Windows Scaling help

SHOOK_Linus · April 19, 2018

I just got a 4K monitor for my Birth day and have a 1080p one as well, on the 4K one, all the text is SUPER small with regular (default) 100% scaling but perfect on the 1080p, but when set to 150%, it looks perfect for 4K but really awkwardly large on the 1080p screen, is there anyway to have 150% scaling on the 4K monitor but 100% on the 1080p and still be able to drag between windows (OS is Windows 8). Please help, i want to like the 4K but it's really annoying having text that small.

GoodBytes · April 19, 2018

You need Windows 10 for this feature. Windows 8.1 does have it, but you have 0 control on it (no registry hack or hidden option, you are at the mercy of the OS), and support, when it does work, is iffy. Windows 10 give you complete control, and has a lot of improvement on Display Scaling, and trust me, you'll need ALL the help you can get, as mass number of Windows programs still doesn't support high-DPI displays, despite starting to be common on laptops including gaming ones.

If you wonder why that is the case, the story is long, but it has mostly to do that high resolution for a small size screen was a concept that didn't exists back in the old days, and when Microsoft went forward with the idea with Display Scaling with Windows XP, it was not understood by the masses, including devs, not help by the fact that their were no such display on the mass market. Heck, we started to see them really by the time Windows 7 was out (excluding smartphones.. I am talking about PC space).

But the short story is that GUI framework needs to be reworked by the devs to support high-DPI scaling and that is a VERY time consuming thing to do as it was not designed with Display Scaling (let alone per monitor scaling, which you'll see that it is another issue when you move a window from 1 screen to the other), and sadly, it is yet seen as a selling feature for the masses, so adding support is always pushed aside and never coming for many software. Heck, Steam doesn't support Display Scaling at all (but this is probably because Valve doesn't care due to lack of competition).

Anyway, the good news, is that supported app ARE growing. Just slowly.

Windows 10 also adds compatibility options to tell Windows to define different strategies to try and scale a program (under Windows 8.x you can only disable scaling for an unsupported app, or enjoy the blurry looking program).

(FileZilla is actually high-DPI aware, I just picked the program where my mouse was closest to to show the option).

Oh! and Congrats on that new sweet monitor! And happy birthday!

SHOOK_Linus · April 19, 2018

13 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

You need Windows 10 for this feature. Windows 8.1 does have it, but you have 0 control on it (no registry hack or hidden option, you are at the mercy of the OS), and support, when it does work, is iffy. Windows 10 give you complete control, and has a lot of improvement on Display Scaling, and trust me, you'll need ALL the help you can get, as mass number of Windows programs still doesn't support high-DPI displays, despite starting to be common on laptops including gaming ones.

If you wonder why that is the case, the story is long, but it has mostly to do that high resolution for a small size screen was a concept that didn't exists back in the old days, and when Microsoft went forward with the idea with Display Scaling with Windows XP, it was not understood by the masses, including devs, not help by the fact that their were no such display on the mass market. Heck, we started to see them really by the time Windows 7 was out (excluding smartphones.. I am talking about PC space).

But the short story is that GUI framework needs to be reworked by the devs to support high-DPI scaling and that is a VERY time consuming thing to do as it was not designed with Display Scaling (let alone per monitor scaling, which you'll see that it is another issue when you move a window from 1 screen to the other), and sadly, it is yet seen as a selling feature for the masses, so adding support is always pushed aside and never coming for many software. Heck, Steam doesn't support Display Scaling at all (but this is probably because Valve doesn't care due to lack of competition).

Anyway, the good news, is that supported app ARE growing. Just slowly.

Windows 10 also adds compatibility options to tell Windows to define different strategies to try and scale a program (under Windows 8.x you can only disable scaling for an unsupported app, or enjoy the blurry looking program).

(FileZilla is actually high-DPI aware, I just picked the program where my mouse was closest to to show the option).

Oh! and Congrats on that new sweet monitor! And happy birthday!

Thanks! At this point it sounds easier to just upgrade to Windows 10 (probably not actually easier tho) Would I have any luck with changing scaling settings on Nvidia control panel or no?

GoodBytes · April 19, 2018

13 minutes ago, SHOOK_Linus said:

Thanks! At this point it sounds easier to just upgrade to Windows 10 (probably not actually easier tho) Would I have any luck with changing scaling settings on Nvidia control panel or no?

You can change the resolution, but not the scaling. The scaling is the job of the OS, not the graphics card.