Script a resolution change...

[Intuit]

Do you and another user fight over the resolution settings
on your Windows XP PC ?

Then this simple command-line utility can be placed in the individual UserProfile start menus to automate the resolution change for you.

To note though, the Task Scheduler "Logon" and Explorer's Startup items are only processed during the initial logon.
So if you emply "Fast User Switching" without actually logging off, this may not help.  

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/qres.html

[Dr.G]

That is very useful indeed.

Is there a good reason why the screen resolution is not included in the per-user settings in the first place? This has bugged me for a long time.

Dr.G

[Intuit]

I don't know I've wondered about that myself especially since the current set resolution is reapplied during fast-user-switching anyway.  (when the screen goes blank for a second, that's the monitor changing, or rather reapplying modes)

Have they resolved this annoyance with Vista

[Dr.G]

Indeed they seem to have made things worse in Vista...

Simply selecting Switch User to get back to the Welcome screen forces the resolution to refresh, as does then clicking on another user! It's almost as though there are resolution settings for each situation being applied but that there is no way to change them individually. Very odd, and very annoying indeed!

Dr.G

[Intuit]

Are you saying that all users still share resolution settings under Vista ?   Actually I'm surprised no one has written a freeware program that automatically stores and refreshes these settings on a per-user basis.  Maybe there is some technical detail in the way but I would think, running as a service, it would be an easy programming task.

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They're required to restore settings from each account and with XP, the logon screen's settings were ignored instead of being treated as a separate account in itself.  This means that things such as mouse-cursor and fore/background text colors persisted on the logon screen and I could tell who was last logged on just by looking at that.  That's not a good thing.   The only time the logon's settings were pulled and refreshed was on initial boot or when they actually logged-off as opposed to FUSing.

If they changed that with Vista as you're implying then that's a positive correction.   Theoretically I now shouldn't be able to tell who last logged on by looking at the logon screen, nor could I potentially run into text/mouse cursor visibility issues based on the settings of the last person who logged-in.  (and used FUS as opposed to logging off)

[Dr.G]

I'm afraid all users and the welcome or logon screen do still share resolution settings.

I use 1600x1200 all the time, but my wife has poor eyesight and is unable to read the screen at that resolution, so her logon would be set to 1280x1024 if it were possible. It isn't though. I can't think of any sensible reason why they would have this limitation.

Dr.G