Solved 8.1 on rMBP in VM

cclloyd9785

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So I heard that Windows 8.1 has support for DPI scaling for super high-res screens, like my MBP. How do I activate that in a VM though? It doesn't recognize that it is a high DPI screen. When I set the resolution to 2880x1800, it is just super small.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64, Ubuntu 12.10, x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite L505D-S5965
    Memory
    4GB DDR2
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    250GB Toshiba
    Internet Speed
    50mbps
Of course not because you need real hadware. What Windows see is the virtualized graphics card. Even on real hadware high dpi can work or not, it really depends on drivers supporting the new WDM 1.3.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8 Pro 64 bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ideapad Y560p
    CPU
    i7-2630QM
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD 6570M
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Laptop LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    2x1TB, 6TB External
    PSU
    120W 19.5V brick
    Case
    Standard plastic with an ideapad logo
    Cooling
    A nice fan
    Keyboard
    Microsoft
    Mouse
    Mitsai
    Internet Speed
    DSL
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avast 8
I actually finally got it to work. The issue was with both Parallells desktop and the VM. I had to set the hardware to simulate a high-res display and set the scaling more than 150%, which was all I could find in the PC Settings app; I had to go to control panel.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64, Ubuntu 12.10, x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite L505D-S5965
    Memory
    4GB DDR2
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    250GB Toshiba
    Internet Speed
    50mbps
Hi there
Remember also that in most of the Virtual machine software used on Home computers (usually VMWARE, VBOX and to a lesser extent PARALLELS) you usually need to install an update in the Virtual machine the first time it's powered on. In VMware it's called VMware tools, in VBOX it's called something like Additions and there's an equivalent in parallels.

This updates the virtual hardware so things like higher resolution, sound cards, 3-D effects etc can be better virtualized in your VM.

If you really want to try something where you can get at the REAL hardware in a VM install say VMWARE's ESXI -- it's free and is a tiny kernel allowing any VM's to run at almost 100% native speed. This also has "Hardware Passthru" in a lot of cases so you can use the native hardware on the VM. However setting this up is NOT trivial and ESXI is quite picky on what it will run on -- you need to use something like a "White Box" and you'll need a separate computer to be able to logon to the VM's.

Have a read of this -- interesting possibilities - note today there's a lot CHEAPER and better hardware too.

BlackHole | My Vmware ESXi white box

If you have a spare machine and a laptop though it's a lot of fun and quite educational - Esxi is FREE -- it's VERY picky though about the Network cards - and a big warning is that the whole thing won't boot if it doesn't like your network card --INTEL standard NIC's though always seem to work perfectly.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
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