Netbook - Unwanted "Display Settings Too Low" Message

[xoAlto]

Hi All,

My school has recently purchased some Dell Latitude N2100 Netbooks with the intention of student usage. We have installed Windows XP onto them and downloaded/updated all of the latest drivers (graphics included) from the Dell website.

The native resolution for these netbooks are 1024x576. However, every time we logon (local admin, domain admin, local (test) user, domain user aka "student"), a Red circled Cross pops-up on the notification task-bar area, with the following balloon text:
"Display Settings - Your computer's screen resolution and color depth are currently set to a very low level. You can get a better picture by increasing these settings. To do this, click this balloon."

If we click the balloon we get the option to let Windows automatically correct the screen resolution and color depth (Yes or No buttons) and a check box to "In the future, do not show this dialogue box". If we do let Window do this, the computer changes the screen to 800x600 - stretched horizontal width and a vertical scrolling-desktop - an unsatisfactory change.

We could choose "No" and tick the "do not show" again. However that option will solve the problem for the current user only. As we expect lots of students to logon to these netbooks, some of them will definitely choose to get Windows change to the horrible screen resolution.

We prefer not to disable any/all balloon-tips becuase some tips are very informative and (anyway) Microsoft's Fix-It, likewise, only works on the Current User and not on the whole "Local Machine".

I hope that there is a fix or override for this unwanted notification as I guess that other people have had similar experiences with different netbooks - preferably in the school environment.

-- Many Thanks
xoAlto

[Michael]

You could try hiding the notification area, so no icons appear next to the clock at the bottom right.

User Config > Admin Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar - Hide the notification area (Enabled)

[xoAlto]

Thanks Michael; rather then an actual solution, I'll treat that as a work-around answer because applying your option would (unfortunately also) stop students knowing how much battery-charge they have left on their notebook/netbooks, amongst other notifications. Your method does work though!

[Michael]

You could in theory enable the Control Panel, then only allow certain icons to appear by specifying CPL files in Group Policy (including Power Management). On any workstation search for *.cpl to get a complete list. By clicking each CPL file in turn you can see which Control Panel function/icon it controls. Some are more obvious than others

[xoAlto]

That helps with the battery status and would also help for the Volume Control for multi-media purposes (although netbooks have their own volume keys on the keyboard).

I am not so sure about *ahem* Ranger Print Monitor/Manager(?) where students can click-and-check to see how much Print Credits they have remaining. Also students would not always know whether their USB flash-drives are ready to use once plugged in (Autorun has been disabled here), or "Safely removable" when removing. Believe it or not, some students don't just unplug their flash-drives until they choose the "Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device" option!