How to Create Custom Resolutions on Windows 7, 8 or 10

Windows provides you with a preset list of standard screen resolutions for your display based on your graphics card or GPU and monitor hardware. You can easily change the screen resolution of of your display by switching to any of the presets provided by Windows. But what if you want to you a screen resolution that isn’t included in what has been given you?

Custom resolutions give you the flexibility to add virtually any screen resolution and refresh rate for your display. If you want to use a unique resolution that isn’t available in Windows preset list of resolutions, this guide will show you ways you can add any mode.

Note that not all computer manufacturers have custom modes enabled for their drivers, and older graphic drivers may not enable this feature. In this article, I’ll show you how to modify your screen resolution on Intel, AMD or NVIDIA graphics card using their native control software or a 3rd party software for those who don’t still don’t have the ability to customize their screen resolutions.

Method 1: Setting a Custom Resolution on an Intel Based Graphics Card

Before you continue, you need to check if your computer supports the custom graphics feature. This is described in the first three steps of this method. If you don’t meet this criteria, proceed to the 3rd method. The views might also be different on your computer, just follow closely and you’ll get it.

1. Verify from here if you have the latest Intel Graphics Driver
2. Open the Intel Graphics Driver properties windows by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F12 or right-clicking on the Windows desktop and selecting Graphics If prompted to select an application mode, select Advanced Mode and click OK.
3. Under the Display tab, check if there is Custom Resolutions/Custom Modes and select it. If you’re prompted with a warning, click yes to continue.

The Custom Resolution/Modes feature was removed from the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel. You can still access it from C:\Windows\System32\CustomModeApp.exe

1. Under “Basic Settings”, specify your preferred width, height and refresh rate in the boxes provided (e.g. 2400 x 1024).
2. Click on Add and then Yes when prompted with a confirmation dialog.
3. Click OK if you’re satisfied with the current resolution. To remove the custom resolution, click on Remove next to the custom resolution under “Remove Custom Resolution”.

Method 2: Setting a Custom Resolution on a NVIDIA Based Graphics Card

This method may vary with the version of graphics driver and graphics card but the concept remains the same. Also, make sure you have the latest NVIDIA Graphics Drivers.

1. Go to the NVIDIA Display Properties by right-clicking on the Windows desktop on selecting NVIDIA Display.
2. Under the Display category, select Change Resolution. Select the icon which represents the display you wish to affect and then click Customize. On the next window, click Create Custom Resolution. If this is the first time, accessing this feature, you will have to accept the End User Licence Agreement.
3. Fill in the fields with your preferred values for the display. Here, you can change the Horizontal pixels (width), Vertical lines (height), Refresh rate, Color depth, and Scan type. Click the Test button for the display to check of the custom mode is supported. If it doesn’t test will fail and you cannot set a new custom resolution.
4. You can go back to the Change Resolution page to select from your custom resolutions.

Method 3: Setting a Custom Resolution on an AMD Based Graphics Card

1. Right-click on your Windows desktop and select AMD Catalyst Control Center. Go to Information > Software. Copy the 2D driver file path, you will need it later.
2. Press Ctrl + R, type “regedit” and click OK.
3. Go to the registry path as specified in the 2D driver file path
4. In the “0000” folder, find a registry entry called DALNonStandardModesBCD1. Right-click and select edit and then enter the following values in order:
   • The width of the resolution. E.g 1440 or 0780
   • The height of the resolution. Eg. 1880 or 0240
   • Type four zeros
   • The refresh rate of your monitor. E.g. 0120 for 120Hz or 0060 for 60Hz.

If any of your values does not have up four digits, you have to proceed the values with 0.

1. Click on OK and restart your computer. After this, you should be able to choose your custom resolution from the AMD Catalyst Control Center.

Getting the best display on your monitor

Open Screen Resolution by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, and then, under Appearance and Personalization, clicking Adjust screen resolution.

Click the drop-down list next to Resolution. Check for the resolution marked ( recommended). This is your LCD monitor’s native resolution—usually the highest resolution your monitor can support.

