Windows scaling

Typical power users try to get the best resolution out of their computer.  This often means the icons and text are small.  When you are 10 inches from the screen, this isn't a big deal.  When you are 10 feet from the screen, this can be a problem.  I didn't want to decrease the resolution, because I liked the crispness of HD.  Windows does provide the ability to change the font size and the DPI.  I bumped up the font size and I changed the DPI to 200%.  This made the icons on my desktop readable and recognizable from the couch.

Some windows did not scale very well.  Specifically, when something was coded to have a fixed size, things didn't flow correctly.  This problem isn't specific to Windows, or even desktop applications.  This problem occurs in Linux and many webpages do not resize correctly.  The result is usually an awkward looking window.  Sometimes, the window gets so large that you can't  see the title bar.  This means you can't move the window.  Although this happens in Linux as well, it isn't as much of a problem.  On an X-Windows-based user interface, you can Alt+Drag a window and it will move.  You don't need to click on the title bar to move the window.  At least one program (Project 64's Input Plugin window) was unusable at 200% DPI.  I had to drop down the DPI to 150%.  At 150%, the fixed-size window was usable, but the desktop icons were smaller.  I still have not found any launchers that I was happy with to replace the desktop.

My next problem occurred when I launched Angry Birds.  The Windows 7 start bar didn't hide itself.  Angry Birds claimed that I was running in a lower resolution.  I was supposed to hit a button to continue, but the mouse clicks weren't working.  I struggled for a while, but I finally listened to my wife and googled start bar's that don't go away.  One of the first results claimed that some apps don't work well when you change the DPI.  If you right-click on the shortcut, there is a Compatibility tab.  In that tab, if you check off "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings", that will fix the problem.  Apparently Google Chrome and a lot of other programs have this issue as well.  If I find (or write) a launcher that works well on the TV, I might set the DPI back to 100% so that I don't have such massive issues with display scaling.