We use Wyse C90LE thin clients running XPe. It’s painful and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to automate our processes and reduce the amount of time we have to spend on each device.

One challenge has been adjusting the screen resolution. We push out a default 1280×1024, but everyone seems to need a different resolution. Juggling between 4:3, 16:10 and 16:9 ratio monitors only complicates things further.

I originally found a great page for packaging changes on “Siva Mulpuru’s Blog“. His solution may be good for most needs; however, I found that a much simpler solution worked best for me. I have to credit Siva Mulpuru’s Blog for the inspiration, though.

First, download MultiRes from EnTech Taiwan: http://entechtaiwan.com/util/multires.shtm

You need to extract the file “multires.exe” from this package. Just install the package on any computer and browse to the install directory to find this file.

Create a folder called “video” in the Rapport directory on your WDM server. Copy multires.exe to this folder. Create a basic script that does the following:

  • Copies multires.exe to the thin client
  • Executes multires.exe with the appropriate command switches
  • Delete MultiRes files (if desired)

That’s it. I’m no wizard when it comes to using WDM, so go ahead and laugh. I have scripts for each common resolution in our environment. The script basically looks like this:

[Version]
Number=Screen1280x1024

Description=Change Screen Resolution to 1280×1024
OS=XP
Category=Device Configuration
USE_REMOTE=Yes
; Date: 8/26/2013

[Script]SF “Video\multires.exe” “c:\temp\multires.exe”
EX “C:\temp\multires.exe /1:1280,1024 /2:1280,1024”

NOTE: In addition to setting the resolution, MultiRes can also change the color depth, refresh rate and more. Go to the EnTech MultiRes web page for details about how to use the tool.

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