How do I simulate a higher resolution than screen's maximum resolution on Windows 10?

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I want to know how to simulate a higher resolution than what my notebook's screen can actually display. What I mean by this is rendering the desktop and OS windows to a higher resolution than my screen's top resolution, then scale it back to the native resolution so it can be displayed. This would allow programs to display content as if I had a higher resolution display (hence displaying more content). I don't mind the loss of detail that comes with this.

In Ubuntu I can use a tool called xrandr to do exactly this. Check pictures 1 and 2 to see what I mean. I haven't found a way to do this on windows and I was hoping somebody would know how to do it.

1: OS as it looks at max resolution (1024x768) OS as it looks at max resolution (1024x768)

2: OS as it looks at a scaled down, simulated higher resolution (1600x1200) OS as it looks at a scaled down, simulated higher resolution (1600x1200)

Lucas

Posted 2016-09-03T00:50:53.833

Reputation: 61

This may only work for DPI aware apps, but you could try setting a custom DPI to get more content on the screen. – Jens Ehrich – 2016-09-03T01:24:31.767

Thanks for your suggestion. However I need to simulate a higher resolution since I want to play a game and it has a resolution selector in the settings. It is better played at a higher resolution since you can see more of the map (there is no zoom option). – Lucas – 2016-09-03T01:37:10.213

Games like Diablo 3 do this very thing. I dont know how you would do it for the desktop though. – Keltari – 2016-09-03T05:10:15.857

The game I am playing is Age of Empires II. The lower resolution makes it very difficult to keep track of stuff because of the very narrow field of view. – Lucas – 2016-09-04T20:30:29.230

I have seen now that virtual machines allow you to set a higher resolution than your actual screen's maximum and then scale it back. I have seen a friend of mine do it using vmware, so I imagine there must be a way to do this without virtualization. – Lucas – 2016-09-16T06:06:35.907

Found any solutions to accomplish it? – Mihai – 2017-11-04T20:02:22.240

There's 3rd party software that will create a virtual screen that's larger than the physical one (as large as the graphics card will support). You can then either scroll it behind a window to view what will fit on the monitor, or zoom it to fit the monitor. However, you can't accomplish what you describe. The amount of detail is limited to the physical resolution. Your graphics card is already doing what you describe. There is a virtual workspace and then the graphics card interpolates it to fit your monitor. You can't see more detail than the monitor supports. – fixer1234 – 2018-08-09T21:10:18.740

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because what the OP wants is clarified in images that no longer exist. Without the images, this can't really be answered because what the question describes can't be done. The question appears to be abandoned. – fixer1234 – 2018-08-09T21:16:44.773

@fixer1234 1. The question is clear without the images. 2. It is not possible to do what the question asks for doesn't make the question off-topic. 3. Whether a question is abandoned by the OP has nothing to do with whether it's useful. For example.

– user202729 – 2019-01-30T03:46:22.647

I haven't found a way to do this on windows without dedicated GPUs yet. This is easily doable on Linux. I have acquired a desktop PC since I asked this so supersampling is no longer necessary for me, personally, but if anyone found a way to make this work and suggested an answer then this would still be useful for people in the future. – Lucas D'Abate – 2019-01-31T18:08:16.453

Answers

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This is not natively possible in Windows. The only way is to add a monitor capable of displaying a higher resolution. There are some cheap ones out there that can do this. They are like 19" but can output to 1080p even though their native resolution is small.

Some graphics cards can force a custom resolution, but it is up to the monitor to support it or not, and scale down properly. This is usually not possible however.

The last option that does work is to use a Virtual Machine. Its not ideal, but at least it does work.

In your case, you can look into getting Age of Empires II to work under Wine with Ubuntu, given that you have managed to get the scaling to work there.

LPChip

Posted 2016-09-03T00:50:53.833

Reputation: 42 190

Thanks for your reply. I did play AoE 2 on wine, but it is not usable for multiplayer as the MP client doesn't work well with wine. I have a desktop PC with an nvidia gtx 960 card that allows me to force higher resolutions, but there's still no way to do that on windows without a dedicated GPU. This is quite surprising given how it is possible to run a virtual machine with higher res but you can't do that natively. I guess since it's not a wide use case microsoft just doesn't bother adding such a feature. – Lucas D'Abate – 2019-01-31T18:11:11.507

Its more than Microsoft not bothering. They have prevented similar options. It used to be possible to set a DPI value of lower than 100% which did essentially do the same thing, make all programs smaller so it appears you use a higher resolution. The biggest problem was the fact that not all programs scaled well. Some programs ignored the DPI and some just could not handle the DPI setting causing text to go missing, some elements not sizing while others did, etc. So Microsoft said, okay, minimum value is 100%, anything lower through hacks is ignored. – LPChip – 2019-01-31T20:21:33.663

It's really unfortunate, as supersampling isn't really comparable. I use a FHD screen but with nvidia supersampling I can use up to a 5k resolution that then gets downscaled to fit my FHD panel. Granted, text becomes unreadable unless you set the DPI high to compensate, but for games like AoE2 which only respond to resolution and don't have dynamic zoom, it's the only way to get more vision. It also has the benefit of not messing with DPI which means every program looks as if you had a higher res screen. It's only a matter of not going overboard so that it is still usable. – Lucas D'Abate – 2019-02-01T19:12:24.230

Asked: 2016-09-03T00:50:53.833

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Active: 2019-11-26T17:02:10.380