Retina Macbook and optimizing Windows 8 Resolution

Question

What's the best way to optimize Windows 8 (operating system) resolution on a retina MacBook?

Text randomly appears too small, the wrong windows are the wrong size, etc.

Answer 1

Check the steps from Tony Schreiner in his blog:

By default Boot Camp will configure Windows to use 144 DPI. This is a good default because it strikes a balance between making UI elements large enough to be usable, while still staying within the “supported” realm of mainstream Windows software. By this, what I mean is that up until recently (at least at Microsoft) it was a given to make sure applications worked well at 125% and 150% DPI scaling, but 200% scaling has been less tested and is also less likely to have icons and other art that natively scales to that setting.

For reasonably advanced users I recommend enabling “Use Windows XP style scaling” under the “Custom sizing options”. This prevents the OS from using the DWM to use bitmap stretching on the application to make everything bigger at the expense of quality.

For Internet Explorer 10 I bump the zoom factor to 200% (192 DPI) for most casual web surfing. This gives a very comfortable text size while eliminating wasted space. Text is incredibly sharp, well-defined, and readable. There is no longer any concern over respecting the font vs. respecting the pixel grid. Images look blurry in comparison, but unlike at ~120 DPI it’s an acceptable trade-off, and they don’t look worse than they would if I were running at a lower resolution.

Answer 2

Using an MBPR mid 2012 on Bootcamp. I recommend you set DPI scaling to 100% from the Control Panel:

Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display\Set a custom scaling level

Then adjust your display resolution to a reasonable setting that would still render the screen legible, something to the neighborhood 1600xN-1680xN. Expect of course that the display will be a little blurry, but the aim here is to get to a sweet spot where you don't need a magnifying glass to recognize text.

Try to stay clear away from using a DPI scaling of 150%+...totally messes up UI elements in apps like PowerPoint and more.

Having said this, my personal preference is really at 125% scaling level with a resolution of 1980x1080p. Maybe a few tweaks to ClearType, and then color calibrated to a higher whitepoint (I like a bluish tinge, rather than to a yellowish hue) from the Control Panel as well. Nice, good compromise for me.