W520 displayport and Windows DPI setting woes

1. The displayport output only works with Optimus (i.e. with the discrete chip only). That sucks since I wanted to use it integrated only. What the heck is wrong with allowing a secondary display off the HD3000? Why not constrain it to: it works, but only without the internal display. I can't understand them, really.

2. Is there a way to set the text size (DPI) in Windows per monitor? Cause right now I have it set to 125% and it shows the same on the external display as well. Needless to say how much it sucks. In the end this is what FHD gives you: a great display compare to Lenovo's run of the mill and a lot of pain i.t.a. : you're getting an unusable resolution without going for a higher DPI (and whoever says otherwise, well, I envy your eyes), and if you use an external display you're stuck with that higher DPI. Gets me to wonder whether I really did the right thing with this FHD.

 

Depends what your looking for, I have 1920x1080 on a 15" and I stick with 100% dpi and plug a monitor in a work and home.

If i'm working on the laptop only, I sit close.

Saying that I'm a developer so need the screen real estate.

If you don't and you dislike it put it in your signature that you want to swap for a 1600x900 display and i'm sure people on here will bite your hand off.

 

2. I don't think you can configure different dpi for different monitor, however you could set different different dpi setting for different users.

 

I can't speak to this as I haven't tried it.

No. In Windows 7, DPI is a per-user setting as opposed to a system-wide setting in Vista. The limitation is all monitors will display at the SAME DPI. Your only solution is to reduce the resolution on the FHD display and leave the DPI settings alone.

 

Please, for the sake of your eyes, don't. Read up on how much damage you inflict upon your eyes by doing that.

I'm your kind. Sort of. My proggy clean is unusable now.

 

Or spare 2 minutes for logoff / logon. I think I will do this, or even more, spare 3 minutes restart the whole machine and switch from integrated only to Optimus. At least there's a way to get my way, although I don't fancy it.

 

Can't you just change the DPI setting back to 100% once connected to the external monitor? Then it will show as it should? Interested in this as I've got an FHD on the way to me too which I will be using with an external monitor when in my office.

Still not totally comfortable with having ordered the FHD! Just seems there's no 'ideal' screen option. Whichever one I went for felt like a compromise of some form.

 

FYI, It's pretty much the same deal on the T420s which I just happen to have in my dock so I ran a few test in the various BIOS modes. I'm a little surprised by this though I guess I shouldn't be shocked. I'm getting ready to dock the W520 and see if it does the same thing.

As for the per monitor DPI settings, sorry, that's the current Windows 7 design. I haven't seen anything that indicates it will change for Windows 8 but information on their SoC design is nearly impossible to get right now.

 

Per monitor DPI settings would be a disaster on a large desktop. What would an application do that spanned both monitors? Also, what would happen as an application window was moved from one window to the other? The DPI limitations won't be changing in Windows 8.

 

Well, after the initial frustration caused by the necessity to use Optimus, I don't see actually any important change in battery consumption (and I'm really picky in this area). It changes a bit when I connect the external monitor, but that's not a problem since when I do that I will be running on AC.
As about the DPI, I'll change it as needed. I see where the problems are with Windows, still a clever design should make it possible, it's only very hard to achieve, and it will have some limitations (like it will only work on cloned/only displays, not on extended desktop).