Set resolution from command prompt or what? Intel HD onboard

this is so stinking annoying
i have a i3 dell with embedded intel hd. apparently i have a mismatched vga cable - when all plugged up, intel panel shows 'generic' flat panel, and only gives me 2 resolution choices, both of which are wrong. for this persons aged monitor I need 1280 x 1024. how do I get there?

surely there is a way to manually set this, or get the intel software/firmware to give me the full range of choices as it should

Hi have you tried updating the driver from dells support site

the Dell driver no good, counterproductive as they built a flag in those days to disallow installation of the Intel package.

I got it done finally. There is a bug somewhere that causes custom resolutions to fail [this is Intel HD 2000 vintage]. I disconnected from the net so it could not locate any drivers, and uninstalled the device repeatedly until no driver left but basic MS generic vga low res.
Then installed the latest [4/2015] Intel drivers. It still grayed out all resolutions save 1 [so it was a buggy "easy mode" in their user interface]. Must go to Advanced Mode, and manually crank in the resolution needed as an "Add" to the profiles. But it will not apply that profile.

Reboot, use the MICROSOFT user interface, Desktop > Resolution, go to advanced, pick some resolution other than the one then-extant and other than the one desired [sheesh....] to force it to change to something/anything. THEN finally it will allow selection of the Custom Resolution from the Advanced List.

Done.

Glad you figured it out.