VPX Monitor Configuration Utility

A simple command-line utility for automatically configuring Visual Pinball X's display settings based on monitor resolution.

Purpose

This tool helps Visual Pinball X users automatically set their preferred display for the game by detecting monitors with specific resolutions. It's particularly useful for multi-monitor setups where you want VPX to consistently launch on a specific display. This exists because some environments change the order of the primary monitor on restart.

Features

• Automatically detects all connected displays

• Sets the target display in both VPinball registry and VPinballX.ini

• Configurable target resolution (defaults to 3840 pixels width)

• Debug mode for troubleshooting

• Can be run at startup or manually

Usage

Basic Use

Simply run the executable:

VPXMonitorSet.exe

Custom Resolution

To target a different resolution:

VPXMonitorSet.exe -r 1920

Debug Mode

To see detailed information about detected displays:

VPXMonitorSet.exe --debug

Installation

Download the latest release

Place the executable in any folder

Windows Defender?

I've run into issues placing this utility directly in the startup folder. Placing it in another location and calling it from a bat file seems to be a working process.

Automatic Startup

To run at Windows startup:

Create a batch file (e.g., vpx-monitor-config.bat) with this content:

@echo off
cd /d "C:\Path\To\Your\Folder"
start "" /B "VPXMonitorSet.exe"

Place a shortcut to this batch file in your startup folder (%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup)

Configuration Files Modified

The utility modifies two locations:

• Registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Visual Pinball\VP10\Player

• INI File: %APPDATA%\VPinballX\VPinballX.ini

Troubleshooting

If the utility isn't finding your displays:

• Run with --debug flag to see all detected displays.

• Check if your target resolution matches the actual display resolution

• If Windows Defender blocks the application:

  • Place the executable in a regular folder (not Startup)
  • Use the batch file method for startup configuration

Credit

I ran across this article and solution which dumps the directx output and finds the correct monitor. I just took this concept and put it into a c# exe. https://greatjava.org/2022/04/who-stuck-the-pinball-on-my-backbox/