How to Change the Resolution in Age of Empires 2 HD

Last Updated: March 29, 2019

You may have noticed, perhaps frustratedly so, that there is no option for adjusting game resolution in Age of Empires 2 HD settings. If you have a small screen, you may still be able to get a good experience playing this much-lauded HD version of the game, but given the generally larger screens that most gamers use today, the lack of a resolution setting is a real hurdle. There are, however, a few tricks that one can use to solve the problem.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Adjusting the Resolution of Your Windows Desktop

1
Open Control Panel. The game’s resolution is directly mapped to the resolution you’re using for your Windows desktop, meaning that changing your Windows resolution also changes the game’s resolution. To begin, access your computer’s Control Panel.
2
Open the Screen Resolution settings page. Under “Appearance and Personalization,” click “Adjust Screen Resolution.” On the Resolution drop-down menu, click the resolution you want. This is the resolution both your AoE2HD game and Windows desktop will run in. The best resolution depends on the size of your screen. Here are a few popular screen sizes with their recommended resolutions:
- 14 CRT (aspect ratio 4:3): 1024x768
- 14 Notebook / 15.6 Laptop / 18.5 monitor (aspect ratio 16:9): 1366x768
- 19 monitor (aspect ratio 5:4): 1280x1024
- 21.5 monitor / 23 monitor / 1080p TV (aspect ratio 16:9): 1920x1080
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3
Apply the changes. When you’ve selected the screen resolution you prefer, just click the “Apply” button at the bottom of the screen to accept the new resolution.
4
Start the game. The usual way to do this is to double-click the game’s icon on the desktop. The game will display in the resolution you set.
- You can also change the resolution settings in the Control Panel while playing the game. Just hit the Windows key on your keyboard to minimize the game and open the Start menu. Open the Control Panel, and change the resolution through the Screen Resolution settings page, and then return to the game by clicking the game’s icon on the Taskbar.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Adjusting the Resolution on a Mac^{[1]
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1
Launch AoE2HD. Do this by clicking the game’s icon on the Dock (an application launching toolbar running on one of the sides of your Mac desktop) or on the Launchpad.
2
Open the Apple Menu. Do this by pressing the three-key combo CTRL+FN+F2 on your keyboard. This will minimize the game and open the Apple Menu.
3
Access the System Preferences. Find “System Preferences” in the Apple Menu and select it to open its settings.
4
View the Display settings. On the System Preferences page, click “Displays.” In this Displays menu will be another option titled “Display”; click it as well. This will open a list of available resolution options.
5
Select your preferred resolution. You screen will automatically change to the resolution you click. If you are unsure of the best resolution to use, keep clicking the available resolutions till you find a suitable one.
- To switch to the game to see how a resolution you selected affects it, press the combination Command+Tab till the game’s icon is highlighted and then release. To go back to the Display settings page, press the same combination again until the icon for Display settings is highlighted.
- Keep at it till you find the resolution that works best.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Playing the Game in Windowed Mode

1
Start the game. You can alter the resolution of your AoE2HD by playing it in windowed mode and then adjusting the size of the window using the mouse. So begin by starting the game (by following this Start menu sequence: Start button >> All Programs >> Microsoft Games >> Age of Empires II HD or by double-clicking the game’s icon on the desktop).
2
Go to the game Settings. Press the hotkey F10 to produce the in-game menu, and click “Options.”
3
Disable Full Screen mode. On the Options page, untick the Full Screen box near the middle of the page. This will display the game in a window.
4
Adjust the resolution manually using the mouse. Once the game is in window mode, use the mouse to simply drag the top and side edges of the game window till it is the satisfactory size.

Community Q&A

Question

What if my maximum screen resolution is 1366768? Is it possible to change that?

Community Answer

Yes. In a Windows system, type 'change screen resolution' in 'start,' and you can change them. In most cases, only changing resolution to a lower value is possible.