Windows 10: Scaling factors for multiple displays won't work

Discus and support Scaling factors for multiple displays won't work in Windows 10 Customization to solve the problem; I have a UHD display on Win10 laptop and my second display is an HP w2048h monitor running at 1920x1200. My problem is that the second monitor will not... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Customization' started by NotSoFast, Aug 29, 2015.

  1. NotSoFast Win User

    Scaling factors for multiple displays won't work


    I have a UHD display on Win10 laptop and my second display is an HP w2048h monitor running at 1920x1200. My problem is that the second monitor will not display as well as it used to, everything is 50% larger than it should be, even though it is set at its highest resolution and a scaling factor of 100%. The laptop shows things very small, and the auxiliary monitor shows everything expanded. No changes that I make to the settings will optimize them both.

    The last scaling factor setting applied to either display is applied to both displays. Is there any way to set them up individually?

    :)
     
    NotSoFast, Aug 29, 2015
    #1

  2. Windows 10 Multiple Display Scaling Still Blurry - Suggested Improvement

    Since multiple display scaling was introduced to Windows it has not operated well resulting in blurry displays. See my original thread

    here
    for more information.

    The basic problem is that multiple display scaling is apparently implemented such that all displays are rendered at the highest display scaling and then bitmap crunched as necessary. Rendering everything at one scaling factor behind-the-scenes seems to be
    a handicap necessary for compatibility reasons.

    For example I have a Surface Pro 4 which has a resolution of 2736 x 1824 (267 ppi). This is scaled at 200% to give an effective ppi of 133. I also have an external 27" display running at 2560 x 1440 (109 ppi) which needs to be scaled at 100%.

    It seems that Windows will render both displays at 200% (the highest scaling for all connected displays). This is fine for the internal display but the 27" display is presumably rendered on a bitmap 5120 x 2880 and then crunched down to 2560 x 1440. This
    results in an unusably blurry external display. Given that the reason someone will connect an external display is most likely to use it as their primary display for that period, it makes no sense to make this display blurry.

    A workaround for this is to set all displays to 100% instead. However this makes things too small on the Surface Pro 4's display. To workaround this you can reduce the display resolution on the internal display to half of it's normal resolution. Unfortunately
    the Surface Pro 4 does not support 1368 x 912, the nearest alternative is 1440 x 900 which is far from ideal because it is the wrong aspect ratio. In addition, changing the resolution is a time consuming hassle which I don't want to have to do every time I
    connect and disconnect the external display.

    It strikes me that a better solution for Windows would be to render all displays at the lowest scaling factor instead of the highest scaling factor. In this scenario the external display would be rendered normally at 2560 x 1440 giving a crisp display. The
    internal display would be rendered at 1368 x 912 and then bitmap scaled up to 2736 x 1824. This would give an expected blurry internal display but no worse than running the display at half it's resolution which is the necessary (though unfortunately not always
    possible) workaround with the current system. The added benefit is that it will not be necessary for the user to change the resolution of the internal display when connecting and disconnecting the external display.

    I therefore want to suggest to Microsoft to look into changing Windows multiple display scaling to render all displays at the lowest scaling factor rather than the highest scaling factor, or at least provide such an option to the user. I
    hope this gets through to the right people - I don't know how else to communicate such things to Microsoft.
     
    i-am-andrew, Aug 29, 2015
    #2
  3. cys84 Win User
    Explorer Crashes after Window 10 Upgrade from Windows 7 Pro

    This might be a long shot (and it will certainly sound like one):

    I was having a similar problem in Windows 10 whereby I'd try to launch Explorer and no window would open. The mouse cursor would change to the wait cursor and then you'd see Explorer restart (the desktop refreshes and the taskbar flashes).

    For me, it was because I had recently connected a 4K display and was attempting to run at 175% scaling on that display. Explorer seems to have a bug whereby it won't launch at that scaling factor. Every other scaling factor is fine, just not 175%.

    Control Panel uses Explorer to show its contents so it won't work (and it also wasn't working for me either).

    Don't know if this is your situation but it appears to be a legitimate bug in Explorer.
     
    cys84, Aug 29, 2015
    #3
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Scaling factors for multiple displays won't work

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