Screen size limit - how infuriating!

[LosOjos]

So last night I formatted my netbook to put Win8 on it. I can't stand the OS on my PC but thought the big, tiled GUI could actually work very well for a smaller screen on a machine I use almost entirely for data consumption.

 

So everything installs fine, no problem there and then I try to open up IE - screen resolution too low. OK, how about email - screen resolution too low. Photos? - screen resolution too low.

 

How infuriating! Now admittedly, they do state the minimum resolution on the system requirements, but frankly it's not something I thought to check as I've never, not once installed an OS that had such a requirement. Considering it all installs from a GUI, why the hell couldn't it check that before it let me format my machine and install the bloody thing?! Aside from that, why would you take a new OS with an obviously designed for the small screen GUI and impose such a stupid limit? The minimum is 1024x768, but there are a ton of netbooks out there with widescreen 1024x600 resolutions that will now never be able to run Win8 'properly.'

 

What's more ridiculous is that this was piointed out to them during development and they essentially ignored the concerns of their users - i.e. the people they want to buy the damned thing!

 

Minimum resolution

 

I’ve seen a few blog comments that ask specifically about minimum resolution, for example on Designing the Start screen in October 2011, @wolf asked:

 

“A better idea would force all developers to make sure all Metro app [are designed for] a minimal screen size of 800x600. Limiting Metro apps to only 1024x768 will cut out all netbook users as well as hurt the Windows App Store."

 

We chose a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768 in order to make it as simple as possible for developers to create great apps that work on all the different screens that are available now and in the future. A minimum resolution provides a necessary starting place for developers, who can use it as a baseline to ensure that all of the navigation, controls, and content fit on screen. As we worked on different design layouts for apps, we found that the higher the minimum resolution, the richer and more tailored the app could be. We wanted developers to be able to tailor and refine their layouts to make use of every available pixel on 1024x768, without having to compromise the layout for a smaller resolution.

 

They try to give an explanation about "compromising your layout for the small screen" and I can understand that 800x600 is a bit on the low side these days but at the end of the day, they have excluded a huge share of the netbook market by refusing to drop to 1024x600 and any developer worth their salt could easily have made their layout work for that tiny drop in resolution. By being so stubborn about it, it now means that it'll likely never get dropped because doing so would require all previously developed Metro apps by all developers to be updated too.

 

So, not a good start to my Win8 experience. I think there's potential for this to bomb faster than ME.

 

PS - I have used the registry hack to force my screen to scale but the Metro interface is ugly as hell. I think Win7 might be getting a re-install very soon. I just wanted to rant.

[twin--turbo]

Netbooks are being abandond as a product by the big vendors ASUS droped(ing) theirs.

 

Rob

[localzuk]

Supposedly, they've sold 40 million copies of Windows 8 in the same time they sold something like 25 million copies of Windows 7. So, it sadly isn't bombing.

 

With small resolutions, I've got to be honest - they're a pain. Windows XP didn't work well on small screens, many dialog windows didn't fit for example.

 

The current world has standardised laptops on 1366x768 for laptops, and their tablets have that size too.

 

Face it, they can't support old stuff forever, and netbooks are a very niche market now, and getting smaller.

[Geoff]

Search the registry for 'Display1_DownScalingSupported' (the path varies depending on your video drivers) and change the value from 0 to 1. If there's more than one entry in multiple locations, change them all. Problem solved.

 

To disable metro go to:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

 

and change 'RPEnabled' from 1 to 0.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Geoff

[sonofsanta]

There's an optmistic part of me that thinks "Great! Now netbooks will have to ship with a better resolution", and a realistic part of me that knows this is the final nail in the coffin marked netbook.

 

I'm still bitter that Acer stopped making the 1280x720 10.1" Aspire One 522. <3 that netbook.

[Geoff]

Sometimes I wonder if Microsoft wants to fail. They are going to drive consumers away, giving Apple and Linux a free Lunch with misguided 'features' like this.

[LosOjos]

Search the registry for 'Display1_DownScalingSupported' (the path varies depending on your video drivers) and change the value from 0 to 1. If there's more than one entry in multiple locations, change them all. Problem solved.

 

To disable metro go to:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

 

and change 'RPEnabled' from 1 to 0.

 

Already done, but thanks anyway!

 

I know this is supposed to be the bad Windows release (i.e. every other version is a piece of crap), but this is just so incredibly off the mark it's untrue. Metro is horrible on a desktop machine, and won't work on a low resolution screen where it would shine! It just seems to me that Microsoft have gone "OMG! Tablets! Everyone loves tablets! Let's make everything look like a tablet! (Except our tablet, which will be more like a laptop)"

[jinnantonnixx]

Do you need Windows on it? My Dad's Dell netbook runs Ubuntu 12.04 very well.

[jamesfed]

Netbooks? Didn't you hear - they are dead meat, everyone uses tablets now

[LosOjos]

Do you need Windows on it? My Dad's Dell netbook runs Ubuntu 12.04 very well.

 

No, I just wanted to try it out, it seemed the perfect platform for Metro - apparently not!

 

Netbooks? Didn't you hear - they are dead meat, everyone uses tablets now

 

I can't type on the damn things and by the time you've attached a decent keyboard - well, it's essentially a netbook!

[SYNACK]

I can't type on the damn things and by the time you've attached a decent keyboard - well, it's essentially a netbook!

 

But more expensive, less repairable and less versatile, did you not get the memo from the market: it wants to eat your money now.

[jamesfed]

I can't type on the damn things and by the time you've attached a decent keyboard - well, it's essentially a netbook!

 

Surface with Windows RT is what you need Its both and neither at the same time!

[LosOjos]

But more expensive, less repairable and less versatile, did you not get the memo from the market: it wants to eat your money now.

 

Yeah I got the memo, my bank got the memo, my credit card, well, that just got punched in the face repeatedly while somebody screamed at it about the memo...

 

Surface with Windows RT is what you need Its both and neither at the same time!

 

Can I put Android on it?

Seriously though, I liked the look of the Surface tablets, they seem like the best hardware option out there right now, but I cannot stand Metro - it's just horrible.

[jinnantonnixx]

Yeah I got the memo, my bank got the memo, my credit card, well, that just got punched in the face repeatedly while somebody screamed at it about the memo...

 

 

 

Can I put Android on it?

Seriously though, I liked the look of the Surface tablets, they seem like the best hardware option out there right now, but I cannot stand Metro - it's just horrible.

 

The Nook Colour might be worth a look. B&N are supportive of the mods, and Cyanogen (Andoid) and Ubuntu, Debian and Lubuntu can run on it.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/TabletList