Windows 7 is preventing me from setting up a pan-and-scan virtual desktop with my ATI 4850 video card (both 20" LCD monitors are connected analog, not digital cables). A pan-and-scan virtual desktop creates a desktop larger than your monitor -- so when you move the cursor to the edge of the screen, the screen moves with you to reveal additional screen real estate. The problem is that Windows 7 insists on setting the screen resolution - it will not let me set it the way I want. So you can better understand the situation, these are the instructions to set up a pan-and-scan virtual desktop in Windows XP using ATI's Catalyst Control Center: Check to see if your Display Properties | Settings will let you set your screen resolution to, say, 1600 x 1200. If it doesnt go that high (and if your monitor is smaller than 20.1 inches, it probably doesnt; widescreen monitors go as high as 1600 x 1050; smaller normal dimension monitors may go only to 1200x1024), go into Display Properties | Settings | Advanced | Monitor and uncheck Hide modes that this monitor cannot display. This will allow higher resolutions to appear. If this choice is grayed out, you may be screwed. Change your resolution for both monitors to something like 1600 x 1200 (or 1600 x 1050), but dont exit out of Display Properties just yet. Then you open ATIs Catalyst Control Center (CCC). Choose the Advanced mode rather than Basic. Go to the Monitor Properties 0 and uncheck Use Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) or driver defaults. Then change the maximum resolution to 800x600 and the maximum refresh rate to 60 Hz (assuming you use LCD monitors). Click on apply. For dual monitors, do the same with Monitor Properties 1. Now sometimes this doesnt quite get you the pan and scan virtual desktop instead you get a 800x600 desktop. In the immortal words of Yoda, Panic, not. Simply go back to your Display Properties windows and change the resolution for each monitor to 1600 x 1200 (or 1600 x 1050). Click Okay and you should have a pan and scan virtual desktop on both monitors. THE PROBLEM: Windows 7 refuses to let you adjust the desktop resolution. It actually greys it out and you've made adjustments in ATI's Catalyst Control Center. Windows 7 just will not allow resolutions over the monitor's "native" resolution of 1200 x 1048 dpi, making it impossible to set up the pan-and-scan virtual desktop. Note that ATI does not "officially" support pan-and-scan virtual desktops. But you've been able to set then up with ATI cards for over a decade. The ability to have a pan-and-scan virtual desktop is crucial to our business. We will have to continue to stick with Windows XP if we can't get it in Windows 7. If there is a way around this, please let me know. Thank you.

GiMeSpace Desktop Extender is a program that solves this problem in a easier way and even better because there are no more size limitations to your desktop or window size.

I agree with the original post. I am running on an HP TM2, with maximum res of 1280x800, and the lack of pan-and-scan capability in Windows 7 is a big hinderance. Ideally I'd like to have functionality built in to the Ati Catylist taskbar icon allowing me to toggle between a viewport mode and the standard fixed mode. I think this would be incredibly useful for a lot of people, especially developers and power users. I tried the GiMeSpace Desktop Extender, and although it's an interesting concept, it didn't really work for me. What I'd like is a 'plain vanilla' view-port/pan-and-scan solution, driven directly by the graphics card.

