Check some other sdl (1.2.x) app if it behaves the same. Maybe change the
SDL_VIDEODRIVER var in both cases to windib/directx.

WINDIB will fix the issue but you'd have to make it default for Vista+ OS's and if so we may as well make it default for all OS's.

Current DOSBox behavior will cause the DOSBox intro screen to turn red when DOSBox is switched into fullscreen mode from Windowed mode (default DOSBox.conf).

You'll also get the annoying "The color scheme has been changed to Windows Vista/7 Basic" error message when switching back to Windowed mode.

This is due to Aero being switched off when DOSBox switches to fullscreen. This has been the same behavior DOSBox has exhibited since Vista was released.

> and if so we may as well make it default for all OS's.

That would cause performance loss.

> and if so we may as well make it default for all OS's.

That would cause performance loss.

You could solve that for Vista (and maybe Windows 7) by using the default SDL.dll that comes precompiled from libsdl.org when the installer detects Windows Vista/7 and using the DOSBox SDL.dll (with the windib/direct x order reversed) when detecting the older Windows.
Normal sdl.dll has windib used before directx, AFAIK DOSBox uses a self compiled sdl.dll that uses directx before windib (so output=ddraw doesn't fail). That is the source of that problem, I think.

But I don't know if the installer is a) able to detect Windows versions and b) can act upon it.

That is the source of that problem, I think.

As hal said this is intentional for simple speed reasons. directx was the well-tested
default for sdl for a very long time, and only recently they stopped to update
the directx part but made the (back then very buggy, now at-least-working)
windib the default.

yeah, I know... With Exult we have the problem that our snapshots come with the regular sdl.dll and that the windib default makes fullscreen not work for many Windows 9x users... 🙁

You could force a default from Exult, so you can use the default sdl.dll but
still have a different video backend setting.

I am having this problem and often notice that colors are distorted when dosbox is in full screen mode. Can anyone explain what the best/easist way is for me to fix this problem?

Win 7 64, doxbox .73

Color corruption will be fixed in next ver. (DOSBox will use 16bit rendering instead of 8bit).
You'll still need to set the sdl_videodriver=windib if you want Aero Glass though.

If you want a fix for the color corruption now just set the variable and it will fix both (You'll still be using 8bit rendering tho), although with Windows 7 you may still experience corruption in some cases. Explorer.exe in Windows 7 causes color corruption in 8bit rendering programs on Windows 7.

This should work. 😀

I'm not very familiar with this problem, but may I throw D3D output into the discussion? Wouldn't this be a good time to include the patch (Gulikoza's AFAIK) into mainline DOSBox? D3D feels "snappier" than any of the other output methods, and I believe it doesn't have the problems described in this thread. Of course the patch isn't multi-platform, but fixing the Windows display problems by changing DOSBox code and/or adapting the installer wouldn't be multi-platform as well (; . When looking at the posts here on VOGONS it seems pretty obvious that a large majority of DOSBox users are on modern Windows versions - or that Linux users don't have as many problems, or don't like posting in forums (; .

ykhwong it works for all outputs for alt-enter, but for alt-tab (alt-esc, ctrl-esc) it works only for opengl

Here is another version.

ver3 :
1. Added a delay to wait for Windows Aero to be back.
2. Made it work only under Windows Vista / 7 or later. (Aero is not part of WinXP or eariler.)

This patch sets video driver to WNDIB as default. When setting output=ddraw then it automatically resets to DirectX driver.