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I have a Windows laptop for work (my first time using Windows as a daily driver since I think 2003), and wow is it awful. Everything, everything, looks scaled

I have a Windows laptop for work (my first time using Windows as a daily driver since I think 2003), and wow is it awful. Everything, everything, looks scaled and blurry. Apps, installers, widgets, menus, everything. It's amazing how fundamentally terrible everything is, all the time. Now that I think about it though, my first experience with Windows scaling was the text scaling in (I think) Windows 7. I had it set to 120% because I had my computer hooked up to my TV, but a game I was trying to play (SWTOR) would crash on launch every time if the text scaling wasn't set to 100%, making the text in Windows unreadable unless I went up to the TV. I'm not sure if Microsoft just can't get their shit together at all, if getting their shit together would break too many apps, or if they have their shit together but Windows app developers are all wildly incompetent.

jamesgeck0 7y ago
> Everything, everything, looks scaled and blurry That's definitely not the normal experience. I only see this in specific applications that either predate DPI scaling or have poor DPI scaling support. Are you running your display at a non-native resolution or something? > or if they have their shit together but Windows app developers are all wildly incompetent. Game developers specifically seem to have an issue dealing with slightly unusual situations. I've seen games have issues with plugging in controllers after the game has started, the primary sound output changing mid-game, the user alt-tabbing, a second monitor existing (!), etc.
Joeri 7y ago
It sounds like you are on a non-native resolution because most apps should be fine on your primary screen at least. Contrary to macos you should only ever run a windows display at its native resolution (in macos this is “default for this display”), and use the scaling settings to make things the right size (typically 125% or 150%). The OS fully supports mixed dpi, but many apps haven’t been updated. There are three categories: (1) apps that are fully up to date and always look right, a minority that includes office 365 but not office 2016; (2) apps that use the older scaling api’s and only look right on the primary screen at login (so to get them to look good on another screen you need to logout, switch primary, and login) which is the majority of apps; and (3) apps that look blurry on anything not 100% scaling (96 dpi), a minority which still includes most installers for some reason. Microsoft pushed more of the work to developers because they can’t assume the hardware is powerful enough to do what apple did: render everything in a buffer at a multiple and scale it down to the display’s resolution.
- chipperyman573 7y ago
  MacOS renders everything at the highest resolution and then downscales? Does that mean there are no performance benefits from using a lower resolution (or even potentially a performance hit from the downscaling)?
  - merb 7y ago
    yes. but also the graphics library and windows library is also a little bit better than on windows.
  - vladvasiliu 7y ago
    My experience with an older MBP (Late 2013 15" with dedicated GPU) is that there's a performance hit for non integer scaling. I have an external 4K display that works flawlessly if I set it to default (that is 3840x2160 with 200% scaling). If I disable scaling completely (3840x2160 with 100% scaling) it still works well, but the text is a bit too small. With anything in between and there's a noticeable lag. Interestingly enough, if the internal display uses non integer scaling (I sometimes use 1920x1200) with integer scaling on the external screen it still works ok. I think it's related to the fact that MacOS draws everything at 200%, and using a non-integer scale over 1920x1080 ends up with a bigger resolution than 4k, whereas 4k at 100% is still 4k.
izacus 7y ago
Would you mind listing what "EVERYTHING" in your list is? Because I'm also using a Windows laptop for work, with 125% / 150% scaling on my laptop (fullHD on 13" + 4K external screen on 125%) and it's very far from "everything". All the browsers are fine, IntelliJ tools are fine, terminal tools are fine, all UWP apps are fine, Electron apps are fine, chat aps are fine... so can you please explain what this "everything" is?

jamesgeck0 7y ago

> Everything, everything, looks scaled and blurry That's definitely not the normal experience. I only see this in specific applications that either predate DPI scaling or have poor DPI scaling support. Are you running your display at a non-native resolution or something? > or if they have their shit together but Windows app developers are all wildly incompetent. Game developers specifically seem to have an issue dealing with slightly unusual situations. I've seen games have issues with plugging in controllers after the game has started, the primary sound output changing mid-game, the user alt-tabbing, a second monitor existing (!), etc.

Joeri 7y ago

It sounds like you are on a non-native resolution because most apps should be fine on your primary screen at least. Contrary to macos you should only ever run a windows display at its native resolution (in macos this is “default for this display”), and use the scaling settings to make things the right size (typically 125% or 150%). The OS fully supports mixed dpi, but many apps haven’t been updated. There are three categories: (1) apps that are fully up to date and always look right, a minority that includes office 365 but not office 2016; (2) apps that use the older scaling api’s and only look right on the primary screen at login (so to get them to look good on another screen you need to logout, switch primary, and login) which is the majority of apps; and (3) apps that look blurry on anything not 100% scaling (96 dpi), a minority which still includes most installers for some reason. Microsoft pushed more of the work to developers because they can’t assume the hardware is powerful enough to do what apple did: render everything in a buffer at a multiple and scale it down to the display’s resolution.

chipperyman573 7y ago
MacOS renders everything at the highest resolution and then downscales? Does that mean there are no performance benefits from using a lower resolution (or even potentially a performance hit from the downscaling)?
- merb 7y ago
  yes. but also the graphics library and windows library is also a little bit better than on windows.
- vladvasiliu 7y ago
  My experience with an older MBP (Late 2013 15" with dedicated GPU) is that there's a performance hit for non integer scaling. I have an external 4K display that works flawlessly if I set it to default (that is 3840x2160 with 200% scaling). If I disable scaling completely (3840x2160 with 100% scaling) it still works well, but the text is a bit too small. With anything in between and there's a noticeable lag. Interestingly enough, if the internal display uses non integer scaling (I sometimes use 1920x1200) with integer scaling on the external screen it still works ok. I think it's related to the fact that MacOS draws everything at 200%, and using a non-integer scale over 1920x1080 ends up with a bigger resolution than 4k, whereas 4k at 100% is still 4k.

izacus 7y ago

Would you mind listing what "EVERYTHING" in your list is? Because I'm also using a Windows laptop for work, with 125% / 150% scaling on my laptop (fullHD on 13" + 4K external screen on 125%) and it's very far from "everything". All the browsers are fine, IntelliJ tools are fine, terminal tools are fine, all UWP apps are fine, Electron apps are fine, chat aps are fine... so can you please explain what this "everything" is?