I am trying to automate the process of changing the user's Windows scaling to 100% (right click desktop --> Display settings). As of right now I have a batch script using SendKeys to do everything then close out of settings.
I have tried writing a PS script to change LogPixels but having to sign out every time for changes to take affect is something I'd like to avoid.
Any other way you can think of accomplishing this besides the batch script? Is there a way to alter LogPixels and have it take affect with signing the user out?
In short, you can't do this via the registry method and not need to log in and out.
If you want to look at C# for this, there's a very through answer here:
How can I change Windows 10 Display Scaling Programmatically using C#
Related
I've been playing around with a Windows 7 virtual machine and found that by changing the shell registry value in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\shell I can use an arbitrary program (for example, paint) as the shell instead of explorer.
Now, given that I have no access to the tools afforded by explorer, how would I go about reverting this? This seems like a rather useful trick for demo machines and such, so I would hope that there's a way to revert them when done.
It turns out that keyboard commands (C-S-ESC, C-M-DEL) still work. Surprisingly, windows-r doesn't work. To revert it, open the task manager using C-S-ESC, then click new task, then you can either run explorer to start the gui shell, or regedit to change the default shell.
I have a very basic VBS script that I plan on using frequently on my Windows 7 machine. Is there any way I can bind it to a keyboard shortcut so I don't have to navigate to it through Explorer obnoxiously.
I realize this question does not directly pertain to programming, or even scripting for that matter, but I could not find a straight answer online or through my own experimentation. I'm sure that there is a simple solution somewhere...
Thank you for taking the time to read, and hopefully respond to my inquiry.
Evin Ugur.
Windows does have built-in support for shell shortcut keys, where a keypress is used to invoke an *.lnk file that launches your VBScript (using either cscript or wscript).
Create a shortcut file, have it invoke your VBScript file directly or run cscript or wscript with the appropriate arguments, then save it and open its Properties sheet and set a keystroke in the "Shortcut key" field (I suggest something like Ctrl+Alt+K).
Like so:
Then, whenever you press Ctrl+Alt+K, regardless of the active application, your script will be invoked.
A more heavy-duty alternative is AutoHotKey: http://www.autohotkey.com/
Just as an FYI.
I tried this and I was not able to register the hotkey when I had the Icon in a costume folder. Even if I added the hotkey, it failed to work.
Once I moved the icon to the "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs", the hotkey started to work.
I have a lot of different servers that I connect to. Each time I connect to a new machine I go through the several mouse clicks to setup basic options for cmd.exe, such as QuickEdit mode and expanding the screen display and buffers. This article describes what I do pretty well (with my own settings, of course): http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/commandpromptoptions.mspx?mfr=true
This is annoying. I would like to run a quick configureCmd.cmd script upon login that will update all of these settings automatically such that when I open the cmd.exe it is already configured without any additional work on my part. Running the script on login is easy, but I do not know where these settings are stored. I figured the Registry, but my experiments do not show any difference in HKLM | HKCU \Software\Microsoft\Command Processor.
Console Windows are not part of the command processor, so it follows that their settings are separate. Take a look at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console.
I'm new to programming and have taken some classes in it so I'm not sure if this is possible. I want to use a COTS software called 010 Hex Editor and write a script for the program to automate a couple tasks. These tasks can be run from a batch file according to their documentation.
Then I want to instruct the user to eject the device and reinsert it to clear the cache. (This I want done just with a simple pop-up window.
Then I also want to format the device which I assume can be done in a batch file as it can be done through dos on Windows.
My question is, with these 3 steps, can I build a simple GUI that has a button that says, "Start" or something like that, then the pop up window comes up to eject and reinsert, and then another button to format, and another button to exit. I'm not really familiar with what language this could be done in, and how to do this as the C++/Java classes I've taken have been more about syntax and OOP. Thanks!
You can use the windows messenger service to put up an alert - but on newer windows (vista/7) it's a pain to set all the permissions to allow this.
There are lots of free utilities that will popup a dialog from the command line, with a given message and wait for a response.
They are generally called messagebox or msgbox - sorry can't recommend any in particular
One of my programs seems to be changing the Display Properties > Appearance > Effects > Show window contents while dragging setting to off every few hours.
I'm not sure exactly which program, or when it happens. I have a number of programs that seem like likely culprits - wallpaper rotators, software for multiple monitors, multiple virual desktops and switching, and a few others.
I am just thinking to create a little batch script to run periodically and set the setting back to on.
Does anyone know how to do this in windows? I'm using xp pro sp3.
Thanks!
The best option is to do this programmatically using the supported API. i haven't tested this, but it should do the trick:
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETDRAGFULLWINDOWS,
TRUE,
NULL,
SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE | SPIF_SENDCHANGE)
You can use SPI_GETDRAGFULLWINDOWS to see if the the bit has been flipped to avoid unnecessarily triggering a WM_SETTINGCHANGE.
You can use RegMon to find the program that keeps changing your settings. Maybe that's a better start than hacking around it.
There is a simple and effective solution to this problem. In Notepad type the following lines :
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] "DragFullWindows"="1"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\DragFullWindows] "CheckedValue"=dword:00000001 "UncheckedValue"=dword:00000001
Save the file as "Show Window Contents.reg" Double clicking this file and restarting will cure the problem permanently. Post a message if you find this useful.
Aravind Banerjee
It seems the registry setting which controls that preference is HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\DragFullWindows. You can read more about it here. However, trying it on my own computer does not register the change right away, so a batch script won't do it. You'll probably have to write a program to manipulate it using SystemParametersInfo(). You can pass it the SPI_SETDRAGFULLWINDOWS parameter. Here's a page explaining it more. Here's a page showing how to call it, albeit not for the same parameter.
I suspect it's kept in the registry - maybe [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] - "DragFullWindows"?
It would be easy to flip the registry setting back to "1" every hour or so with a batch file.