Simulating different resolutions...

...not just showing a smaller window.

[photon]

I'm looking for a way to simulate 800x600, 1024x780, etc., resolutions on my large monitor.

I have programs that simply resize the window to 800x600 and so on, but that doesn't really give me the effect I want. After all, it just ends up looking like a tiny window on my big screen, and that's not the user experience.

I've also used utilities that change the actual resolution of my monitor on the fly. That gets me closer to the actual user experience, but such utilities can be flaky, and tend to mess up the arrangement of icons on my desktop.

What I'd really like is a utility that would take a single window and "scale it up", so that it simulates what an 800x600 resolution would look like full screen.

Do that make sense? Does anyone know of such a utility? Or do you have other ways of dealing with this?

Thanks for your help.

[txbakers]

Just deal with your icons being messed up and change the resolution as you need it.

[griz_fan]

I think what you're looking for really isn't possible. It sounds like you're asking for a utility to run a specific browser window at a resolution independent from the rest of your computer display. On a single monitor, you really can't do this.
A couple of solutions. One, you could install Opera (which I highly recomend for a variety of reasons) then install the W3-dev menu plug in (available at [goddamn.co.uk...] This menu plug-in will resize a particular browser window to simulate a variety of resolutions. Another more expensive and involved solution would be to install a video card that supports multiple monitors, then hang a 2nd screen on your PC for testing. You could then adjust the resolution of that screen for testing while keeping your main display at the resolution that you're comfortable with.
I don't know what utilities you've tried for adjusting screen res on the fly, but I'm really happy with powerstrip, which allows you to create multiple profiles, each with their own display settings. I use this a lot, and have found it to be stable, reliable and generally lacking in flakiness. Hope this helps...

[killroy]

Well I couldn't imagine living with just one monitor, it always drives me nuts how restricted that is.

you could always do a screenshot and enlarge, or use one of those usability magnification lenses. I think winXP has a built in one.

For a second monitor, a cheap PCI card next to your AGP will be enough. In fact when I bought a dual head card in addition to my existing PCI card, I was running three monitors for a while... Bliss I tell you.

SN

[photon]

Well, I knew it was a long shot but I thought I'd give it a try.

Just to explain further: I knew that I couldn't actually have a different resolution in just one window. What I was thinking of was something that would "magnify" that one window. For example, let's pretend that an 800x600 window is exactly 1/4 the size of my current resolution. My (apparently) non-existent utility would multiply every pixel in that window by four to make it a "full-screen" 800x600--very neatly with anti-aliasing effects, as long as I'm wishing.

txbakers--I know I should really clean up those icons anyway, but I still haven't found a change-resolution-on-the-fly utility that didn't at some point cause nasty problems.

griz_fan--I'm actually already using Opera and I have the W3-Dev menu plug-in installed; I use it quite a bit (briefly off topic: are you aware of the WebmasterWorld plug-in for Opera?). Unfortunately, the resizing submenu has no effect on my system (WinXP); I suspect that it's the tiny window on the big screen method, correct? I've not heard of powerstrip, but I'll go check that out right now; thanks for the tip. (also see below)

killroy--Multiple monitors is definitely the preferred route, and one I will probably take at home. At work, however, they're kind of miserly with such things as extra monitors and cards (I've asked).