How can I make the Windows 8 desktop scrollable?

Question

My Windows 8 tablet PC has a small 1366x768-pixel screen. Many dialog boxes, windows, and widgets cannot be used properly because they are too large and get cut off the screen because they were designed for higher resolutions. Some applications must have the window maximized to get all the buttons visible, and others like Microsoft Outlook are just plain hard to use. I need a solution that would allow me to extend and scroll the Windows desktop. I already tried WindowSlider, but it only scrolls left/right and is very buggy. Is there any program / shell extension that will allow me to scroll the desktop in all four directions?

For example, when you use Remote Desktop from a computer with a lower resolution to one with a higher resolution, you can always scroll the entire desktop of the remote computer. Isn't there any way to do this for my local Windows in order to get a higher usable resolution for application windows?

Answer 1

True virtual video-viewports require a driver level interface - and I only know of one graphics vendor that still has a solution in that space. If your computer is using a NVIDIA Quadro GPU (not NVIDIA GeForce), you can go to support at nvidia.com drill down into the "Drivers Download" for your computer/graphics-card and download:

• NVIDIA nView Desktop Management Software

nView will do a lot of things, like multiple virtual desktops - but it will also allow you to create a virtual desktop that is larger than your physical screen - and then you pan and scroll to move around in it. The maximum size of your virtual desktop will be limited by the amount of RAM available to the NVIDIA Quadro GPU, as well as the color depth you choose.

If you can live with only horizontal panning (infinitely wide desktop), the software solution that I like best is:

• Desktop Panorama - the innovative panoramic virtual desktop
• http://desktop-panorama.com/index.php

Desktop Panorama is free and the author put a lot of thought into the usability of the application interface.

GiMeSpace is where you probably need to go if you need both horizontal and vertical panning (infinitely wide & high desktop):

• GiMeSpace Desktop Extenders
• http://gimespace.com/

GiMeSpace has a Free Edition (version 1.x based) that simply pans horizontally (wide) - and still shows some "ver. 1" performance issues. And then he has a horizontal panning "Desktop Panorama clone" for $20 called Ultimate Taskbar (wide). GiMeSpace has two horizontal + vertical panning products: $20 for Desktop Extender (wide + high) and $25 for Desktop Extender 3D (wide + high + zoom). All of GiMeSpace's $$$ versions show good performance improvements over the ver. 1.x Free Edition.