Adapting game resolution to screen

I have a 1280x1024 screen and some games do not support this resolution.

For example, DeusEx support only 1280×960. When it stretches to my screen, fonts gets very hard to read and I don't get the best image quality.

Is there any way to get the black borders instead of stretching like on TVs? In the case of DeusEx that would get me 32 pixel high black lines above and bellow the game window but pixels would match. That doesn't mean playing in window, to be clear, that's still full screen.

The same goes for older games that are limited to 1024x768.

From gaming Hugo Riley

• The Widescreen Gaming Wiki and Forums have solutions for many games. For individual games that are not covered there you can always ask us, however :)

  For Deus Ex, Google suggests this tool. The problem is that apparently Deus Ex reads screen resolution from a .ini file, then overwrites the custom field with default ones at every launch (source with batch file workaround).

  From badp

• My LCD monitor has an aspect ratio control in the menu system. If I change it from "stretch" mode to "1:1 pixels" mode it fixes that problem.

  It would be worth checking if your monitor has something similar.

  Hugo Riley : Unfortunately, it does not. Which monitor you have? And how did they named this option? I could buy a new monitor soon, so that would definitely be the "killer setting".

  Incredulous Monk : @Hugo: It's a Dell monitor, model number it-came-with-my-computer :-) I had a quick look on the Samsung site though, and they call it "intelligent adjustable image size function" for example.
  From Incredulous Monk

• I've always set this option with my video card settings... I know for sure nvidia does this. Not 100% sure ATI does, but I find it hard to believe they don't. May need to update your video card drivers, but it's well worth it to me.

  Hugo Riley : I don't believe I didn't see that option till now. It works great. Thanks.

  Aeo : Glad I could help. Best part about this method is it works for every game, and not just a hack for one specific game.
  From Aeo