Full screen [Resolved]

[pjrage]

Is there a way to change the desktop resolution and make my program take up the entire screen? Not just maximize, I'm talkin the way a game does or something, where it actually changes the resolution and takes up every inch of the entire screen (no taskbar or anything). Is there an easy way to do this? If not, can I like save the icon positions, change the desktop resolution, regular maximize, use program (with taskbar) and when exiting, restore resolution and position of icons? (This second way is much less desireable, but I really need to change the desktop resolution more than anything else). Due to the nature of the program, it is important that it looks and runs EXACTLY the same on every computer it is used on, right down the the resolution. It is also important that the user cannot use anything else (by accident) in windows during use of the program, hence if it were maximized entirely. Any thoughts?

[Shaggy Hiker]

Two ways, depending on what you are doing with it...well, maybe three.

If you are actually making a program that wants to look like a game because it IS a game, then you ought to look into DirectX.

However, assuming that you just want it to fill the screen, I got that behavior by accident by removing the caption bar (and the control buttons), and setting the form Windows State to maximized during development. The Start Menu is gone, the caption is gone, the task bar is gone, nothing but the form. I didn't want this, so I changed it back, but if that's what you want, that's a simple solution.

Generally, full-screen apps in DirectX have the form style as tooltip, which I believe you can set in the Windows Style. I don't actually know what this will do when you have a full screen tooltip style form, but that might be another way to do what you are trying to do.

[leinad31]

But if the taskbar is set to 'Keep the taskbar on top of other windows' then it would be best to use DirectX

[pjrage]

Thanks, I have one problem solved! I just changed border to 0 - none, and that makes it go over everything, even thought he task bar is set to be on top of other windows. This is great! My second problem now still deals with the resolution. I am able to change the resolution to any supported resolution/bpp, but my newest problem is that laptops with LCD screens do not perform properly at multiple resolutions. I'm looking into possibly zooming in as much as I can (until horizontal is filled) and adding black bars or something on the left and right (like widescreen TVs do now)? I don't know how to handle this, but the full screen is a definite start, thanks! Also, memorizing icon positions so they can be restored upon exiting seems to be alot harder than I would like, is there a very easy way to do it? Or a free ocx?

[Shaggy Hiker]

I guess I am unclear on what you are trying to end up with.

Every laptop I have used, when you go beyond the resolution that they prefer, have problems with the screen. The resolution is effectively fixed. If you were to zoom in, everything on the screen would be bigger, which woud mean that things would spill over into off-screen space. If you are talking about a standard form with standard controls, there would be ways to do this, but they are ugly. However, if you are talking about a game, then you should start looking into DirectX, because it sounds like you will be ending up there eventually.

[leinad31]

You can use the sysinfo control to detect resolution changes.

You would then have to resize, reposition the form as well as the controls in the form.

[Shaggy Hiker]

That's true, but on a laptop it behaves a little weird, and it isn't clear to me whether simply resizing on resolution change would do what he wants to do.

[leinad31]

True.

Don't know if the screen object dimensions differs with laptop res changes, I'm guessing not.

[pjrage]

Sorry that I was unclear. I realize that laptops only have a single resolution and outside of it they look blurry, stretched or just plain bad. This is the same as widescreen TVs now. For anything that isn't widescreen (like a DVD or HDTV) they put black bars on the left and right. I was going to look into possibly doing this, simply to look better for laptop use, but more than likely I will just let it maximize and center my form, which achieves basically the same thing. Thanks for your help!