A month of using GimmeSpace Desktop Extender in Windows 7 is driving me crazy. But, I've figured out how to get a pan-and-scan virtual desktop in Windows 7 . Thanks to the spouse of a friend who is a hardware engineer at a company that must remain nameless, I have learned how to set up a pan-and-scan virtual desktop in Windows 7. It took some experimenting, but his suggestions eventually worked. I am writing this in Windows 7 with a pan-and-scan virtual desktop. First, here's the technical basis. Microsoft caused the problem when it created the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) for VISTA and now Windows 7. It's Windows 98SE all over again where Microsoft disabled the ability to create a pan-and-scan virtual desktop in order to encourage consumers to buy two monitors. WDDM disables this capability. However, WDDM is only the default system for graphics in Windows 7 and VISTA. The old Windows XP Display Driver Model (XPDM) is still present in Windows VISTA and and Windows 7. The key is that you must "force install' the Windows XP display driver for your ATI card (and I would bet this would work with NVIDIA-based cards as well). The Windows XP display driver uses the XPDM graphics system that's still within Windows 7 and VISTA. You must install only the display driver. Do not install the Catalyst Control Center (hereinafter called CCC). This approach works if your monitor is connected via VGA or DVI. It did not work for me when I connected with HDMI. Note that this is not quite a fine a pan-and-scan virtual desktop like you can get in Windows XP using the CCC to set it up. The virtual desktop is not quite a wide or tall as what I could get in XP. But it beats a static desktop for me and maybe for you as well. Doing this will disable the Aero graphics in Windows 7 because they use the WDDM graphics system. I can live without the "visual candy" of Aero, even though it really did look nice. But I'll sacrifice good lucks for functionality any time -- when it comes to a computer. Here's how to do it if (1) you are installing Windows 7 and have not yet installed ATI CCC, and (2) if you have already installed Windows 7. This is a step-by-step guide, probably more detail than you need. 1 -- If you are just installing Windows 7 and haven't installed ATI Catalyst Control Center for Windows 7 yet. Step A: After you've installed Windows 7 and your Internet Security program, download from ATI the Windows XP driver for 32 or 64 bit Windows. I recommend that you find the 10.4 version of the Windows XP driver since I know it works. More recent versions may work, but I have not tested them. To get to the 10.4 version (which was released in late April 2010) follow the steps to find the Windows XP drivers for your ATI card. This will get you to a screen with a black background for the AMD Radeon Video Card Drivers (I'll use my card for this example). Near the bottom of the box with the drivers is a link called "Previous Drivers." Click on the link and pick the Catalyst 10.4 choice. Go to the "Individual Downloads" and select the "Display Driver" or the "WDM Integrated Driver." Download it. You may also want to download the ATI HDMI Audio Driver and the Avivo Package of Video Codecs. I imagine you could download the whole CCC package and use it (which is what I guess I actually did). More recent versions may work. I just haven't tried them yet. Step B: Go into your Device Manager (right click "My Computer" and select "Manage"). If there's a display adapter for your video card, double click it and uninstall (and delete) the video driver that's there. Restart Windows 7. Step C: Run the ATI file you downloaded so that it sets up its files in C:\ATI\Support\10-4_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu (that's the subdirectory when you use the full ATI package). Cancel the installation. Step D: Go into your file manager (Windows Explorer, Directory Opus, or other file manager) and go to C:\ATI\Support\10-4_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu. Right click on "Setup.exe" and choose "Properties." Click on the "Compatibility" tab and under "Compatibility Mode" check "Run this program in compatibility mode for" Windows XP (Service Pack 3). Also under "Privilege Level," check "Run this program as an administrator." Step E: Do the same thing for C:\ATI\Support\10-4_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu\Bin\Setup.exe and for C:\ATI\Support\10-4_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu\Bin\ATISetup.exe. I don't know if it was necessary, but I did something similar with C:\ATI\Support\10-4_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu\Config\atiicdxx.msi where I selected running the program in compatibility mode for the "previous version of Windows" (I have a dual boot with Windows XP -- I don't know what would be available if you don't have a dual boot set up). I did the same thing for the file C:\ATI\Support\10-4_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu\Packages\Drivers\WDM\RIO\XP\atirioxp.msi Step F: Then run the C:\ATI\Support\10-4_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu\setup.exe file. You must choose a "custom" installation when given the choice between "Express" and "Custom." Step G: When you get to the list of items to install, check the ATI Display Driver. Uncheck Catalyst Control Center (CCC). If you install it, CCC will crash and give you BSOD whenever you run CCC. I let it also install the AVIVO codecs and the ATI Problem Report Wizard. After installation, restart Windows 7. Step H: Right click your desktop and select "Screen Resolution." Go to "Advanced Settings" and click on the "Monitor" tab. Uncheck "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display." Click the Okay button. Back in the "Change the Appearance of Your Display" window, click on "Resolution." There should be at least one choice at the top of the scale that is a higher resolution than what your monitor actually supports. Select and apply one of them. In my case, my monitor's actual resolution is 1920 x 1200. These steps gave me a 2048 x 1536 resolution -- and a pan-and-scan virtual desktop. It's not as large the the pan-and-scan I could get in Windows XP, but it works. I can open my desktop publishing program full page and not have to waste time and energy using the scroll bars. 2 -- If Windows 7 is already installed and you have already installed ATI Catalyst Control Center for Windows 7. The only real difference from the instructions above is that you need to completely uninstall the Windows 7 CCC and the other Windows 7 ATI features that are already installed. You can open the Control Panel and pick "Programs and Features." Scroll down to the ATI Catalyst Control Manager and right click it. Select "Change." You can either pick the Uninstall Manager to uninstall CCC, the display driver (if possible), and other features -- or select Express Uninstall ALL ATI Software. Either way, you need to uninstall all the ATI video-related software and restart Windows 7. You should also be sure to perform Step B above to make sure the ATI driver is uninstalled and deleted. The remaining steps should enable you to produce the pan-and-scan virtual desktop. Caution: One of my programs consistently caused a BSOD after I made these changes. It's a freeware text editor called EditPad Lite 6.4.4. I don't know why it would crash Windows 7, but it did so every time I ran it. So I just got another freeware text editor. Hopefully all of your programs will run just fine. That's it. Hopefully this procedure will work for you. Please let us all know it goes for you.

