of Windows, maybe a simple "script" or something.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

Right click one if the icons and select properties, take a screenshot and post here. Use a mouse or click hold for touch gesture(?).

crud... I forgot about that. That will let me locate the file as well. I'll try to get the screenshots as soon as possible.