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I'm on a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and the entire interface--every app, every dialogue box, every icon, etc--is too small on this high resolution (3200x1800) screen. The size of the mouse pointer was the only thing I could increase to an adequate size.
In Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display I've specified EXTRA LARGE (200%) for all items.
It's still too small.
Is it possible that Windows (I have 8.1) isn't keeping up with screen resolutions and I need to just wait for a Windows update?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Solution here:
Solution is to go to swipe from right in desktop mode -> settings -> control panel -> display -> ""=make text and other items larger or smaller" -> custom sizing options -> 300% -> apply settings
I already tried this with no success. Some dialogue boxes are still ridiculously small. My temporary workaround is putting the magnifyer on my task bar, but this is not a long-term solution.
Not all programs are built to work on a extremely hi-resolution screen (what Apple would call a Retina display). Windows can blow it up larger, but then it looks blurry and ugly (just like an old app running on an Retina iPad looks blurry when you use the 2x large size button).
However you can fine tunes some things. DPI on desktop (Control Panel), but that only affects desktop programs. To adjust the "metro" DPI, you need to do it inside the PC Settings app instead.
That's right: desktop and modern can have their own separate DPI controls.
The good news: modern apps are built for hi-res natively (just like new Apple apps made for Retina), so you no longer lose quality when blowing up a modern app.
Seriously? Microsoft still hasn't provided a fix to this problem for the now old, and Oh so tired (and universally hated), Windows 8 OS? This is UI design 101. So typical of MS.
Will
There is no "fix" for this, it's constrained by the laws of physics and software that was built before such screens existed. You can either blow it up and lose quality or you can leave the app looking small. There's no other choice because anything else would require either reprogramming the app being shown or buying a new monitor with different DPI level.
Microsoft isn't alone. Apple had the same problem and did the same thing. They both rebuilt all their own apps for the new hardware, and asked their developer communities to do the same. That's why apps that haven't been rebuilt are still blurry on both Windows and Mac: they are being blown up larger to appear normal on a high-res screen. So unless Adobe or whomever built the app takes time to build a hi-res aware software, that's going to be it. Microsoft and Apple can't go rebuild 30 years of programs for the new high-res screens of today.
Of course if you have a better idea for taking a small image and enlarging legacy app interface without quality degradation, you could stand to benefit a lot.
Shawn,
As much as I'm not happy with the answer, I appreciate that you now clarified the issue for me. So, thanks for that.
I guess we all just expect PCs to operate like an appliance (like Apple products do) and an annoyance like this feels like a product defect. For this reason the silence from Microsoft is just not acceptable after a consumer shells out over a thousand dollars for a hardware and software package!
Paul
