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ARTICLES |
| Editing the
Registry June 29, 2008 |
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Editing the Windows registry can offer a chance to modify programs and how they handle tasks that aren't necessarily configurable within the options of the program itself. In many cases with games, editing the registry is the only way to configure the resolution to match the Eee's native resolution of 1024x600. Here I hope to simplify the process for you if you have never done it before and are hesitant. I'm not going to say that editing the registry can't have dire consequences, but only if you aren't careful. Navigating through the registry is harmless, it's only when you go to change settings that can cause issues. In the registry modifications that I suggest on this site, if you make a mistake, worse case is that the game you installed doesn't work right. You can always uninstall and reinstall if needed. Typically settings will be modified under the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" or "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" headings which will frequently be referred to as "HKLM" or "HKCU" just to simplify. Navigating the registry works just like a folder hierarchy in Windows Explorer. Keys are more or less the configurable options for a program, and are assigned values. There are many kinds of keys but typically "DWORD" values are affected for what we want to do. To get to the registry:
(1) Click the Start Menu This will bring up the Registry Editor. As an example for Warcraft III, to modify screen resolution, you need to expand folders to find: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Warcraft III\Video Then you want to edit the "resheight" and "reswidth" keys. To do this you can either: (1) Double click the
DWORD Name In this case, editing the "reswidth" key brings up this window:
While we want to change the resolution width to 1024, be sure to select the "Decimal" option as our Base, otherwise 1024 entered as a Hex value would not garner the resolution we desire. Just click ok. Do the same for "resheight" setting it to 600. Then close the Registry Editor Window. Now when you start your game, it should be in the set resolution. This example works ONLY for Warcraft III. Other games use different methods to control resolution. |