Resolution based on LCD monitor size

Recommended resolution (in pixels)

19-inch standard ratio LCD monitor

20-inch standard ratio LCD monitor

20- and 22-inch widescreen LCD monitors

24-inch widescreen LCD monitor

Laptop screen size

Recommended resolution (in pixels)

13- to 15-inch standard ratio laptop screen

13- to 15-inch widescreen laptop screen

17-inch widescreen laptop screen

To get the best color displayed on your LCD monitor, make sure to set it to 32-bit color. This measurement refers to color depth, which is the number of color values that can be assigned to a single pixel in an image. Color depth can range from 1 bit (black-and-white) to 32 bits (over 16.7 million colors).

Open Screen Resolution by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, and then, under Appearance and Personalization, clicking Adjust screen resolution.

Click Advanced settings, and then click the Monitor tab.

Under Colors, select True Color (32 bit), and then click OK.

Windows also contains advanced color management controls. Color management systems ensure that color content is rendered everywhere as accurately as possible—especially for devices such as your monitor and your printer.

Display calibration software helps to make sure that colors are displayed accurately on your screen. If you already have display calibration software from another software provider installed on your computer, you can use that software to calibrate your display. Display calibration devices are often packaged with calibration software. Using a calibration device with the calibration software it came with can help you get the best color on your screen.

Windows also includes a feature for calibrating your display.

For external displays, brightness and contrast are set on the monitor controls, not from within Windows. Most CRT and LCD monitors have buttons or other controls on the front where you can control brightness and contrast. Some open an on-screen menu where you can make these adjustments. If you’re unsure of how to adjust these controls, check the manual for your monitor or the manufacturer’s website.

The brightness of most laptop screens can be adjusted within Windows. If you’re using a laptop, you can adjust brightness in Power Options.

Windows includes a technology called ClearType that is turned on by default. ClearType allows your monitor to display computer fonts as clear and smooth as possible. This can help make text easier to read over long periods of time without causing eyestrain. It works especially well with LCD devices, including flat-panel displays, laptops, and smaller handheld devices.

It’s a good idea to make sure ClearType was not turned off for some reason, especially if the text on your monitor looks fuzzy. You can also set up ClearType to work best with your particular monitor.

Windows scaling issues for high-DPI devices

Summary

When you use a high-DPI device such as a Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, or Surface Book together with external monitors, you experience the following issues:

Elements such as applications, the taskbar, icons, toolbars, text, and dialog boxes appear to be fuzzy.

Elements are too large or too small compared to the rest of the desktop.

Blurry text appears in applications or in the Windows interface.

Although these symptoms may be seen on a single monitor, they’re more common when you use multiple monitors that vary in display resolution. These symptoms also occur when the hardware configuration changes, such as when you dock and undock a device that uses external monitors, or you detach an external monitor from the device.

These issues commonly occur in the following scenarios:

Applications are moved between monitors that use different display resolutions.

The monitor that applications are displayed on changes between docked and undocked configurations.

Users mix connections during the same logon session. For example, users log on through a remote desktop connection (RDC), and later connect directly without first logging off.

Display information is determined when a user logs on to the system. A logoff-logon process resets the display information and improves behavior. However, the issue recurs if the monitor configuration changes during the same logon session, such as when you dock or undock the device or detach an external monitor.

This issue has become more prevalent since the introduction of 4k and higher resolution monitors, especially when these monitors are mixed together with older, standard monitors.

For more information about how Windows scales applications, see the following Core Team Blog articles:

Resolution

To resolve this issue, use the following methods.

Check for software updates Improvements are continuously being added to Windows 10 and Office 2016 applications. If you are experiencing a specific issue, first check whether it has been resolved in the latest Windows release or cumulative update. To check Windows 10 updates, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Match screen resolutions Consider deploying monitors that have complementary screen resolutions.

When you use multiple monitors (including when you dock or connect to remote screens), a greater difference in the resolution between the native device and external device is more likely to cause the issues to occur. For more information, see the following OneDrive presentation:

Use UWP applications Use or deploy Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications instead of Win32 applications.

Modern (UWP) apps always scale correctly. If there is a comparable modern app available, you can substitute that app to mitigate the scaling issues. For example, Edge is a modern app that does not cause the DPI Scaling issues that Internet Explorer might experience. Similarly, Remote Desktop is an alternative to mstsc.exe.

Check for known issues See the following articles for more information about known issues in these specific products.

