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Does Windows 7 have an option to enlarge everything on the screen, e.g. via a spi setting? How well does this work? i.e. do the objects look clear when enlarged?

I ask this because sometimes software that enlarges non-photographic bitmap images e.g. icons and symbols can leave them artifacted with harsh jaggier slopes and blurred lines.

I've tried the dpi setting in Windows XP but it doesn't enlarge everything, and some things are not so clear as described above.

I'm looking at a notebook/laptop with this spec. I've already enjoyed using a 15.4" 1920x1200 display for 5 years.

I've tried the dpi setting in Windows XP but it doesn't enlarge everything, and some things are not so clear as described above.

I am buying a laptop for my father who will probably prefer larger objects on the screen, although I want to provide some future proofing by allowing more on the screen if needed.

I'm not interested in answers that debate the effectiveness or otherwise merits of 1920x1080 on a 16" display, please. The alternative option of 1366x768 seems too little.

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  • I do the same thing (though on a slightly bit larger screen, 17"), with same resolution. I don't have a solution to enlarge everything on screen, I was only making the icons from desktop, bigger, good to keep track and prevent too many shortcuts and files there, as well as for the taskbar/quicklaunch. For the rest, I rely only on a "per program" solution (occasionally zooming in Opera, etc).
    – Gnoupi
    Dec 29, 2009 at 13:24
  • windowsvistaplace.com/… This looks encouraging as the dpi settings system appears to work quite well in Windows 7. I'll try and check out this in a store. Dec 30, 2009 at 12:04
  • 15.4" running at 1920x1200?!?!?!! Could you even see anything? Did you use a microscope? :P
    – user57813
    Feb 25, 2011 at 17:58
  • @Senthil yep no problem. Apparently higher, denser is the trend: see iPod touch / iphone retina displays, mac book airs 13" displays. Love 1920x1200 on 15.4 - so much on the screen at once. Feb 25, 2011 at 22:41

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I've been using a 15.4" 1920x1200 laptop (Lenovo W500) under Windows 7 with the DPI set to 150% for the last 6 months, and I've yet to run into the nastiness that Windows XP had at high DPIs. I also have it running at an even higher DPI for my 6 year old, since he has troubles losing the cursor, and it doesn't look bad.

Windows itself and the various decorations look fine at high DPI. WPF and Windows forms apps work great. Office 2007/2010 work great. Photoshop and Lightroom are unaffected by the DPI settings and look really small. Some apps are just directly scaled and work fine, but look somewhat pixelated if you look closely (of course on such a high DPI screen, pixelation is harder to see anyway). Most apps now come with high enough resolution icons that you don't have that issue too often. In Firefox, the app itself scales, but the webpages don't, unless you zoom in manually.

Overall, it's not the most seamless experience, but it's actually workable now, unlike the weird font scaling that XP did. The increased sharpness/detail in images and documents and the ability to use a much smaller font in Visual Studio makes it worth it.

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