Download Pick: ResSwitch Change Screen Resolution via shortcut or command line in Windows Vista and Windows XP

Recently we have started upgrading our staff's computers to ones that have Vista on them with 17 inch versus 15 inch monitors. Well the elder generation complained about the higher screen resolution that the monitors now have being they are bigger.

Since we use a single mandatory profile for logins and users then log into Citrix for their apps I needed a way to easily let the users change their resolution. We run shifts so different users use the same workstation and all want a different resolution.

I had a program that was able to change the screen resolution on our Windows 2000 workstations but it did not work on Vista. Go figure. So I set out to find one that did and finally found ResSwitch formerly named Qres by Naughter Software. The beauty of this utility of course is that it is FREE. My favorite price.

So I downloaded the Qres.zip file and extracted it. I copied the file ResSwitch.exe from the Release folder from the Qres directory I extracted it to into the C: root folder of the users drive. Then I created 3 icons which I copied over to the desktop folder of the users profile called 800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x1024.

For the 800x600 screen resolution icon I created a new shortcut with the target as follows:

C:\ResSwitch.exe /WIDTH:800 /HEIGHT:600

The 1024x768 screen resolution target line in the shortcut should look like this:
C:\ResSwitch.exe /WIDTH:1024 /HEIGHT:768

Finally I made one for 1280x1024 that had the below for the target in the shortcut:

C:\ResSwitch.exe /WIDTH:1280 /HEIGHT:1024

That is all there was to it! Now I had 3 icons on the users desktop that they could easily change the resolution with a simple mouse click. (note you have to click run to bypass UAC to run it)

You can download ResSwitch from this link:

http://www.naughter.com/qres.html

Note: Of course this program will work in Windows XP Also