Why do some schools/workplaces insist on using 1024x768 screen resolution?

When I first started at my current job, the computer was set up by default to use the 1024x768 resolution, despite the provided monitor being a 17 inch model. I found this a slight bit irritating, and thankfully, there was no restrictions in place to stop me from going to Display Properties and changing the screen resolution to the monitor's native 1280x1024 resolution.

However, I have noticed at some schools and colleges I have been to, they have some of the computer rooms with shiny new computers and fancy widescreen displays to go with them, but the screen resolution is set to 1024x768! :rolleyes: It looks ridiculous having a 1024x768 resolution stretched out on a 22 inch widescreen monitor, Why waste money on such a fancy widescreen display when you are only going to use a 1024x768 resolution? :rolleyes:

Does your workplace or school or college do this?

Why do some places do this? :confused::rolleyes:

Comments

  • max99max99 Posts: 9,002
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    indeedicus wrote: »
    Why do some places do this? :confused::rolleyes:

    Sloppiness or the graphics drivers are too old to support widescreen resolutions.
  • newda898newda898 Posts: 5,464
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    At college (back in...ooh 2005, now that is the past) we still had CRT monitors and they'd all log in, mainly at a suitable resolution, but always at 60Hz.
    Now at 60Hz, I always had to change it, because the flickering in the corner of my eye drove me mad and I couldn't look at the screen for long periods of time.
    Luckily that's a thing of the past now.
  • jenziejenzie Posts: 20,821
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    because they don't know any better?
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    jenzie wrote: »
    because they don't know any better?

    Probably this. I'd say the people who set up the computers have no idea how to set up everything on the screen properly. As long as the computer's working that's good enough for the schools. My nephew's told me in the past that the computers at his school are crap!
  • MaxatoriaMaxatoria Posts: 17,980
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    Probably the machines are imaged so they set them up at a resolution that will work with everything and then can be increased once the machine is deployed (as you may not know the target monitor when setting it up) but most people don't ask the question and carry on with the crappy desktop resolution
  • s2ks2k Posts: 7,410
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    In many cases if the system is hooked up to a projector the picture tends to look like garbage on anything higher than 1024x768. The small text size also becomes a strain for those trying to view the board and makes it needlessly fiddly to select toolbar buttons on an IWB..

    For standard workstations the same applies re text size as many genuinely struggle with higher display settings. I agree there is no need to run 4:3 resolution on widescreen though.
  • DaedrothDaedroth Posts: 3,065
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    I work as a technician in a school where the standard resolution for students is 1024x768. The reason for this is because a lot of the applications that students run are old and don't work correctly under higher resolutions. Scratch is one such programme. The resolution for teacher stations vary from 1024x768 to the monitors native resolution. The reason they vary is because they project onto a whiteboard, and higher resolutions are too hard to read from the back half of the class. 1024x768 displays it large enough to be perfectly visible.
  • R410R410 Posts: 2,991
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    I hate using non-widescreen displays now. So used to having one.
  • bobcarbobcar Posts: 19,424
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    R410 wrote: »
    I hate using non-widescreen displays now. So used to having one.

    It depends what you use it for, I would not want a widescreen monitor. Actually one of my monitors is in portrait so widescreen might be useful there as long as it can pivot though I guess you'd call that "narrowscreen":).

    For serious work widescreen is usually inferior though of course you should never generalise and that is not always the case.
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    R410 wrote: »
    I hate using non-widescreen displays now. So used to having one.

    I think most of the websites these days are made for widescreen monitors.
  • cmorriscmorris Posts: 6,157
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    I asked this question in the course we did and they told us that it was a legal requirement to do this for all computers that people were using and can only be changed under permission or request
  • MaxatoriaMaxatoria Posts: 17,980
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    cmorris wrote: »
    I asked this question in the course we did and they told us that it was a legal requirement to do this for all computers that people were using and can only be changed under permission or request

    like to see the piece of legislation that enforces 1024x768 ;) sounds more like a load of BS to me but hey perhaps using the wrong resolution is part of the computer misuse act :D
  • s2ks2k Posts: 7,410
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    Maxatoria wrote: »
    like to see the piece of legislation that enforces 1024x768 ;) sounds more like a load of BS to me but hey perhaps using the wrong resolution is part of the computer misuse act :D
    I could be wrong on this but I believe there is actually some kind of legislation relating to catering for users with disabilities. The VDU would almost certainly be covered by that.

    Although the general rule of thumb when it comes to this is that you immediately refer it to occupational health for formal recommendations cos it just isn't worth the storm you can get yourself into if a user claims their health is deteriorating because you didn't provide them with the right equipment.
  • Tal'shiarTal'shiar Posts: 2,290
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    s2k wrote: »
    I could be wrong on this but I believe there is actually some kind of legislation relating to catering for users with disabilities. The VDU would almost certainly be covered by that.

    Although the general rule of thumb when it comes to this is that you immediately refer it to occupational health for formal recommendations cos it just isn't worth the storm you can get yourself into if a user claims their health is deteriorating because you didn't provide them with the right equipment.

    Very true, this is the reason where I work most of the stations are set to the low resolutions until someone asks to have it changed (or can change it themselves). But once its been used, they have to be set back again. This is because some people cannot see so well, and the lower resolution allows them to see it much easier.

    Now, why on earth all the computers have half decent GPUs (budget ones, but still not too bad) and yet none run anything that would require them. Dell continues to oversell stuff to my boss, has done the llast 4 times (like the space age monster god laser printer we have that continues to gather dust. Seemed like a good idea at the time)
  • MaxatoriaMaxatoria Posts: 17,980
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    While i can see the dealing with disabilities point but in most environments it would be dealt with as part of just understanding the users need and even 1024x768 may not be the correct one as i can remember one lady i knew thought 640x480 was too high res for her so any fixed resolution will not be enforceable
  • s2ks2k Posts: 7,410
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    Maxatoria wrote: »
    While i can see the dealing with disabilities point but in most environments it would be dealt with as part of just understanding the users need and even 1024x768 may not be the correct one as i can remember one lady i knew thought 640x480 was too high res for her so any fixed resolution will not be enforceable
    I think its just accepted that 1024x768 is a suitable medium that is enough for websites and applications to fit the screen while retaining the benefit of the larger text size. I use 2x 17" displays on my PC in work and while I do run them at 1280x1024 each I can appreciate how much smaller everything looks - especially on Windows XP machines where the shell wasn't designed for such high resolutions.
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    My university's computers don't have widescreen but I don't know what the resolution is because they're heavily locked down. They're running Windows 7. I presume they're using the same monitors they used when those computers were running XP, but they are flat screens and not CRTs.
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