Windows 8 Resolution

Hi

I have a retina MacBook Pro and have been running Windows 8 in Parallels 8 quite happily. I have upgraded to Parallels 9 and now the resolution when in the "modern" interface seems to be 1440x900 rather than 1920x1200 that the desktop is still operating in, so when going into the Start Screen, charms and live tiles are suddenly huge! I haven't changed any settings - just upgraded. I enable retina resolution and then the "modern" interface looks fine but the Windows desktop is tiny!

Any ideas on what the problem might be?

Thanks in advance,
Mike.

 

Could you generate a problem report via Parallels Help menu with improperly sized Windows start screen tiles on screen, post report ID here.

 

Hi

I have done that. Report ID is 28514280. If you want any screenshots please let me know where to send them to.

Thanks,
Mike.

 

Windows 8 modern metro apps scale according to physical display DPI. PD8 provided correct DPI to Windows 8, but Windows 8.1 requires an update for that mechanism which is only implemented in PD9. You're running Windows 8.1, so the upgrade to PD9 changed how your Windows start screen scales itself. 5 rows of tiles is the norm, they only look large in comparison to undersized tiles when Windows assumes 75 DPI display (and you have 150 DPI at 1920x1080 on 15" screen).

I'd expect you get the tiles around the same *physical* size if you enable retina resolution for the VM. I'll have to get my hands on an rMBP to double check that.

UPD: At 1920x1080 in OS X and retina enabled for VM, start screen tiles are indeed a bit smaller. But this appears to be due to Windows scaling logic. The desktop fonts are tiny until you logout and login again, this is because Windows Explorer needs restart to pick up DPI changes.

 

That makes sense - I think Just found the 8.1 setting to change the metro interface to smaller so all is good with the world!! Thanks!!