Fullscreen switches (can switch) to a different mode, and obviously your
monitor is badly adjusted for this mode. Just use the buttons of your
monitor and move the screen to the right position (the setting should be
remembered by your monitor).

Hmm- Interesting. Thanks! That did the trick, and didn't affect the screen position for any other program (Windows, ScummVM, etc.)

So pardon my "caveman astonishment" but how does it work? I'm guessing that the Display settings are saved for each program by the OS.. I can't imagine the monitor actually saving the settings for each "profile".

It is in the monitor. How do you suppose the monitor was going to tell your PC about the adjustments you made?

Actually, monitors can send data to the PC (That's how monitor autodetect works), but MiniMax is right. For a while, monitors have been smart enough to store different adjustment settings for different resolutions.

But the display settings need to be set for each program that requests a different setting from the default, otherwise all of these programs would have the same settings. Doesn't it make more sense for each program to keep track of this information (say in a config file) and then just request the monitor to set the display to those settings; rather than somehow store this information in the monitor?

I guess one easy way to test this is to use two different monitors on one computer. First keep track of both monitors' display settings for a specific program (eg. Dosbox) on one computer. On one monitor, make a noticable display setting change, like shifting the screen halfway out of view. Then disconnect that monitor and reconnect it to the other monitor. If running Dosbox shows the screen to be displayed halfway out of view on the second monitor, then that means the settings are stored by the software somewhere on the computer. If, instead, the second monitor still shows the program in its original configuration, AND reconnecting the first monitor again still shows the display offset- that would confirm that the settings are stored in the monitor.

The monitor isn't saving the position for every program, but for every resolution it supports.

For example: I run my windows desktop in 1156x864 and DOSBox uses the resolution 320x200 (with most older DOS games.) Actually, it depends on your DOSBox config file, but by default it uses the resolution that the game you are playing asks for. The 320x200 resolution just isn't used by may Windows apps (don't know of any that use them, really.) So, while I have Windows running the monitor sits in 1156x864 mode and knows (by it's own internal memory,) to have the screen position set one way. Then I run an old DOS game in DOSBox and the monitor is switched to 320x200 mode. If I have never used that mode with this particular monitor, it doesn't know where I want the screen to be, so it defaults to some factory standard or copies the settings from another resolution mode (this depends on the monitor.) I then use the monitor buttons to move the screen to where it needs to be. The monitor saves where I moved the screen, and thereafter knows where to put the screen when in 320x200 mode.

That's what I originally thought too, but I am running different programs at 1024 x 768 as well as several other programs that use a different resolution than windows. Each of these programs seem to use a different display settings.. at least from what I've seen so far (ie. changing the screen position in one of these programs doesn't affect the other)..

Some/many? monitors tie it not just to the res but also the refresh rate.

Also I'm not particularly sure if I get you. Are you saying Windows is 1024x768 and your using other programs that run at 1024x768 but each and every one seems to have their own monitor settings or what?

I'm really not sure if you aren'T confusing desktop position of your apps with the "screen position" of your monitor.

My monitor switches to different settings for certain programs. I can change my windows settings through the usual Display settings in Control Panel. Features like the screen position and curvature can be adjusted on the monitor itself. Running certain programs (like games or ScummVM, for example) switches the monitor settings (ie. screen position, resolution, etc). Each of these programs' settings appear to be independent of each other (changing one, doesn't affect the others).

Let me clarify that my original problem has long since been resolved since the first reply. I was just curious to where each of these program settings are being saved.

This is all in reference to fullscreen applications; not window positions.

ok, then are you sure that all these apps do indeed run at 1024x768?
Because if they are running in a different resolution it explains why you have to adapt the settings for each one of them.
Just because your Windows resolution is set to 1024x768 doesn't mean that programs like Dosbox, ScummVM or games do run at 1024x768. By default they really don't.

No, everything is running fine now (read my first reply). My question was just about where the actual monitor display settings are saved.

The display resolution was just brought up because it was stated that the monitor might save the settings based on the resolution and/or refresh rate. I will go ahead and test my idea (in my second reply) when I get the chance, and let you all know.

I can change the windows resolution independently of programs like Dosbox. My Dosbox config currently has fullresolution set to original which is working fine. I can adjust this to whichever resolution I choose and Dosbox will display it as such.

Since programs using the same resolution can have different monitor settings (such as screen position, curvature, color, hue, etc.) that are independent of one another, the question arose as to where or how these settings are saved.

Monitor saves the data. Remember that graphics cards still have digital picture information - there are no borders, framebuffer is exactly the size of the resolution and there are no color settings, just bits that represent the color. Monitors store (about 15 I think, depends on the model I guess) different profiles, based on the resolution/refresh rate.

No, everything is running fine now (read my first reply). My question was just about where the actual monitor display settings are saved.

To what part of my answer was this aimed at? I don't doubt that it is running fine now, I just doubt your conclusions.

Since programs using the same resolution can have different monitor settings (such as screen position, curvature, color, hue, etc.) that are independent of one another

That's what I doubt.

> My question was just about where the actual monitor display settings are saved.

In a little serial eeprom inside the monitor.

Acefox wrote:

No, everything is running fine now (read my first reply). My question was just about where the actual monitor display settings are saved.

Dominus wrote:

To what part of my answer was this aimed at? I don't doubt that it is running fine now, I just doubt your conclusions.

I think there's something lost in translation here - what you're asking about - which programs running at which resolutions is already known. I can confirm for a fact that I am using different programs with different resolutions each with separate monitor settings. I had a question about where monitor settings are saved, in which several people already responded to- I don't know what you mean by "my conclusions".. as all I said was that this can be tested (which I've just done and will talk about shortly).

Acefox wrote:

Since programs using the same resolution can have different monitor settings (such as screen position, curvature, color, hue, etc.) that are independent of one another

Dominus wrote:

That's what I doubt.

My statement is an observable fact: different programs can have different monitor settings on the same monitor. That part isn't in question by anyone.

So I conducted several tests with two different monitors and two different computers and here are the results:

1.) The monitor settings are indeed saved on the monitor itself, however, each "profile" is not saved to just the resolution. They are saved for each resolution AND (exclusive) the refresh rate. So Nil Einne was right.

Nil Einne wrote:

.. monitors tie it not just to the res but also the refresh rate.

Therefore, changing the refresh rate or resolution for any program will access a different monitor settings profile.

2.) As a consequence of the above, using that same monitor on a different computer will have access to the same saved monitor profiles. So if the second computer is running a program requesting the same res and refresh rate as the first, they will access the same monitor profile. (ie. if Dosbox on computer 1 is using the same res and refresh rate as Dosbox on computer 2, the monitor settings such as the screen position, curvature, etc. will be the same).

If two programs running on one computer, have the same resolution and different res rates, each program will have their own set of display settings for a given monitor. This is the case for which I observed: running different programs with the same resolution, but different refresh rates have different monitor settings.

Both the resolution and refresh rate can be specified by the software from what I observed. Although it is possible (and probably very likely), that additional information is also sent from the PC.

My statement is an observable fact: different programs can have different monitor settings on the same monitor. That part isn't in question by anyone.

What I'm doubted was your conclusion that the saving (wherever that occures, though I never doubted the monitor saves that) was tied to the programs. It isn't. It's just tied to screen resolution and (like you tested) the refresh rate.
So different programs do not have different monitor settings in the meaning that the monitor saves programname+resolution+refresh rate.
It just saves resolution+refresh rate. If two different programs use the same resolution and refresh rate then the screen position will be the same.
But I think you got that figured out in your last post.