How do I Resize entire screen?

Question

I want to be able to re size everything that is displayed - taskbar, windows, desktop - everything and put it in a border. What is the best way to accomplish this? I'm thinking DirectX, but I am not that familiar with it. I'm not sure what technologies would accomplish this, but I bet it would have to be rather low level.

Answer 1

DirectX has its own API's, but if you want to change the taskbar and desktop, I rather think you have to go for the Windows API.

The direct API call to use is ChangeDisplaySettings() or ChangeDisplaySettingsEx(), but you need to get a filled-in DEVMODE structure to use it properly. DEVMODE is a beast. You're going to need to fill it using EnumDisplaySettings(), identify which display is your main screen, and fiddle with the dmBitsPerPel, dmPelWidth, and dmEplHeight members. Not every possible setting is supported: I think DeviceCapabilities() can tell you that... this should get you started.

You haven't told us explicitly that it's Windows you're after, nor in what language you're working.