Need to change resolution remotely is it possible?

[clivebuckwheat]

Is it possible to change the resolution remotely on more machines then I care to admit to, the machines are running XP. I will have to do this via script or command line?

Thanks again to all that lend a hand in this matter.

[Glenn9999]

Is it possible to change the resolution remotely on more machines then I care to admit to, the machines are running XP. I will have to do this via script or command line?

Thanks again to all that lend a hand in this matter.

I did some web searching and looks like probably the best way (unless there's a way to do it with Remote Desktop Services) to do it is to push a utility to each of the machines to change the resolution (QRes works), then use PSEXEC to run it. I'm not seeing anything that directly addresses resolution of remote display devices and WMI doesn't seem to support changing that at all.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Other-VIDEO-Tools/QRes.shtml

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553

Hope this helps...

Edit: Looked at PSEXEC closer and it looks like it'll copy the exec to the machine for you and run it there. For example:

This command copies the program test.exe to the remote system and executes it interactively:

psexec \\marklap -c test.exe

Looks like this ought to work.

Edited February 2, 2011 by Glenn9999

[jaclaz]

Wouldn't you also need a cam pointed to each screen?

I mean if the number of machines is so big, are you really sure you won't be forcing a resolution, color depth or refresh rate that is not suitable with a video card or monitor among the machines?

If I were you I would look into nirsoft's nircmd (setdisplay command+remote or multiremote):

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

jaclaz

Edited February 2, 2011 by jaclaz

[clivebuckwheat]

Thanks will do. No all the machines are the same model so I know that the res will work it is for the projectors. 1024x768 works better.

Wouldn't you also need a cam pointed to each screen?

I mean if the number of machines is so big, are you really sure you won't be forcing a resolution, color depth or refresh rate that is not suitable with a video card or monitor among the machines?

If I were you I would look into nirsoft's nircmd (setdisplay command+remote or multiremote):

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

jaclaz

[Glenn9999]

I mean if the number of machines is so big, are you really sure you won't be forcing a resolution, color depth or refresh rate that is not suitable with a video card or monitor among the machines?

While the OP said this wouldn't matter, if one was concerned would it be possible to query those features off machines on the network using WMI (Win32_DesktopMonitor and Win32_VideoController)? I'm not fully sure, but just a thought.

[CoffeeFiend]

would it be possible to query those features off machines on the network using WMI (Win32_DesktopMonitor and Win32_VideoController)? I'm not fully sure, but just a thought.

Easily (WMI truly rocks for remotely getting infos like that). The ScreenWidth and ScreenHeight of the Win32_DesktopMonitor WMI class will return the native res of a LCD (don't have a CRT around anymore to see if that tends to return sane values sadly). As for Win32_VideoController, it's only for Vista+, so you'd also need to make use of Win32_DisplayConfiguration for older systems (after reliably detecting the OS) but they're not incredibly useful anyway.

The main issue will be systems with multiple monitors/projectors (or maybe those with multiple GPUs). This will be a somewhat error prone process no matter what. As for single display systems, IIRC QRes does check the capabilities before trying to set a mode but I could be mistaken (never had a problem with it before).