I found another way. The physical size of the monitor are stored in the EDID, and Windows are almost always copies of its value in the registry. If you can parse EDID, you can read the width and height of the monitor in centimeters.
Update: Added code
BOOL GetMonitorDevice( TCHAR* adapterName, DISPLAY_DEVICE &ddMon )
{
DWORD devMon = 0;
while (EnumDisplayDevices(adapterName, devMon, &ddMon, 0))
{
if (ddMon.StateFlags & DISPLAY_DEVICE_ACTIVE &&
ddMon.StateFlags & DISPLAY_DEVICE_ATTACHED) // for ATI, Windows XP
break;
devMon++;
}
if (ddMon.DeviceString[0] == '\0')
{
EnumDisplayDevices(adapterName, 0, &ddMon, 0);
if (ddMon.DeviceString[0] == '\0')
_tcscpy_s(ddMon.DeviceString, _T("Default Monitor"));
}
return ddMon.DeviceID[0] != '\0';
}
BOOL GetMonitorSizeFromEDID(TCHAR* adapterName, DWORD& Width, DWORD& Height)
{
DISPLAY_DEVICE ddMon;
ZeroMemory(&ddMon, sizeof(ddMon));
ddMon.cb = sizeof(ddMon);
//read edid
bool result = false;
Width = 0;
Height = 0;
if (GetMonitorDevice(adapterName, ddMon))
{
TCHAR model[8];
TCHAR* s = _tcschr(ddMon.DeviceID, '\\') + 1;
size_t len = _tcschr(s, '\\') - s;
if (len >= _countof(model))
len = _countof(model) - 1;
_tcsncpy_s(model, s, len);
TCHAR *path = _tcschr(ddMon.DeviceID, '\\') + 1;
TCHAR str[MAX_PATH] = _T("SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Enum\\DISPLAY\\");
_tcsncat_s(str, path, _tcschr(path, '\\')-path);
path = _tcschr(path, '\\') + 1;
HKEY hKey;
if(RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, str, 0, KEY_READ, &hKey) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
{
DWORD i = 0;
DWORD size = MAX_PATH;
FILETIME ft;
while(RegEnumKeyEx(hKey, i, str, &size, NULL, NULL, NULL, &ft) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
{
HKEY hKey2;
if(RegOpenKeyEx(hKey, str, 0, KEY_READ, &hKey2) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
{
size = MAX_PATH;
if(RegQueryValueEx(hKey2, _T("Driver"), NULL, NULL, (LPBYTE)&str, &size) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
{
if (_tcscmp(str, path) == 0)
{
HKEY hKey3;
if(RegOpenKeyEx(hKey2, _T("Device Parameters"), 0, KEY_READ, &hKey3) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
{
BYTE EDID[256];
size = 256;
if(RegQueryValueEx(hKey3, _T("EDID"), NULL, NULL, (LPBYTE)&EDID, &size) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
{
DWORD p = 8;
TCHAR model2[9];
char byte1 = EDID[p];
char byte2 = EDID[p+1];
model2[0]=((byte1 & 0x7C) >> 2) + 64;
model2[1]=((byte1 & 3) << 3) + ((byte2 & 0xE0) >> 5) + 64;
model2[2]=(byte2 & 0x1F) + 64;
_stprintf(model2 + 3, _T("%X%X%X%X"), (EDID[p+3] & 0xf0) >> 4, EDID[p+3] & 0xf, (EDID[p+2] & 0xf0) >> 4, EDID[p+2] & 0x0f);
if (_tcscmp(model, model2) == 0)
{
Width = EDID[22];
Height = EDID[21];
result = true;
}
else
{
// EDID incorrect
}
}
RegCloseKey(hKey3);
}
}
}
RegCloseKey(hKey2);
}
i++;
}
RegCloseKey(hKey);
}
}
return result;
}