Telecommuting with high res display and screen sharing with others (Windows)

Ramoz · April 19, 2021

Hey everyone!

I figure I'd post this question here to see if anyone has a similar experience~

I currently have a 32" 4k monitor I use for my primary monitor, and use it at 100% display scaling (someday this thing will probably make me need to get glasses, but not right now!). I LOVE the screen real estate it gives me, which is extremely helpful when having multiple apps open that I need to work in- multiple Jetbrains windows, VS code, web browser, etc.

The issue I am running into is that most, if not all of my coworkers are using HD screens at 1920x1080. I can't share this screen in a meeting or in a call with a coworker as on their end everything is just too small to be useful. I could share just an application window, but I often have to switch between applications on the fly- show some code, then jump into something else, so showing an entire screen is ideal.

My current solution is having an additional Full HD monitor connected, and drag whatever windows I want to share over there first. It works, but I want to eliminate the second monitor if at all possible. It takes up desk space and I only use it for sharing for work.

Windows 10 virtual desktops was one thought, but they all run at the same resolution as each other. Is anyone aware of any software out there that can provide virtual desktops where you can have different ones at different screen resolutions? If not, any other thoughts on what to do? I surely can't be the only person who has encountered this issue!