Windows XP Widescreen

Changing the resolution in Windows XP

2009-09-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

To make widescreen resolutions available, you'll need to use your graphic card's software rather than Window's display properties.

For nVidia based graphics: use the instructions at:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/custom_resolutions.html

for ATI graphics: open Catalyst Control Center; select Monitor Properties; uncheck use EDID; and choose your resolution from the drop down list.

for Intel graphics: click the Extreme Graphcis tray icon; select Graphic Options->Graphics Controller properties; select the Schemes tab; choose your resolution from the video modes list.

Old graphics card with widescreen monitor

2009-09-05T10:19:00.000-07:00

If you tried to get a widescreen monitor (i.e.1440x900 native) to work on an old graphics card that has default settings for 4x3 based monitors, and some tinkering in the graphics cards driver settings has enabled you to select say 1376X800 widescreen mode using "standard monitor types", but because this is not quite the native resolution of the monitor, the results are less than ideal. And that got you thinking though that you should be able to add a new "standard monitor type" somehow, and you think that you can do that to the registry settings where you have found all the display types listed under the graphics card settings. That scenario is still happening to many people who want to know how to add to the default XP list of standard monitor modes.

Well, long ago it was possible to write a simple driver programs. But Windows XP is really too complicated to do it from scratch. If the supporting software for the installed graphics card does not allow for custom settings, then the onlyl viable option is to get a new video card to suit the new widescreen monitor. This is merely the way of progress.

If you have an old video card, it is possible that there is an updated driver on the manufacturers site, but most likely even a cheap current card will far outperform an old one.

Windows XP Widescreen

2009-09-03T09:39:00.001-07:00