Retina display + External HD monitor resolution wrong using all options

I'm running Windows 10 using Parallels full screen mode (not coherence) on my 2017 MacBook Pro and I cannot get my monitors set up correctly. So far I have tried the following:

- Configure the Retina Resolution option to use 'Best for Retina display' - using this option the text on my MacBook Retina screen is perfect, however my external HD monitor resolution is wrong. Parallels/Windows sets both monitors to use a resolution of 3840x2160 and a custom scaling of 350%, which it wont let me change, meaning my monitor looks terrible.

- Configure the Retina Resolution option to use 'Scaled' or 'Best for external display' - I can set the resolution of my external monitor to be 1920x1080 with 100% scaling and it looks perfect. However the resolution on my retina display is incorrect. I can set it to be 2880x1800 but everything is extremely small. Setting a custom resolution makes the mouse point huge and distorts any text on the screen.

How can I set up Parallels to allow my retina display to look/act like a retina display and my monitor to be set to 1920x1080? Also, my display settings seem to get completely reset whenever I sign out or shut down my virtual machine.

Thanks in advance,
Joe

 

Hi @JoeM10, using 'Best for external displays' should set separate scaling options for displays: 200% with 2560*1600 resolution for your Retina display, and 100% scaling with 1920*1080 resolution for external display. With this setup the image of Windows applications should be good on both displays. Please log out from Windows > change display resolution to 'Best for external displays' > log in > check display settings for every display.

 

Thanks for the reply Dmitry, however using those settings make the text far too zoomed in and pixilated on my retina display. Any other ideas?

 

I've got the same issue. When configured for "best for external display" and running in coherence mode my Windows 10 system displays huge fonts and cursor, but the windows themselves look the correct size. When configured for "best for retina" or "scaled" the fonts and windows look ok, but movement of the windows and cursor are much slower (laggy) .

 

I've found that 3360x2100 at 200% works well for retina, however every time I set this it gets reverted when I sign out/shut down my vm. Beyond annoying, how can I fix this?

 

Hi @biggordo, what external display do you have? Is it 4K/5K one? Can you please send a technical report via 'Help > Send technical data' when you notice the lags? Please post the report ID here, I will take a look.

 

There is an option to fix resolution, but it applies to Full Screen mode only. VM config > Options > Full Screen > Advanced > Scale to fit screen: Keep ratio.

 

Hi Dmitry.. I have an LG 34UM95P with a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 connected to my macbook pro via thunderbolt. A few other observations, I configured the VM with "best for external displays" and before going into coherence mode I opened the display properties so I could adjust the resolution and scaling. When I went into coherence mode, the display properties showed a huge resolution and scaling 350%. I adjusted to 3,440 x 1,440 and 150% and it worked for 2 seconds then exited coherence mode. I will reproduce scenario that causes the lagging and send you a Send Technical Data, also wanted to report another symptom with screen flickering and blacked out windows (within the Parallels window).

 

Technical report 240923980 sent

 

reconfigured VM Graphics settings to "best for retina" severe lagging on entire machine technical report 240924889 sent

 

Hi Dmitry - VM config > Options > Full Screen > Advanced > Scale to fit screen: Keep ratio doesn't stop the screens from being set back to the default resolution every time I load the VM. I have the change the resolution manually every time.

 

Also, when in full screen mode and giving each display separate spaces, when my macBook screen is displaying a macOS application i.e. chrome, whenever I click on any application running in my VM on my external monitor, the application on my macBook automatically switches to the VM full screen app. How do I turn this off? I want to be able to use Windows & macOS alongside each other on separate screens (without using Coherence) without macOS automatically switching ALL of my monitors to windows when I click on a windows app on ONE of my monitors.

 

Hi @biggordo, thanks a lot for the report provided. You mention that: "I adjusted to 3,440 x 1,440 and 150% and it worked for 2 seconds then exited coherence mode." - am I right that Parallels Desktop exited Coherence mode on its own?

 

Hi Joe, can you please send us a tech report as well? Via 'Help > Send technical data' when you load the VM and the resolution is not preserved? Please post the report ID here, I will take a look. Also, can you please check if VM resolution remains as specified if you use single monitor?

 

Thanks Dmitry - code 241687072.

 

yes, that is exactly what happened

 

had another symptom with windows "flickering or blinking" as I moved the mouse. Had to shutdown VM, quit Paralells, reboot MAC. The symptom began right after I closed a PDF file. Submitted technical report 241903121

 

Thank you, Joe. Based on your report I have reproduced the same behavior and reported it to Engineering Team, they will proceed with investigation and a fix.

 

Thank you for the report, @biggordo. macOS on your Mac needs to be updated to 10.13.3 (currently you have 10.13.1), please install the updates and let me know the results. There were some graphics issues fixed in 10.13.2 update.

 

Sorry, missed this one. You need to open VM config > Options > Full Screen > disable 'Activating virtual machine shows all its spaces' feature (need to exit Full Screen to do that).