Locking the Screen Resolution

[JimboC]

I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to lock the
screen resolution to a certain screen size. My problem is
that one of the other techs here changes the default
resolution to 800 x 600 here every night and it screws up
my icon placement. Problem is that he is an Administrator
on the PC, as am I, so even if I lock down certain
functions, he has the ability to unlock them. I don't
want to make this an official problem and get him into
trouble, but this is really starting to get annoying.
Anyone have any ideas?

It really sucks that Microsoft make the screen resolution
a system wide setting rather than a per-user setting on
each machine.

[Torgeir Bakken (MVP)]

JimboC wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to lock the
> screen resolution to a certain screen size. My problem is
> that one of the other techs here changes the default
> resolution to 800 x 600 here every night and it screws up
> my icon placement. Problem is that he is an Administrator
> on the PC, as am I, so even if I lock down certain
> functions, he has the ability to unlock them. I don't
> want to make this an official problem and get him into
> trouble, but this is really starting to get annoying.
> Anyone have any ideas?

Hi

There is no way to lock the screen resolution to a certain screen size in your
situation.

WinTidy2 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,22728,00.asp or something similar
can take care of your icon placements.


To avoid setting the screen resolution manually if another user has changed it:

XP Keep per User Display Settings 1.0
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/sto41/en/My%20Tools/XPKeepPerUserDisplaySettings.htm


Some command line based screen resolutions changers for more general use:

MultiRes is a free screen resolutions utility that can be used from the command
line, a batch file, a shortcut or a script :-)

MultiRes (50kb) has refresh rate and multi- monitor support, as well as
optional
timed confirmation prompts.

The little utility supports Windows 9x/Me/NT4, as well as Windows 2000 and XP.

It's available at http://www.entechtaiwan.com/files/multires.exe (Entech
Taiwan), and can be used to set screen resolution, color depth, and refresh
rate.

Normally it runs with an icon in the notification area. But it's also possible
to run it in non-resident command mode (e.g. in a batch file). There's more
info
on that at http://www.entechtaiwan.com/multires.htm (and a copy at Tip 4973 in
the 'NT Reg Hacks' at http://www.jsiinc.com)

Example on a command line that sets 800x600, 32-bit color, 85Hz refresh
d:\multires\multires.exe /800,600,32,85 /exit


Some other products (command line):

A freeware utility called Resolution Changer:
http://www.myitforum.com/inc/upload/1365Vidchng.zip

Here's the description:
"Video Resolution Changer v1.0 - Tony Pombo. This command-line utility changes
the display resolution of the current display device, using several
command-line
options. vidchng /? for help."

Here is a third product:

Vidres 2.2.2.0
http://www.jddesign.freeserve.co.uk/vidres.htm

--
torgeir
Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of the 1328 page
Scripting Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter

[JimboC]

WOW! Thanks for the reply. That's exactly the kind of
thing I was hoping for.