Changing Modes and Exclusive Access

An application can change display modes by using the IDirectDraw2::SetDisplayMode method. Modes can be changed by more than one application as long as they are all sharing a display card.

An application can change the pixel depth of the display mode only if it has obtained exclusive access to the DirectDraw object. All DirectDrawSurface objects lose surface memory and become inoperative when the mode is changed. A surface's memory must be reallocated by using the IDirectDrawSurface2::Restore method.

The DirectDraw exclusive (full-screen) mode does not bar other applications from allocating DirectDrawSurface objects, nor does it exclude them from using DirectDraw or GDI functionality. However, it does prevent applications other than the one that obtained exclusive access from changing the display mode or palette.