PD9 can't save custom screen resolution

H

HahnB

Junior Member
I work with a second monitor. It's 1920x1080. My setup is PD9 on Mavericks, Guest OS is Windows 8.1, all on a retina MBP.

It really blows that Windows 8 can't scale fonts on two screens independently the way that OSX can... they're either miniscule on the retina screen and normal on the 1920x1080, or enormous on the 1920x1080. So the only solution that works for me is to set the retina screen's resolution to an ugly, slightly blurry 1680x1050. Fine, I'll deal with it. HOWEVER, every single time i boot up the OS, the resolution changes. I can't make PD9 save the resolution I want, despite exhaustively trying this: http://kb.parallels.com/en/116141

What makes it worse is that when you are trying to X out of an application, many times the OS X menu for PD9 will float down, and guess what button happens to be right where the X for the windows application was? THE BUTTON TO EXIT FULL SCREEN. Then I have to set the resolution for both monitors all over again. This is a serious problem.

Parallels team please tell me you know about this and are on it? Being able to save your desired screen resolution is basic necessity.
 
Windows 8.1 native per-display DPI scaling should work in PD9. Lets check a few prerequisites.
First make sure your VM have correct guest OS type. The setting is just below VM Name in Configuration > General tab, note that it can only be changed when VM is stopped. Now boot Windows and right-click on the desktop, open Screen resolution preferences and click "Make text and other items larger or smaller." Un-check "Let me choose one scaling level for all my displays" and log out then log in again. It's best to log in when the VM is already in full screen because Windows Explorer doesn't always react to DPI changes.
 
I've been futzing with the "one scaling level for all my displays" setting for hours, it's very buggy on the Windows side of things. The fonts are all sized inconsistently everywhere, and none of them render at the native resolution (i.e. they're blurry).
I'd just like to reiterate that I do truly believe that a user of VM software should be able to save a custom resolution, and that it is a fundamental tenet of usability.

I greatly appreciate an official response to my question, above all else. Thank you
 
Your custom resolution setup will stay if you suspend/resume the VM instead of shutting it down and restarting.
 
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