Windows in Greyscale?

[Soapy Sam]

The current JREF psychological experiments in colour blindingness got me wondering:- How do you run Windows 2000 or XP in grey scale mode on a colour TFT monitor?

TheGraphics controller is Intel 82865G, but neither that nor Windows' desktop settings offers a greyscale option. 16 colours is the closest.

When XP shuts down , the desktop fades to greyscale, so clearly the equipment supports this.
But how could you set it as a default? Is there a simple method?

 

[El Greco]

I recall I had a monitor with that option. Perhaps this would be simpler.

 

[Starthinker]

Many years ago I had a similar discussion with another tech. We bet a dollar that I could get Win98 to run on a "green-screen" monochrome monitor. He said it couldn't be done. It's true, I couldn't set up Win98 with the green-screen but I set it up in a normal machine, then swapped out the video card and it ran. Looked pretty cool, I thought, but I'm an old-timer that grew up with green-screens (and later amber-screens) so I loved it.

Anyway, just use video out and hook it up to a black and white TV.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I don't own a TV, but thanks for the idea.

 

[GregC]

I think in my garage I have a 13" greyscale vga monitor. If you want to pay shipping you can have it.

Seriously, I don't know of a way and I do have a 13" greyscale vga I'm willing to part with if anyone wants.

 

[Almo]

Amber screens sucked. But I hate orange.

 

[Soapy Sam]

Looks like this is one of those ideas so simple nobody even considered it.

I'm a genius, I tell you!

 

[Ririon]

How about this: Write your own driver for the graphics card!

Or if you're more of a hardware person: As long as the signal is analog, why not just feed the average of the R, G and B signal to all the R, G and B pins?

BTW: Does this thread have anything to do with the new red color scheme of this forum?

 

[webfusion]

Red color scheme? Mine is blue.

 

[Ririon]

Red color scheme? Mine is blue.

Have you been playing with the soldering iron, again?

 

[kevin]

might be able to accomplish this by adjusting the monitor itself. My monitor has a menu option for Color that if i set all the way down to zero has a greyscale appearance.

 

[Soapy Sam]

Yes, it was the blood red new look that got me headed this way initially, (See OP),
but I expected it to be a simple matter of going into either Windows Appearance settings or the graphics control software and selecting a greyscale option as opposed to a 32 bit 1024 x 768 option. Turns out it ain't.

I've looked at several other forums, including Microsoft's. I can only find one other record of someone asking the same question. He got no reply.
An approximation can be managed using the monitor controls, but it's washed out colour rather than true greyscale. I was looking for the windows "Greyscale" button.