Hello everyone, I''m making a small program that changes the screen display. Kind of my own Display Properties. Well, I''m using EnumDisplaySettings to get all the screen resolutions but finding out there are like 46 diffrent screen resolutions, from 4 bit 480 by 640 up to 32 bit 1200 by 1600 which is a total of 48 different screen resolutions in all. I''m using EnumDisplaySettings API to get these settings. Now when I goto display properties I only see these settings for my video card 800 by 600 16 & 32 bit 1024 by 768 16 & 32 bit 1152 by 864 16 & 32 bit 1280 by 768 16 & 32 bit 1280 by 960 16 & 32 bit 1280 by 1024 16 & 32 bit 1600 by 900 16 & 32 bit 1600 by 1024 16 & 32 bit 1600 by 1200 16 & 32 bit So my question is, how does Windows2000(or any other Windows) determind which setting to display and which ones not to display? Because I want my program to be consistent with windows. If anyone knows how i can make it consistent, please let me know. Michael

first off, whenever you speak about video resolutions always place the width first. so its 640x480 and 1600x1200. by not doing this you will confuse ppl.

the main reason their is a difference is mainly due to the drivers and what it considers good resolutions. i am not usre about win2k, but it is quite possible that it only allows 16bit color depths because of the translucency effects. also win2k may force a minium display size which is why it only shows you 800x600 as the lowest resolution. rest assured you can set your video settings to what was returned (hopfully). winme (which i am currentlky running) allows me to pick 4bit, 8bit, 16bit, 32bit in resolutions ranging from 640x480 to 1600x1200. the max resolutions is ussually determined by the moniter and not the video card (most video cards can support pretty high resolutions and refresh rates).

windows would be quite useless at anything lower then 640x480, though that is pushin it. 800x600 is much better and is probally why ms chose that as the new lowest desktop resolution. 16bit as i said before is because the desktop effects wiuld not work well in 8bit mode.

now on to the question at hand. its up to you how you wish to remain consistent. you can just mimic win2k and allow only resolutions above 800x600x16. or be like winme and go from 640x480x4. it really depends on the hardware you have and what the purpose of the utility is. i suggest simply filter everything below 16bit colordepth and below 640x480 resolution. they are pretty useless except for special cases. on the other hand you may want to include all posiblities, and just let the user decide.

just a side note i wrote a quick progam that used EnumDisplaySettings() and it returned modes from 640x480x4 upto 1600x1200x32. which most likly means that it will return ALL modes supported by the video card and that windows supports for normal operation (since you can set windows to forceful use 320x240 via the ChangeDisplaySettings (well i least i am pretty sure you can)). so filter the resolutiosn and color depths as you see fit.

EDIT: fprgot to mention that all modes returned by EnumDisplaySettings are picable via the display properties. i really think that win2k is limiting what you can choose so that usability is kept up (many colors and translucent stuff dont look nice in 8bit modes). it may also just be your drivers, but i doubt that.

Edited by - a person on January 28, 2002 11:28:07 PM

then its as i thought (but was not sure since i never use win2k for longer then a few miunutes), bravescharm. your video drivers are not allowing you to select those resolutions form within display properties. feel free to filter the resolutions as you see fit. try updating yoru drivers or ignore them and just use your program.

hmm, spiral, i guess i was wrong, heh. looks like its more of a driver issue then.