This machine is for a teen who needs just one program that only works
under Windows.
It was bought used, very cheap so any extra investment is trying to be
avoided but an option down the road. There are several other internet
devices in the home so this one is not a priority.

>A few separate questions here so to take them in order:

>1) Cracked screen: Have you looked into replacing this ? Would be the
better solution all round and the screens themselves aren't expensive.
>How to do the job - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPUDwOd5DPs

>2) Getting OS to use external by default: You should be able to start
the installation from external USB ( either flash drive or CD drive )
by having it plugged in then tapping the [F12] key during boot. The
initial screens should appear on both internal and external screens
but once the WinXP installer gets to the configuring hardware bit you
may need to use the manual switch on the Dell to see what's going on.
One of the function keys should do this, usually holding down the
>[Fn] key whilst pressing [F6] or [F7].

f1 has the monitor icon and works to active external monitor but only
after BIOS boots. The first clear graphic I get is the cursor arrow in
blank screen and then the boot into Linux. FN & f1 screen says
"missing operating system", but its there on reboot.

>Alternatively you could use Virtual Box and install WinXP in that so
>you'll not lose your Mint installation :-)

I think this may be my solution. Thanks. I was going to run the XP
disk from cd at start up but again I don't get to see the screen when
the disk prompts to begin install. I tested it on another laptop with
external monitor plugged in and saw the info displayed from the second
it was powered on so I know its possible just maybe not on this
certain machine.

>3) Running .exe files: Yes you can run these using Wine, or Play on
Linux, but the results will vary according to what you are trying to
run. Some programs will work, some will work but not 100%, some will
refuse to work no matter what you do. Question is, what program(s) are
>you wanting to run ?

?winnt32.exe? The executable to manually start the windows clean
install from the desktop.

>4) VMWare is a bit heavy IMHO and Virtual Box is lighter. How well it
works you can only determine by giving it a try and you've nothing to
lose apart from a bit of time so why not load up Virtual Box and see
how your WinXP runs in that ? You don't need to give it a load of
memory during the setup, 128Mb or 256Mb will be fine - the bulk of the
>memory load is still with the host OS when running virtual OS's :-)

Good news!

>Hope this is useful but I'd still recommend you look into replacing
that screen - not as daunting as it may seem, just need to know which
>end of a screwdriver is which and take it carefully

I'll take apart desktops all day long. Laptops still make me a bit nervous....