Ah, the high-maintenance user: Is there an app to save different display setups within a user profile?

Alright so-
I've got a guy who used to have a Lenovo laptop and now has a Dell. On his Lenovo he had some kind of profile setting manager that allowed him to select from the Windows log in screen what kind of screen resolution would be used when he logged in.

I don't pretend to fully understand the depths of this need, but basically when he's traveling he uses just the laptop screen with one screen resolution set and when he's in the office and has the screen extended to an external monitor he uses another resolution for the laptop screen. He doesn't want to manually go into display settings and toggle it back and forth every day.

The problem is, I'm not even sure how I would word a Google search to find such an application "pre-windows resolution profile manager" ? Sadly, we work in the kind of shop where openness and accommodation rules supreme so I have to get this done somehow. Anyone know of anything that's out there?

I'm going to try convincing him to just put a shortcut to display settings on his desktop, but $50 says its not gonna fly.

Windows 7?

I found one page that claimed this would happen automagically on Vista, maybe it still does? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...

Clarification:

OK, I talked to him again. The setting in question here is the 'change size of text and icons' in Windows 7. When using the laptop undocked he has it at 125%. Then he docks it and uses 2 external monitors only (although the laptop lid is still up so he can use the fingerprint reader) and then he wants it set to 100%. Recommended resolutions are being used in both cases. Hope this makes more sense. Is there anyway for an app to distinguish whether the laptop is docked and toggle this setting accordingly?

Eesh.

Oh and it this is on his Lenovo after all, so I will be scouring their bank of apps related to laptop settings.

You know, if there's a goodjer out there who's good with .bat files and could figure out a script to toggle between the 100% and 125% settings I may be able to convince him to just use that. :-/

EDIT: Scratch that idea, Windows requires you to logout to see the changes, which is what we are trying to avoid. So unless he can choose to run the .bat pre-login he won't be satisfied.

Maybe change the display DPI based on which monitors are active? Wouldn't that accomplish the same thing?

E.g., leave it at 100%, but have the laptop display set at 96dpi, and the multi-monitor setup at 120dpi, so it uses more pixels to display the same size text?

Katy wrote:

Maybe change the display DPI based on which monitors are active? Wouldn't that accomplish the same thing?

E.g., leave it at 100%, but have the laptop display set at 96dpi, and the multi-monitor setup at 120dpi, so it uses more pixels to display the same size text?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the 100% 125% thing is just an easy way to describe changing the dpi to regular folks. In other words they are the exact same setting. Windows remembers resolution selections for external monitors but not DPI settings- it just uses what had been last selected on the laptop side.

Thanks for your thoughts though, keep em coming - and let me know if I'm wrong on any of this stuff. I'm still fuzzy on how Windows 'remembers' display settings.

the high-maintenance user

Nuke 'em from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.