Hello,
There's a very handy free program from
http://12noon.com/ which lets you change the colour depth, resolution and refresh rate of the display by running an executable.
It requires you to specify the parameters via shortcut switches, but this is very straight forward.
Download
Resolution Changes from here:
http://12noon.com/files/reschange.exe
What you can do is place the shortcut with specific parameters into your startup folder in the start menu (for your user account), so that each time you login, the resolution will change automatically.
I used this program at college to force change the screen resolution, with specific shortcut switches, because the resolution of the displays were misconfigured for a long while.
When you run the program, you'll be shown a list of parameters which can be used, and instructions and examples on how to use them.
Here is how to use the program:
- Right click reschange.exe and create a shortcut.
- Name the shortcut something like reschange 1280x1024 or whatever resolution you'd like to specify....
- Then right click that shortcut file (in my case reschange 1280x1024) then click Properties...
- In the Shortcut tab, edit the path in the Target field and add switches. Here's an example:[/list=1]"C:\ResChange Example\reschange.exe" -width=1280 -height=1024 -depth=max -refresh=max
Notice that there is a space between the " at the end program path, and the first switch, and a space between all switches.
The switches I've used are:
- -width=1280 - No. of pixels vertically.
- -height=1024 - No. of pixels horizontally.
- -depth=max - Set depth to max supported value. Can be set to 8, 16, 24 or 32 (depending on compatibility).
- -refresh=max - Set refresh rate to max supported value. Change only according to the values your monitor supports.
Change the width and height according to the resolution you want. I would set depth and refresh as max to ensure that only the highest supported value is chosen. You can also set the width and height to max to force the reschange to set your the display to the highest support resolution.
For example, I've set this shortcut so that each time I run it, it will set the resolution of the display to 1280x1024 and set the colour depth and refresh rate to the maximum supported values.
To get the program to run each time you log in, place the specific shortcut file of reschage with your switches specified, into the directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\*USER*\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
Where *USER* is your own documents and settings folder of your user account. You must also make sure that the program reschange.exe is in the directory of which the shortcut is referenced to, otherwise the program will not run at logon because it won't be able to find it.