[util] XPKeepPerUserDisplaySettings

I share a home computer with my wife and 3 year old daughter, Rosemary. As a computer nerd, I can't go below 1280x1024 on the screen resolution, while my wife likes 1024x768 and Rosemary uses 640x480.[1]

Windows XP doesn't support per user screen resolutions: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=832295

Quandry.

Turns out there are some freeware products that do this. I checked out a few and settled on XPKeepPerUserDisplaySettings. It didn't seem to "take" the first time I made the settings for each user, but now it works like a charm.

I tried MultiRes first [1] [2] - it allows setting resolutions via command line:
c:\Progra~1\multires\multires.exe /1280,1024,32 /exit
It didn't work well with Fast User Switching, though.

Some other alternatives / info:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_userdisplay.htm
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/uniquedisplay.html
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3F9F8B7E.9ADBCE35%40hydro.com

[1] Rosemary only uses 640x480 because most children's computer programs are so poorly written they only work in 640x480. She amazes me - no problems at finding the little red X on a form at 1024x768. When her favorite site, www.uptoten.com, added a tiny link so parents would have to log their kids on and just break down and buy some non-free stuff, it took her a 30 second lesson to learn how to find the little "no thanks, take me to the free site" link. I can't wait until she's 4 and can take over BIOS upgrades for the family.

3 Comments

  • When she's five do you turn over server administration to her? :)

  • Done and done.



    Looks like she's moved the home network to IPv9 and changed all the admin passwords. I'm posting this from an internet cafe.



    I'll see what I can do during nap time.

  • Education software is some of the poorest quality software I have ever seen. I have had to pull registry hacks and other tricks just to install some of it and then from a usability standpoint they are not built for children. How about not displaying a Print icon if no printer is present. Should take a couple lines of code to put in but I haven't seen one program do it yet. So when my kid accidently hits the print button we have to go through a series of error tabs to get back to normal.

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