Windows Guest OS 199% scaling

B

BobBlackard

Bit poster
Just got my new MacBook Pro - love it; got a fully loaded machine with Retina display. It's the first Mac I've owned in 30 years as a computer geek.
Tried VirtualBox - hated it. But I needed _something_ since I'm a developer.
Got Parallels 7 - not a great fan.
Upgraded to Parallels 8 - love it. Bootcamp VM, Fedora VM, beautiful, crisp, taking advantage of all this horsepower. Did I say I love it?

The only thing I'm left with is (mild) frustration that Parallels (I think) is putting the Windows 7 running from Bootcamp into 199% scaling mode. I tried changing it, logging out and logging back in, and it's automagically back in 199% scaling mode.

What's the source of the scaling? Is it Parallels 8 or Windows 7? Why can't I make my own choice? Is this something that might be changed later?

I'm on a fully loaded MacBook Pro with Retina display, 2.7GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 768GB SSD. I've got 128GB SSD for my Windows 7 Bootcamp. The Parallels VM booting Bootcamp is set to 256 GB video RAM, 2GB RAM and 2 CPU.

Thanks
 
Oddly, this only seems to be a problem when running Windows from Bootcamp. I have a separate Windows VM that I converted from a VirtualBox VDI. The Windows VM retains the small (100%) scaling after I logout, and even after switching back and forth between fill screen mode.

Why would the Bootcamp instance behave differently?
 
Without that 199% scaling Windows will look too small on retina display. The options in control of this are:
VM Configuration > Hardware > Video
Enable full resolution - allows retina resolution in Windows
Optimize Windows for full resolution - turns on scaling in Windows
 
I have a issue with using my rMBP (OS X ML, Parallels 8) together with external display. Windows behave fine (199% scaling) when I only use the retina display, but I have trouble with the scaling also being active when I use the external display. Have tried to reboot the VM, but it always keep the scaling settings even when I only use the external display.

How would you recommend me to be able to use scaling when VM is used on the rMBP screen, and not when used on the external display? Do acknowledge that this should be possible by manually setting the retina scaling off when using the external display, but would like this happen automatically when starting the VM inside of the "regular" resolution screen.

The strange thing is that when using Coherence the resolution is fine, but the response time in the VM is horrific (screen does not respond well when moving things around on the external display).
 
Yes, without scaling it will be small... but I'm OK with that, or I can choose 125%... I want the real estate, and more importantly the choice.

Is the 199% scaling the only thing that "Optimize Windows for full resolution" does?

And thanks for the information. I've set both VM's the same way and it's working beautifully.
 
SindreM,

We're currently working on scaling issue for retina + external display configurations.
For now, if you know you'll be using external display only, simply turn off Configuration > Hardware > Video > Enable full resolution.
 
Yes, Bob, "Optimize Windows for full resolution" only enables DPI scaling in Windows. Uncheck it, if you prefer manual settings.
 
I have an annoying qualm about Parallels. Every time I boot it up with High resolutions enabled, it keeps trying to set the screen to the maximum resolution, even though I've configured a different one. If I turn off the setting, then everything turns blurry, as Parallels then allows OS X to scale the window. How can I make Parallels respect the settings I'm asking it to use?
 
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