The Old New Thing

I'd imagine the reason that the "secret backdoor hidden rotation functionality" exists in XP drivers is because manufacurers are using the same drivers for XP as 2000 where the "secret backdoor hidden rotation functionality" was actually needed.

The same company's PowerStrip tool helped me finally get my HTPC to display at 1280x720 on my plasma TV.

(Without it I was stuck at the slightly higher native resolution of 1280x768. That's non-square pixels, which the OS and/or video codecs seem not to understand, so everything was squashed until I forced the right resolution. It was really frustrating that I had to find a 3rd party tool in order to get both the major gfx card vendors' cards/drivers to work properly with the screen. Turns out it's just a registry entry, too.)

I dislike the way iRotate  steals  Ctrl-Shift-Left and Ctrl-Shift-Right  since I'm used to them being select previous/next  word.

Is it me or do the video driver guys seem to be the main ones causing most of the trouble?

I'm waiting for one of them to come to this blog and either try to lie their way out of it or justify their behavior somehow.

JamesNT

@JamesNT, the graphics card vendors had an inflated opinion of themselves.  They basically took Adobe's attitude that people buy computers just so they can buy their product.  (The fact that their highest-margin markets were gaming and 3D modeling, where they were indeed the most important system component, reinforced this belief.)

When you have that feeling of entitlement, you don't feel the need to be a good Windows citizen.  You want your logo plastered all over Windows, in context menus, in the Control Panel, in the Start menu, in the notification area, everywhere.  You feel Microsoft should be coding Windows to suit you, not the other way around.

But I've noticed quite a dramatic improvement since Vista came out.  Some of it comes from humbler graphics vendors -- perhaps spurred by Intel's gains in integrated graphics, and AMD's purchase of ATI.  And Microsoft has also struck back.  Windows Update installing clean drivers without bundled craplets + drivers outside of kernel mode = bliss.

Oh... I always thought that you can't do this because by default the "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display" is checked. (The "Ctrl-Alt-Left/Right" key combination won't work if that setting is checked. Once you unchecked that and click "Apply" the above key combination works. I checked to see at least these work like this way on computers with Intel and NVidia graphic chips.)

@Leo Davidson: what reg entry is that?

"When [graphics card vendors] have that feeling of entitlement, you don't feel the need to be a good Windows citizen."

I'm not wanting to start any mud-slinging here, but don't worry, graphics card vendors' sense of entitlement and arrogance is not limited to Windows. Graphics card vendors fail to be good citizens and generally suck no matter what OS you use.

Except Intel.

I've found that these annoying video cards also ignore SetDeviceGammaRamp and ICM profiles when used with some OS versions. Of course, they have no equivalent proprietary function of their own, so you can't control the colours displayed on your monitor. The most annoying thing is that this doesn't appear to be a conscious design choice but just the result of buggy code that was never actually tested to work, which is par for the course in recent drivers so it would seem. Roll on Intel's Larrabee, I say, and let the others see how it ought to be done.

It's a little cheap I think to bash the graphic vendors for a glitch here and there, they make some of the most complex pieces of software, and they do struggle with backward comp and need to work around bad application's bug the same way this blog often discussed.

Btw, our company doesn't support Intel graphic cards due to the problems with them, I'm a little baffled to read that positive comment above.  The thought that Intel just wont freaking give up with graphics terrifies us.  I guess if you just browse the web on Linux, they're OK.

Does this mean we'll get cleartype when oriented vertically ?

cleartype doesn't work vertically, gdi doesn't support it.

Why is there so much love reserved only for the graphics card vendors here? Have you seen the way the sound card vendors behave? Don't even get me started...