I tried this method on my new Toshiba netbook, but it didn't work. It has a very new VGA (HD6250M) so there was no option to select the 'ATI diplay driver' in the setup program. Probably setup.exe didn't recognize it. In the new driver packages (bigger then 10.4) there isn't WDM driver, so it isn' the right way for me. Have you any idea with this situation?

Just to let you know, I've tried the above with an Asus EeePC 1001PX-BLK033S, AND IT WORKS. This netbook has an Intel GMA 3150 graphics card and came preinstalled with Windows 7 Starter. The intel GMA driver for Windows 7 version 8.14.10.1929 [23/09/2009] did not allow me to set up pan-and-scan. The "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display" checkbox was grayed out. I could set screen resolutions larger than the native 1024x600 (e.g. 1024x768) but these were scaled down to fit on the screen - no panning. This is what I did to get it working: -Download the Intel GMA 3150 driver for Windows XP (latest version is 6.14.10.5260 [25/04/2010] as of this writing) from the Intel driver support site. -Uninstall the Intel GMA driver for Windows 7 via add-remove programs, then remove the video cards from the device manager as well. -Reboot. -Unzip and install the Windows XP driver (activating Windows XP Service Pack 3 compatibility mode and administrator rights for Setup.exe). -Reboot. -Windows will detect the video card and try to install a driver for it. The version 8.xx driver seems to be still in there somewhere (I think it comes with Windows 7), and since it's a newer version, Windows 7 will choose it over the version 6.xx, which is the one we want. So wait until it's done installing version 8.xx, then open the device manager and update the video card driver. When prompted, choose to find a driver manually, then to choose a driver from a list. You should see both versions 6.xx and 8.xx in there, choose the 6.xx and click Next. Finish the update. If you don't see both versions 6.xx and 8.xx, reboot and try again. -Reboot. With any luck the video card should now be using the Windows XP driver (version 6.xx). Then, that "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display" checkbox should be enabled, allowing you to uncheck it. - Follow step H from the above post by Daniel_L to enable pan-and-scan. At this point I have two "Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 3150" video cards showing up in the device manager. Both are using the XP driver (version 6.xx). I believe one of them drives the internal LCD and the other the external VGA but I'm not sure. I'm posting this from a 1280x1024 pan-and-scan desktop :)