Resolution Revolution! (1)
                        by James Judge

Just a quickie to give you PC users out there something to
fiddle with in Windows.

Normally I just let stuff de-arc and install themselves into
Windows and then copy them into the relevant program groups. Over
the weekend I got a spring (well, last-bit-of-winter) itch and
decided to fiddle around with Windows, changing my sounds and
re-doing my program groups. Then I delved a bit more and did some
stuff using Control Panel and installed a few more fonts and
(finally) got rid of a horrid font that didn't allow me to play
games such as Castle Of The Winds.

Anyway, then I happened upon the Windows Setup program and fiddled
around in there, changing a driver for my mouse (so I was using
the OEM one supplied with the mouse instead of the predefined
Windows one).  Finally I decided to see whether there was another,
more preferable, screen resolution that I could work in, instead
of the 640*480 256 colour VGA resolution that I normally work in.
After a while I discovered that, for the moment, there wasn't. The
reasons for this will be explained in a further article I plan to
do on monitors, LCD screens and video cards.

So, the point of this article is to bring to the attention of the
non-technical members of SynTax that there are other screen
resolutions which they could run Widows in to give themselves a
bigger and more clear screen. Let's leave the technicalities for
this article and look at just how we can change the resolution in
Windows.

What I mean by resolution is how many pixels you are seeing on
your monitor at once. A pixel is a tiny little coloured dot that
goes to make up your display.  There are various different types
of resolution which alters the number of pixels that are
displayed vertically and horizontally on your screen, as well as
the number of colours you will be able to see and use.


As I said earlier on I am running in a 640*480 resolution in 256
colours. What this means is that I have got 640 pixels
horizontally and 480 pixels vertically being displayed at once,
while still using 256 colours (which is more than enough for
normal Windows use, but as I've got a nice screensaver, I want as
many colours as I can get my hands on at this resolution). This
is the usual resolution for Windows operation.

As it is the default many people don't know that they may be able
to use a higher resolution than the default one, or they just
plain forget.

To see whether you can actually use a higher resolution make sure
that when you turn the computer on, you don't automatically go
into Windows. The way to do this is to load your AUTOEXEC.BAT
into a program such as Write and look for the line that says:

WIN


This will, most probably, be at the end. Just before where it says
"WIN" (and on the same line) type in "REM" so that the new line
will look like this:

REM WIN

All this does is tells the computer to ignore that line when
running the AUTOEXEC.BAT. Now, to go into Windows all you have to
do is type "WIN" manually.  When you are in Windows go to the MAIN
program group and then double-click on the Windows Setup program,
go to the Options drop-down menu and select 'Change System
Settings".

You'll now be shown another box that has a number of entries and
you want to change the first one (display). Click on the little
arrow that is to the right of the little box and go 'oooooh' in
awe as you see a whole list of weird names, numbers and words.

These are all the screen drivers that you could (theoretically)
use to run Windows. Each driver can control the display of
Windows and the better the driver the higher the resolution you
can use.

Here are a few entries from my list:
Cirrus 54xx v1.3 640x480x256
Cirrus 54xx v1.3 800x600x256
Cirrus 54xx v1.3 1024x768x16 Sml Fnt
TRIDENT 800x600-256c

The first option is the driver I am currently using. The driver is
the 'Cirrus 54xx v1.3' part, so I can use the same driver for the
second and third entries, if I wanted. The fourth entry is
something that I can't use because I would need a disk that
actually had a TRIDENT driver on and, as I don't, I can't use the
option properly.

The rest of the entry specifies the resolution, number of colours
and the size of font (if applicable). So, the first entry (the one
I am using) is the standard Cirrus driver at a 640*480 resolution
in 256 colours.

So, have a look at your list and see which drivers you own or have
access to. There should have been a couple of disks that came
with your computer (or graphics card) that will have some drivers
on them and the Windows disks will have a few basic Cirrus drivers
on them too.

Firstly identify the driver that you are currently using and the
resolution that it is utilising. If it is 1024*786 (or something
along those lines) then you are already near the best output you
can get, so there is little need to change your resolution. On the
other hand, if, like me, you are using 640*480 you may benefit
from having a higher resolution by being able to squash more
things on the screen.

The way you can fit more things into the screen is by increasing
your resolution. The higher the resolution, the more pixels you
have and so, with icons and the like taking up so many pixels
(say, 32 pixels each way) the more pixels you have, the less space
these icons will take up by themselves.

To select a new driver just click on your chosen driver from the
list, click on OK and then insert the disk that has the driver(s)
needed. The disk will whirr away and you will be asked whether you
want to restart Windows.

For the different resolution to take effect you must reload
Windows, but before you do check that you have got your original
drivers nearby. The reason for this is that you may be able to
select and load certain drivers but either your monitor or video
card won't actually be able to make use of them. This will lead to
an unintelligible display and, probably, a high keening sound
coming from your monitor.

Don't panic if this happens. Just either exit Windows or turn the
computer and monitor off, leave it for a few seconds and then
restart the system. This is the reason why we changed the
AUTOEXEC.BAT so that if anything bad did happen, you wouldn't be
stuck in a loop.

The way to restore Windows to its former glory is to go to the
Windows directory (in DOS) and type <SETUP>. This will give you
the DOS version of the Setup program that we used in Windows
earlier. You then just select the screen options and then load in
your old driver. Or you can select a different driver to try from
here and then load Windows.

If, on the other hand, everything has gone OK you should see,
pretty soon, the new, larger Windows desktop. If this increased
resolution doesn't lead to any excess flickering from your
monitor and you can work comfortably at this resolution all you
have to do is tidy up the Windows desktop, resize a couple of
things such as the File Manager's Window and delete the "REM" part
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT that we added earlier.  If, though, this new
resolution isn't suitable to your eyes or working style then you
can just repeat the procedure, but re-installing your original
driver.  Remember, though, that at increased resolutions the
monitor starts to flicker more and (in severe cases) this can lead
to headaches and eye-strain, more-so than your old resolution as
the flickering is far more evident.

Anyway, I think that's all for now. Just try the above and see if
you like it.  If you don't nothing has been lost (apart from five
or ten minutes). Make sure, though, that you know where your
original drivers are or else you could find yourself locked out
of Windows until you find 'em (this is the voice of experience
talking here!).












                              - o -