Get multiple monitors settings using WMI/registry

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Hi,

I need to get notification when there is a change in the display settings (resolution, orientation, relative position and when a monitor is being connected/disconnected) of multiple monitors connected to my computers from within a Windows Service (can't listen to WM_DISPLAYCHANGE) . I can get a notification when there is a resolution change or change in number of connected monitors by registrying using WMI to changes in the monitor's WMI class, but I don't find a class that stores the orientation and relative position. Is there such a class?

In addition, if I could find a registry key which stores that data it will be a solution too (I can get a notification when the key changes using WMI). In particular I need a key which exists ib both Win7 and WinXP.

If there is another way to get this data from within a Windows service, I'll be happy to know it.

I will be thankfull for any help.

Posted 2-Dec-10 0:58am

knaf

Updated 2-Dec-10 1:00am

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E.F. Nijboer · Answer 1 · 2010-12-02T02:59:00

To detect the orientation (or change in orientation) is the most easy part of the problem. There is no display resolution that has the same width and height, so the orientation changes if the vertical becomes the horizontal resolution an vice versa. It is also possible to say that the width is always greater than the height.

C#

#include <windows.h>
//. . .
//Compare the height and width of the screen and act accordingly.
int theScreenWidth = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXFULLSCREEN);
int theScreenHeight = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYFULLSCREEN);
if (theScreenWidth > theScreenHeight)
    //Run the application in landscape, as in:
    MessageBox(NULL,"Run in landscape.","Landscape",MB_OK);
else
    //Run the application in portrait, as in:
    MessageBox(NULL,"Run in portrait.","Portrait",MB_OK);

more info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms812142.aspx[^]

So if you can already detect the changing of the screen resolution you can also detect orientation changes.

Information about the screen position can be found using GetMonitorInfo. Because the rect of MONITORINFO.rcMonitor is virtual, some of the coordinates could be negative if it is not the primary monitor. This is of course the case when the second monitor is left of the primary monitor.

more info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd162826.aspx[^]

I also found some info on where to find this info in the registry:

System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{GUID}\0000
System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{GUID}\0001

System\Currentcontrolset\4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318\0000
System\Currentcontrolset\4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318\0001

Machine\hardware\devicemap\video

Good luck!

Get multiple monitors settings using WMI/registry

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