Can’t change Screen Resolution in Windows 10

 

Many a time, mostly after an Update to Windows or installation of a new graphics card, you may not be able to adjust the Screen Resolution on your PC running on Window 10. Sometimes you would not be able to find an option to change the screen resolution because the drop-down freezes, or it always reverts to the old resolution. Even worse, the monitor doesn’t display the native resolution. In this post, I am talking about how to fix the problem, if you can’t change the screen resolution in Windows 10.

Just before you start, let’s try some basic tips. Open Settings where you get to change the screen resolution. Go to Settings > System > Display. You should see a dropbox under label Resolution. See if you can change it to a resolution which either you want to is better than this. Sometimes, because of some issue, the display drivers automatically changes the screen resolution. If this doesn’t solve your problem, let’s try other methods.

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Cannot change Screen Resolution in Windows 10

The primary reason for this issue is driver misconfiguration. Sometimes Drivers aren’t compatible, and they choose a lower the resolution to stay safe. So lets first update the Graphics driver or maybe rollback to the previous version.

Note: TRy this fix if only your apps are blurry.

1] Update or Roll Back Graphics Driver:

  • Open Device Manager ( WIN + X + M)
  • Expand Display Adapters, and select the GPU listed there.
  • Note down the OEM, and Model no, and download the latest driver from their website.
  • Run the driver program which you just downloaded, and install it.
  • If it’s an INF file or some other format, you can right-click on the CPU, and update the driver.
  • It will ask you to locate the INF file, and then install it.

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In case your driver is already updated to the latest version, you can try rolling back to the old driver. It is only possible if you have a backup for your driver before the update or you can find one on the OEM website.

2] Turn on GPU Scaling

If you own an AMD graphics card or NVIDIA, you may want to check GPU scaling option. It allows scaling the image, so it fits the screen both vertically and horizontally, i.e., no black borders.

AMD:

  • Open your AMD Radeon settings
  • Click on ‘Display’
  • Find GPU Scaling there and enable it

NVIDIA:

Open NVIDIA Control Panel. Here you have two options:

a) Change Resolution or Create New Resolution: Here you can create a custom resolution for your display, but keep the refresh rate same.

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You can test before finalizing. This is useful when you know a particular resolution was there, but the monitor resolution not listed now.

b) Adjust Desktop Size: You can choose between Full Screen, Aspect Ratio, or no scaling. Scaling can be on GPU level or just monitor. Here is a bit of warning though. While it might not show any visible signs during regular work including video playback, you might see noticeable lag when playing a video game.

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If your problem is only limited to a particular app, you may want to give it access to GPU. Go to Settings > System > Display > Graphics Settings.

These are the only possible solutions we have noticed when Windows 10 won’t let you change the resolution of your display. Sometimes, the resolution is stuck at a lower resolution, and there is no way to fix it. If these don’t solve the problem for you, I would suggest one last thing before reinstalling Windows. Create a new account, and see if it works for you. Sometimes, accounts get corrupted, and profiles cant be fixed.

Let us know if any of these tips helped you.

Original Article