How to obtain the correct physical size of the monitor?

Question

How can I get the size of the display in centimeters or inches?

This code does not always works correctly:

HDC hdc = CreateDC(_T("DISPLAY"),dd.DeviceName,NULL,NULL);
int width = GetDeviceCaps(hdc, HORZSIZE);
int height = GetDeviceCaps(hdc, VERTSIZE);
ReleaseDC(0, hdc)

Especially for multi-monitor configuration.

Update: I need to get the size just for ordinary monitors, which have a constant physical size.

Answer 1

Navigating the registry directly is not only unsupported, but actually fails for devices different than yours. (e.g., the one on which I tested your code).

Unlike what some here say, there is an official way of accessing the EDID key path: by use of the Setup API, and specifically SetupDiOpenDevRegKey.

There's some tedious setup involved - Sample code is here.

---

EDIT: multiple monitors are handled here.

Answer 2

I found another way. The physical size of the monitor are stored in the EDID, and Windows are almost always copies of its value in the registry. If you can parse EDID, you can read the width and height of the monitor in centimeters.

Update: Added code

BOOL GetMonitorDevice( TCHAR* adapterName, DISPLAY_DEVICE &ddMon )
{
    DWORD devMon = 0;

    while (EnumDisplayDevices(adapterName, devMon, &ddMon, 0))
    {
        if (ddMon.StateFlags & DISPLAY_DEVICE_ACTIVE &&
            ddMon.StateFlags & DISPLAY_DEVICE_ATTACHED) // for ATI, Windows XP
            break;

        devMon++;
    }

    if (ddMon.DeviceString[0] == '\0')
    {
        EnumDisplayDevices(adapterName, 0, &ddMon, 0);
        if (ddMon.DeviceString[0] == '\0')
            _tcscpy_s(ddMon.DeviceString, _T("Default Monitor"));
    }
    return ddMon.DeviceID[0] != '\0';
}

BOOL GetMonitorSizeFromEDID(TCHAR* adapterName, DWORD& Width, DWORD& Height)
{
    DISPLAY_DEVICE ddMon;
    ZeroMemory(&ddMon, sizeof(ddMon));
    ddMon.cb = sizeof(ddMon);

    //read edid
    bool result = false;
    Width = 0;
    Height = 0;
    if (GetMonitorDevice(adapterName, ddMon))
    {
        TCHAR model[8];
        TCHAR* s = _tcschr(ddMon.DeviceID, '\\') + 1;
        size_t len = _tcschr(s, '\\') - s;
        if (len >= _countof(model))
            len = _countof(model) - 1;
        _tcsncpy_s(model, s, len);

        TCHAR *path = _tcschr(ddMon.DeviceID, '\\') + 1;
        TCHAR str[MAX_PATH] = _T("SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Enum\\DISPLAY\\");
        _tcsncat_s(str, path, _tcschr(path, '\\')-path);
        path = _tcschr(path, '\\') + 1;
        HKEY hKey;
        if(RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, str, 0, KEY_READ, &hKey) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
        {
            DWORD i = 0;
            DWORD size = MAX_PATH;
            FILETIME ft;
            while(RegEnumKeyEx(hKey, i, str, &size, NULL, NULL, NULL, &ft) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
            {
                HKEY hKey2;
                if(RegOpenKeyEx(hKey, str, 0, KEY_READ, &hKey2) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
                {
                    size = MAX_PATH;
                    if(RegQueryValueEx(hKey2, _T("Driver"), NULL, NULL, (LPBYTE)&str, &size) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
                    {
                        if (_tcscmp(str, path) == 0)
                        {
                            HKEY hKey3;
                            if(RegOpenKeyEx(hKey2, _T("Device Parameters"), 0, KEY_READ, &hKey3) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
                            {
                                BYTE EDID[256];
                                size = 256;
                                if(RegQueryValueEx(hKey3, _T("EDID"), NULL, NULL, (LPBYTE)&EDID, &size) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
                                {
                                    DWORD p = 8;
                                    TCHAR model2[9];

                                    char byte1 = EDID[p];
                                    char byte2 = EDID[p+1];
                                    model2[0]=((byte1 & 0x7C) >> 2) + 64;
                                    model2[1]=((byte1 & 3) << 3) + ((byte2 & 0xE0) >> 5) + 64;
                                    model2[2]=(byte2 & 0x1F) + 64;
                                    _stprintf(model2 + 3, _T("%X%X%X%X"), (EDID[p+3] & 0xf0) >> 4, EDID[p+3] & 0xf, (EDID[p+2] & 0xf0) >> 4, EDID[p+2] & 0x0f);
                                    if (_tcscmp(model, model2) == 0)
                                    {
                                        Width = EDID[22];
                                        Height = EDID[21];
                                        result = true;
                                    }
                                    else
                                    {
                                        // EDID incorrect
                                    }
                                }
                                RegCloseKey(hKey3);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    RegCloseKey(hKey2);
                }
                i++;
            }
            RegCloseKey(hKey);
        }
    }

    return result;
}