Screen resolution (XP- home)

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When I change screen resolution on my account it changes for all the other user (wife and children) accounts. Is there a way to prevent this?

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Being that “screen resolution ” is hardware related I don NOT think there is a way. But I have on my machines a ATI icon in the Systray where I can make these changes in a few seconds. See what addins your graphic card OEM provides.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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When changing my screen resolution, I am doing it from within Windows. I right click on the desktop, select properties, settings and then make the change there. So, it’s a software change, that’s why I assumed that it could be different between multiple users on the same machine. Instead, it changes the resolution on everybody’s account.

Thanks for the help though.

Rob

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Unfortunately, Microsoft considers screen resolution is hardware setting, and so it is part of computer configuration, not user profile. However, you can change screen resolution by choosing HARDWARE PROFILE. It will require rebooting each time you change it (it will be longer then logon and logoff).
To create additional hardware profile, press Windows key and Pause/Break key on your keyboard simultaneously ( or click Start | Control Panel | Performance and Maintenance | System), then click Hardware tab, then Hardware Profiles button (near the bottom of the window). On the next screen, click Copy button and choose the name of a new profile (“Profile 2” or “My Screen” or whatever). Click OK. Then you can choose booting options. Reboot your computer to a new profile and change screen resolution. To change screen resolution back and force, you must restart your computer and choose appropriate profile.
This is the only solution I know.

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Thanks for hint! I’ll give it a try and see if the family screams.

Rob

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One thing you can do, is to change a number of settings within Windows…icon size, font size (through internet explorer/view/text size). I had XP set up for myself and my father and achieved a quite readable (for him) screen, and then a much smaller font screen for myself. I realize this would not help much for games, etc, but for general internet use there’s a lot you can do short of actually changing screen resolutions. Just a thought.

kip

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This “solution” is pretty much what I’ve been reduced to, too . I thought I’d overlooked something obvious and didn’t think to check the Lounge & MS KB until I’d spent eons . And of course it’s all courtesy of MS behavior is by design, see KB 281565.

The behaviour being (vainly) sought in this thread [was in W98, and apparently in W2K, too. But, then again, maybe none of that was by design and should have been regarded as misbehaviour ? Regardless, I miss it, as do my better half, my daughter, and a few others by the sounds of it. Given that the behaviour was in W2K, also an NT-based system, I suspect it got scuttled to enable “fast user switching”. If so, it’s a pity we weren’t given the option to choose between the two. I’d trade fast user switching for log on/off with selectable screen resolutions in a flash.

The hardware profiles route is too slow & painful, especially when the current dialup connection gets canned in the process.

I’d like to try one of the systray resolution changers, but I’ve found that if I forget to change back to 1600 x 1200 from a lower resolution before logging on, my icon layout goes (Auto arrange is OFF, Align to grid ON). And that’s a real .

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There’s a workaround that does the job – see UniqueDisplay .

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My compliments, Tim! You’ve got a great memory. When I saw your post in the software forum about this “find” I knew there had been a fairly recent post on the topic but I couldn’t find it. I hope he’s still checking this thread…..

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