I tried to run FS2004 on my new laptop, which has a wide screen, and i have a problem : Even if FS2004 works on 1280*800, all panels are resized, so the gauges are completely stretched, that's very ugly and very hard to use. I tried to set FS2004 on 1024*768, and i have to leave the full screen mode to have a decent display... Playing with the windows desktop on each side of the simulator is very disappointing.How can I have a full screen 4:3 display, with a black band on each side of the screen ?My video card is an ATI Mobility X700 with 256MB, with the lastest catalyst drivers.Thanks

How about a black background (wallpaper, whatever) for your desktop. Then arrange all of the icons in the middle so they will be hidden by the FS window.But, if I were faced with this problem, I would leave FS on the wide screen. Then, I'd drag the right side of the instrument panel to the left until the gauges were round, then display the radio stack or whatever fits into the vacant space on the right. R-

What?OK..Please confirm the following.1. Your TD panel guages are stretched (and ugly)2. The outside view is NOT stretched.3. The 3D is NOT stretched.Solution to rectify the stretched guage panel:Move your cursor to the right edge.... an resize the guage panel (hold left mouse buton) to the left till the guages do not look stretched. Now you should see Black or outside view (I forget which) to the right botton corner. Now, display your radio panel or GPS and move it to that part of the screen.SAVE flight.Next time..when you load that flight.. it would remain the way you set it last.

>What?>>OK..>>Please confirm the following.>>1. Your TD panel guages are stretched (and ugly)>2. The outside view is NOT stretched.>3. The 3D is NOT stretched.>>>Solution to rectify the stretched guage panel:>>Move your cursor to the right edge.... an resize the guage>panel (hold left mouse buton) to the left till the guages do>not look stretched. Now you should see Black or outside view>(I forget which) to the right botton corner. Now, display>your radio panel or GPS and move it to that part of the>screen.>>SAVE flight.>>Next time..when you load that flight.. it would remain the>way you set it last.>>I have the same problem. If the instrument panel is stretched the entire image must be stretched. While you can resize the instrument panel to put things into proper proportion, how would you do the same for the scenery? Does anyone know of a way to reproportion the entire display so it has the proper aspect ratio, even though it may leave blank areas on the sides of the display?

I have a widescreen display too. The easiest solution is simply to fly in the VC. No problems there. Some of the payware planes have VCs that are almost as good as the 2D panels. So why even bother. Another solution would be to get FSPanelstudio and rework the panels to widescreen versions. I did that once with a plane but it is an awful lot of work.Alex

Depending on your display and videocard drivers, this might work:Open Display Properties / Settings / AdvancedThis is where you might differ, depending on drivers, but on my system I see a tab called "Displays" at the top. Opening it, I get a list of all displays I can connect to my computer (CRT monitor, TV and 2x TFTs). If you see a similar list, locate the one that corresponds to your laptop's TFT display (on my system it's titled "FPD", for "Flat Panel Display) and click the titlebar. You should see a new window with a checkbox called "Scale image to panel size" on the first page (could be under some other tab too, depending on drivers).If you uncheck this, all full-screen resolutions will be centered on your monitor, instead of stretched, with black on the sides. If you run FS in 640x480, for example, you'll see a small window in the middle of your screen and a lot of black on all sides. If you choose a resolution that matches your display's resolution vertically, you'll only have black bands on the sides.On my desktop system I also have another option at my disposal: I can access a similar "Don't stretch image" option through my display's on-screen menu. I doubt your laptop allows this, though, since the display is essentially an integral part of the machine and not a "separate display".Let me know if this helps!

>>If the instrument panel is stretched the entire image must be stretched. Is the entire image stretched or you think, it would be stretched?If you use the default resolution of that monitor. Only the panel guages would be stretched. the external view would not be stretched.So all you have to do is..re size the panel window.

Thank you. I'll give it a closer look.

I have those options on my desktop system with an nvidia adapter. I'll take another look, but on my laptop, which has an ATI adapter, I didn't see those options. What display adapter do you have on your laptop?Thanks.

I don't have a laptop :) This advice is based on my desktop system, as I mentioned in my post (I have a Radeon 850 XT PE). I would imagine your laptop to have the same options, but if it doesn't it's probably a driver issue (what features your advanced display properties panel offers depends on your drivers).