Note Office 2016 applications started being released starting in September 2016. Additional updates are scheduled to follow.
Internet Explorer

3165808 Internet Explorer 11 Window display changes between built-in device monitor and an external monitor

Workaround

To work around scaling issues, try the following methods:

Log out and in Log out and log back in to the system. This improves how applications and elements are displayed when the monitor configuration changes.

Adjust display settings Windows 10

Select Display > Change the size of text, apps, and other items, and then adjust the slider for each monitor.

Earlier Windows systems

Right-click the application, select Properties, select the Compatibility tab, and then select the Disable display scaling on high DPI settings check box.

Change application properties In Explorer or on the Start menu, right-click the application name, select Properties, select the Compatibility tab, and then select the Disable display scaling on high DPI settings check box.

Note: In Windows 10 Version 1703 and later version of Windows, the text of the Disable display scaling on high DPI settings option is changed to Override high DPI scaling behavior, scaling performed by: Application.

Check whether applications are DPI-aware To determine an application’s support of DPI Scaling, follow these steps:

In Process Explorer, click the columns, and then add the DPI Awareness column to the view.

Start the application that you want to check.

In Process Explorer, locate the application, and then examine the DPI Awareness column.

DPI Awareness status definitions

Per-Monitor Aware: Per-monitor DPI-aware. These applications check for the DPI when they are started, and adjusts the scale factor whenever the DPI value changes. These applications are not automatically scaled by the system.

System Aware: System DPI-aware. These applications do not scale for DPI changes. They query for the DPI one time, and then use that value for the lifetime of the application. If the DPI changes, the application does not adjust to the new DPI value. It will be automatically scaled up or down by the system when the DPI changes from the system value.

Unaware: DPI-unaware. These applications do not scale for DPI changes. They are always assumed to have a scale factor of 100 percent (96 DPI). These applications are automatically scaled by the system at any other DPI settings.

For more information, see the following MSDN topic:

Report an issue Many UI elements have been updated because of customer feedback. Because DPI Scaling issues can involve multiple symptoms and configuration, information from users can help us identify specific scenarios and prioritize the development of updates.

To provide such feedback, follow these steps:

Record monitor configurations. To do this, take a screenshot of Display window ( Start > Settings > System > Display).

For each monitor, note the make and model, scaling percentage, and resolution.

Record the steps that you must follow to reproduce the issue.

Take screenshots or video of the desktop or applications before and after the scaling issues occur.

Run DXDiag.exe on the system.

Select Start > Feedback Hub. Search on “DPI” to check whether any listed issue matches your specific issue. If you find a match, you can add additional feedback, including screen shots, DXDiag results, and any other relevant information.

More Information

Display scaling is a deceptively complex problem. There is no magic bullet or single fix to resolve all DPI Scaling problems. DPI Scaling benefits from continuous improvements in the core operating system, in application development models, and in applications from both Microsoft and third parties.

Different versions of Windows and application development models have different display scaling capabilities and limitations.

For example, in Windows that were released earlier than Windows 8.1, desktop environment and applications understand only one scale factor, generally based on the primary display at the time that the logon session starts. When the display changes in the middle of a logon session, the system bitmaps scale content from the system scale factor to the new monitor scale factor. This makes sure that content doesn’t become excessively large or small. However, text may appear blurred. (The effect is worse when you scale up.) If the system shrinks or stretches UI elements to the correct size, this may cause some blurriness in dialog boxes and other UI elements.

In Windows 10, investments were made so that large parts of the desktop UX will scale crisply in docking-undocking scenarios. Additional scalability improvements were made to the taskbar, File Explorer, desktop icons, context menu, and other UI elements to improve the user experience.

Microsoft is continuously updating the system and first-party applications. Third-party applications may require similar investments.

References

MSDN: Writing DPI-aware Win32 applications

Thurrott Blog: July 13, 2015 post that discusses DPI Scaling. Article is based on the «Devices» chapter of the Windows 10 Field Guide.

Windows Blog: July 15, 2013

Build 2015: Display Scaling: What it is and what you need to know about it to have great visuals

Build 2014: Windows Desktop Development Platform Advancements

Build 2013: Making your desktop apps shine on high-DPI displays