Configure the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter with a Windows 8 App

Microsoft's new Wireless Display Adapter is nice because it's so simple: You just add it to an HDTV or other display and then configure your wirelessly-equipped PCs to use it for an external display. But there's no way to configure the adapter out of the box. To do that, you need to grab the Modern mobile app for Windows 8 first.

You can find this Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter app in Windows Store, of course.

If you don't use the app, your adapter will have a terrible default name. Mine is MicrosoftDisplayAdapter_14, for example.

Install the app, however, and a world of configuration possibilities emerge once you OK the connection between the two.

Here's what you can do.

Create a password. This is actually required to make any configuration changes.

Name the adapter. So MicrosoftDisplayAdapter_14 can become something that makes sense to everyone using the device. Well, sort of. You can't use spaces in the name. So Living_Room it is.

Adjust the display. Using a slider, you can adjust the overscan of the display so that it completely fills the screen and doesn't bleed over the edges.

Language. Choose between the default English and 8 other languages.

Require a PIN code for pairing. By default, devices can connect to the adapter freely, but you can require a 4-digit PIN if you prefer.