Tech Blog

HOWTO Add 1680x1050 resolution to Windows VMware Server clients

Posted At : July 3, 2007 5:04 PM 23 Comments

I make extensive use of VMWare Server on my laptop for Flex and Flash development as Adobe haven't released Flash and Flex for Linux yet (hint hint).

When I'm flicking back and forth between Windows and Linux I typically leave the Windows window at 1024x768 which allows it to have no scrolling and still fit on my 1680x1050 screen.

However, there are times when you just need more screen real estate in windows and as the VMWare driver doesn't come with a native 1680x1050 resolution you need to make some minor registry edits to get it working.

A bit of searching got me to an knowledge base article but the instructions didn't work for me, as the registry keys didn't exist there but were located pretty close. So without further ado (there's been quite a bit already I admit).

  • Start->Run and type regedit
  • Select the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{device id}\0000. Note the deviceid is a big horrible uuid, and there may be multiple ones. Use the one that has a key "Device Description" of VMWare SVGA II
  • There are a load of Resolution.x lines, add a new "Binary Value" 1 higher than the highest resolution. Eg Resolution.11
  • Enter the binary value of: 31 36 38 30 78 31 30 35 30 which is ASCII for "1680x1050"
  • Close regedit and reboot.
  • After reboot you should have a new resolution available to you.

For other resolutions you can use the following numbers keys:

ASCIIValue
300
311
322
333
344
355
366
377
388
399
78x

Cheers, Mark

23 Comments

James 7/4/07 7:25 AM

Why not use "VM > Fit Guest Now" or "VM > Autofit Guest" from the menu?

Mark Lynch 7/4/07 7:53 AM

Hi James,
The problem with that is that I can't get it to fill the full 1680x1050 screen, as the menu is not available when I'm in full screen mode, and when not in full screen mode there is always a bar or small border around the screen (at least on linux)

Let me know if there is a way around this.

Cheers,
Mark

Dave 7/25/07 6:24 PM

Thank you! I had been trying to figure out how to add the full-screen resolution for my laptop (1280x800) which is not available by default with the vmware controller.. Autofitting doesn't help because you can't autofit to fullscreen. Thanks!

m 7/29/07 9:25 AM

brillant, works great! thx for the tip!

Pedro Palhoto 8/7/07 9:34 PM

Ditto for 1440x900. Thanks for the valuable information.

lasticko 9/2/07 6:34 AM

thank you! Was looking to see how to do this and you answered it exactly.

Brian 10/13/07 4:39 PM

That works perfectly! Thank you! I have been trying to figure this out for a very long time.

One thing that people might miss is the Vmware Knowledge Base suggests the new key should be a registry String value. A string will not work, it needs to be binary just as you stated. Thank you, full screen works very well!

Jeff 1/23/08 8:19 PM

"autofit to full screen" sounds like it's just BEGGING to be an option. It would be really nice to be able to work in a window at 1024x768, but when you maximize, it automatically resizes the window to the native 1680x1050 (rather than stretching the current size)

KofolaMaster 2/26/08 9:34 AM

a hint: when entering the binary values, you don't need to bother with hex - click on the right side of the dialog and there you can enter it normally. Finally add a 00 at the end (this must be done on the left side)

Toni Casueps 4/18/08 1:45 PM

Really useful, thanks very much.

Gediminas 5/2/08 12:34 PM

On my Win2K guest the Resolution.* values were in a bit different registry location: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmx_svga\Device0] (it had "Device Description"="VMware SVGA II" as described by Mark). I tried adding my resolution there and it worked perfectly. THANKS, MARK!

Hugo 5/12/08 10:07 PM

Thank you very much!

Michael Medved 5/30/08 5:31 PM

Perfect.
Ubuntu Hardy host.
Puts my old windows XP back on track when I need it.

Rick Herrick 6/5/08 4:08 PM

Another approach is that found <a href="http://paulsiu.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/getting-vm...">here</a>, which involves setting some parameters in the VMX file.

I actually didn't have the <b>Resolution.<i>x</i></b> keys in the registry of my Windows Server 2003 VM, so I couldn't add any keys to that sequence. I tried adding <b>Resolution.0</b> and <b>Resolution.1</b> to support full-screen and maxed windowed resolution, but these resolutions never appeared in the Display panel. I wonder if this registry key isn't valid in all Windows environments. I can't find any reference to it elsewhere.

dcipher 7/2/08 10:03 PM

wow... thanks for that last link. I was having a lot of trouble getting my vm to go beyond 1050 vertical pixels, and low and behold, svga.maxHeight = “1050″ was in there. changed it to 1280 (running 1024x1280 - monitor turned vertically) and presto... autofit guest works!

schnutz 7/3/08 6:35 PM

Wonderful find - THANK YOU for this valuable information

Justin 9/28/08 6:25 PM

Thanks! My Optiquest Q20wb and my NVIDIA 5200 never got along with the DVI cable connected. Now I know how to override it! :)

Mike 11/11/08 8:36 PM

great post! saved my day...

MoRBaK 12/3/08 4:01 PM

Perfect! Thank you very much !!

to 3/12/09 3:19 PM

you're a genius, thanx a lott :)

Miker 3/13/09 5:14 PM

Great post, though I couldn't get an odd resolution to work, such as 2560x936. Anyone know if there are only certain presets that work?

Neil Kolban 5/24/09 10:00 PM

Great post. Worked like a charm. Thanks for the knowledge.

Martin 7/28/09 9:24 AM

Supeeeeeeeeer! Big thanx!