Most things WAY too small on Retina MBP

B

Bruce Carillon

Member
Running Parallels Build 8.0.18101 and my Windows 7 VM apps etc. for the most part are way too small.

The actual desktop icons, Start menu etc. are okay but as soon as I open an app the splash screen for the app is tiny and the app interface itself is much smaller than it should be.

I open Chrome on both the host and VM and there is a huge difference between the two in how it is represented. I am running the host in the "Best for Retina" mode so it's not that I'm comparing a host not running in retina mode to a VM that is.

Any tips on how to best set things up when running a VM on a Retina MBP so the video of the VM is not so small? Thanks
 
That's just the way it is....

I have Parallels 8, Mountain Lion and the Retina MBP Running Windows 7.... here is what I know.
If you run in the "Enable Full Resolution" you will get everything sharp... but tiny.
By checking the "Optimize Windows for full resolution" basically Parallels sets a custom DPI text size to 199% in Windows 7. What you end up with is everything sharp and most things readable... but you have to modify individual settings within each Windows 7 application for font sizes to get the best results. For instance I use Notepad++ and I changed its default font to something a little larger and I was very happy with the results.
On the flip side.... some applications may not give you the control you need to modify all the different font sizes... and therefore look really strange...
Since I actually have to work win Windows 7 for Development with CodeCharge Studio and other dev applications... I found that modifying all the sizes of the fonts was too tedious and I couldn't get some things to display to my liking.... so here is what I have opted for now.

Now I run Windows 7 in Full Screen Mode with the following settings:
Startup and Shutdown->Startup View: Full Screen
Full Screen->UnChecked Use Mac OS X Full Screen
Full Screen->Checked Active Screen Corners and I use the upper left corner to "Exit Full Screen"
Scale to Fit Screen Off

Then I set Windows 7 to a resolution of 1440 x 900

I added a 2nd desktop to Mountain Lion... and I start my Win 7 from the 2nd desktop.... that way I can just swipe left or right to switch from Windows to Mac.... which I frequently do to copy and paste code/text/links/etc

I have DropBox Installed on the Mac side... with a mapped drive on the Windows side to my DropBox Folder... and that's where I save anything thats important to me..... therefore it's accessible from both OS's.

To make a long story short.... Windows is just not designed to run at 2880 x 1800.... neither are Mac Apps for that matter.... but since Apple knew that...they built in the ability for the operating system to handle blowing everything up using "Pixel Doubling" to make 4 pixels show up as one! That's why the display is so sharp. The thing is Windows 7 is not designed to do this "doubling"
Here is a good page with information on running Win 7 with High DPI: http://www.kynosarges.de/WindowsDpi.html

I will continue to play with the settings... but for now... that's the way I roll. :)
 
I found another solution. In the VM configuration, select hardware, select video, uncheck Enable full resolution in "Retina display".

Best
Jesper
 
Thanks Jesper, this is the solution that works for. I'm willing to do without Retina compatibility in Parallels until they get it right.
 
Yourguide said:
I have Parallels 8, Mountain Lion and the Retina MBP Running Windows 7.... here is what I know.
If you run in the "Enable Full Resolution" you will get everything sharp... but tiny.
By checking the "Optimize Windows for full resolution" basically Parallels sets a custom DPI text size to 199% in Windows 7. What you end up with is everything sharp and most things readable... but you have to modify individual settings within each Windows 7 application for font sizes to get the best results. For instance I use Notepad++ and I changed its default font to something a little larger and I was very happy with the results.
On the flip side.... some applications may not give you the control you need to modify all the different font sizes... and therefore look really strange...
Since I actually have to work win Windows 7 for Development with CodeCharge Studio and other dev applications... I found that modifying all the sizes of the fonts was too tedious and I couldn't get some things to display to my liking.... so here is what I have opted for now.

Now I run Windows 7 in Full Screen Mode with the following settings:
Startup and Shutdown->Startup View: Full Screen
Full Screen->UnChecked Use Mac OS X Full Screen
Full Screen->Checked Active Screen Corners and I use the upper left corner to "Exit Full Screen"
Scale to Fit Screen Off

Then I set Windows 7 to a resolution of 1440 x 900

I added a 2nd desktop to Mountain Lion... and I start my Win 7 from the 2nd desktop.... that way I can just swipe left or right to switch from Windows to Mac.... which I frequently do to copy and paste code/text/links/etc

I have DropBox Installed on the Mac side... with a mapped drive on the Windows side to my DropBox Folder... and that's where I save anything thats important to me..... therefore it's accessible from both OS's.

To make a long story short.... Windows is just not designed to run at 2880 x 1800.... neither are Mac Apps for that matter.... but since Apple knew that...they built in the ability for the operating system to handle blowing everything up using "Pixel Doubling" to make 4 pixels show up as one! That's why the display is so sharp. The thing is Windows 7 is not designed to do this "doubling"
Here is a good page with information on running Win 7 with High DPI: http://www.kynosarges.de/WindowsDpi.html

I will continue to play with the settings... but for now... that's the way I roll. :)
Click to expand...

How did you change resolution in Win 7 to 1440x 900?
 
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