Thursday, January 3, 2008

Desktop resolution problems

A couple posts ago I talked about the problems I had with my test deployment due to the desktop resolution. To refresh your memory Adobe CS3 requires that the desktop resolution be set to at least 1024x768 or it will not install. If getting errors deploying CS3 make sure it meets all system requirements -- the installer checks!

When our builds started they were at the resolution of 1024x768, but due to a driver update from windows update the resolution was getting reset to 800x600. I assume this is the default resolution that the driver is set to. So after doing a bit of searching I ran across Resolution Changer. This program is able to run from command line to change the resolution of your desktop.

In order to solve my problem I added a task sequence between doing the pre-applications windows updates and installing applications. I added the task as a run command line task. I put the little tool on my server and I run it from there. On the advice of one of the MSDN bloggers I named my custom task "CUSTOM - reschanger" (adding the CUSTOM to the front makes my extra steps a lot easier to find).

For the Command line:
\\SERVER\SHARE$\tools\reschange.exe -width=1024 -height=768 -depth=32 -refresh=60 -force -quiet
(All one line, no line breaks.)

For the Start in:
\\SERVER\SHARE$\tools
(I don't think this is really needed, but I put it in there just in case.)

I ran into a couple issues with this when I first started. At first I just put in the exe and the width and height switches. That gave me errors. Not really in the mood to troubleshoot the errors I added in the command line that you see above and all worked out just fine.

Just running the program by itself gives you a pop-up-box of the switches and what they do.

You can download the program from:
http://www.12noon.com/reschange.htm

2 comments:

İlkay Aygün said...

Hi, we have problem similar to yours. We have developed and successfully ran a script to change the resolution of the 1st monitor and attach a 2nd monitor. uınfortunately we cannot run it in task sequence. Did you use SCCM based task sequence or a workbench based? We are suspicious that we cannot run the program because of a "allow program to interact with desktop" restriction.
Regards...

Jeromy Baldridge said...

My task sequence is driven by the MS Deployment tool/winpe environment. We are not using SCCM. Of course at that point is it in Vista, but running as Administrator since it is still going through the task sequence. I don't know if UAC in another context would kick in. There might be other ways around the issue you are seeing. I found this one and it was simple and it worked out great for me.