Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy Tips

How to make a Nancy Drew game run in a larger window, but not Full Screen.

When you install and run a ND game using Crossover, the game will normally default to full screen mode.  This is OK but it is a little clumsy if you like to use a screen clipper like "Shutter" to assist you in the game.  If you have a large monitor, you may want to run ND in a window...BUT... if you click options and select "Windowed", you may not like the size of the new window that the game defaults too.  Here is how to fix that.  Leave the game options set to "Full Screen" then exit the game and.....

1.  Open Crossover and in the left column, select your Nancy Drew bottle. (You can have all of your ND games in one bottle if you install them correctly.)

2.  In the right hand panel, scroll down and double click "Wine Configuration".  A window will open with a bunch of tabs.

3.  Select the "Graphics" tab and you will see 4 check boxes with the middle two already checked.  Check the bottom box "Emulate a virtual desktop"

4.  Enter the size of your desired desktop (window) into the two slots provided.  I use 1248x1024.  This works well with my monitor.  Change these setting and then try the game.  Experiment so that you get the window to be exactly as you want it.  If you install all of your ND games into one bottle, this one change will make all the games the same.

5.  When you start the game, your mouse pointer will be locked inside the virtual desktop.  Press ALT-TAB one time and this will free the mouse.  You can then move the window around on your monitor.  

6.  The BIG advantage to doing this is to provide easy screen space for other programs that will assist you in playing the game.  For example, I like to move the ND game to the extreme right of my monitor and then in the upper left corner, I run "Shutter".  Shutter is a really nice Linux app that will capture all or  part of your screen or window. As you play through a ND game, there are lots of things for you to remember or jot down for future use.  Using shutter is the quick way to capture the info you need and scroll through it as much as you like.