Default DPI/Scaling Settings in Windows 8.1

Howdy Everyone,

Last weekend, I upgraded my M17xR4 to Windows 8.1, and immediately noticed everything on the screen was smaller. The text is much smaller and harder to read. I checked the DPI settings, and has defaulted to "smaller" or 96 DPI, and Internet Explorer is set to 100% zoom. I could have sworn that under both Windows 7 and Windows 8, the default settings for a 17" 1920 x 1080 are "medium" scaling and 125% zoom level in IE. Can anybody confirm this, or are my eyes going, and I am seeing things :-(

Thanks!

Rich.

 

Yes. Please go into the screen resolution / make text and other items larger or smaller / tick mark 'Let me choose one scaling level for all displays' and change it to 125%. Log off and log back on, it will look the same as before (when you had it installed with the previous version of windows). Best of luck!

 

Did you manage to make it work with Juliant's suggestion?

 

That's kind of funny because the first thing I always do is go in and change the 125% default scaling down to 100% because I prefer the smaller text. Now that you mention it, I haven't needed to change it to 100% like I do Windows 7 because it's already set to 100% by default.

 

Hi Juliant, L_Porras, and Mr. Fox,

I wasn't really looking for "how" to fix it, as I already know how to manually change the DPI scaling and IE zoom , despite that I really appreciate the suggestion Juliant :-D. I was (am) really looking to see if anyone can confirm what I thought I remembered. I could swear that I remember reading that Windows 7 (and even 8) set the OS level default DPI setting to 125dpi (rather than 96dpi) and IE zoom level on resolutions greater than 1600 x 900 and at least 17". This is why on devices such as the Surface Pro, it defaults to larger DPI and zoom settings since it is less than 17"s. I do specifically remember that when I first received my M17x the DPI and zoom was set to the "larger" values, which was when I could have sworn I read about the defaults based on screen size. I thought, but am not sure that the larger settings were retained when I upgraded to Windows 8. And as I have already said, it is definetly not set that way in Windows 8.1. Sorry for any confusion

Rich S>

 

Yes, my intent with posting was confirm that. If you use an Alienware Windows 7 installation disk to install Windows, it is always 125% for me. Using a Windows 7 DVD or ISO it is sometimes 100%, sometimes 125% and I have no idea why that varies. Windows 8 has been 100% scaling by default for me 100% of the time.