Solved Windows seem ridiculously large, a default settings window fills the screen

Just getting going on my new laptop which has a built-in display resolution of 2560x1600, and I have (via two USB-C -> HDMI cables) a second super widescreen monitor connected. I'm using two inputs on the monitor so that the left side of it can be screen #2, and the right side is screen #3, both of which I have set to their native 1920x1080. I had an identical setup prior to this on my old laptop using a DP-> HDMI cable and a HDMI-HDMI cable - that worked perfectly and didn't have the following issue:

The problem I'm seeing is that despite having Scale set to 100%, all three (yes even the laptop native screen) are showing all application windows (and settings, calculator etc) as unexpectedly large. Right-clicking on the desktop and selecting "Display Settings", I'd expect the settings window that opens to take up about half the width of a 1920 pixel wide screen (and on the old laptop it does), but on the new one it takes up 98% of the screen width. It's like someone did a Ctrl+ half a dozen times "on Windows". Which I believe is what the Scale is meant to do. I can't scale lower than 100%, that's not allowed.

Two laptops with identical setups (apart from the cabling) but a different result.

When my eyesight starts to go, I think I'd quite like it setup this way, but currently not so much.

I was starting to doubt whether I'm really in 1920x1080 and that Windows was lying to me in the Display settings but I did a screenshot of one of the displays, saved it, and viewed the properties of the image and it was indeed 1920x1080. So there seems to be a hidden extra Scale setting somewhere. On the screenshot it says "A custom scale factor is set", that's because I saw it was at 125% and I changed it to 100%. I followed the instruction of logging out and back in for it to take effect, but it didn't do anything.

What is the graphics card of the laptop? I would first download and install the official nVidia or AMD driver for my graphics card. IF there is a warning that the laptop has customized graphics card and you should download the driver from manufacturer, then I would do it, otherwise I would proceed to install the official nVidia or AMD driver. Then from nVidia Control Panel or AMD Control Panel go to the display resolution section and make sure each display has its native resolution. Then from Windows Display Settings check scaling again by clicking on each monitor separately.

spapakons said:

What is the graphics card of the laptop? I would first download and install the official nVidia or AMD driver for my graphics card. IF there is a warning that the laptop has customized graphics card and you should download the driver from manufacturer, then I would do it, otherwise I would proceed to install the official nVidia or AMD driver. Then from nVidia Control Panel or AMD Control Panel go to the display resolution section and make sure each display has its native resolution. Then from Windows Display Settings check scaling again by clicking on each monitor separately.

Click to expand...

Well that's opened a can of whoop-ass worms. I looked at the display adapter properties for the display expecting to see my NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 as the active graphics card, but instead it's the Intel Graphics from the motherboard. I don't know where you can go to switch from onboard graphics to the installed graphics card. Slightly scared that if I go and disable the onboard graphics and somehow it doesn't switch to the RTX, then I've bricked it.

But anyway, between posting my question and now, I did a full restart and the Scaling seems to have taken effect. Things are more normal now. Despite the fact that when I changed it from 125% to 100% it said all I had to do was logout/login for it to take effect, that was a lie, a restart was actually necessary.

So things are looking good now, except for the weirdness of apparently not using the RTX card I paid for. I'm not a gamer so I doubt I'd notice the difference anyway, but still.

It looks like Intel is for the display while nVidia is for 3D graphics in games. I am not sure if you can force nVidia only. Probably you can force Intel only, but that won't help your case and it will not allow you to play any games or run image/video editing applications. I would download the official drivers and upgrade both Intel and nVidia drivers. Probably you only have to upgrade Intel, but it doesn't harm to also upgrade nVidia.

spapakons said:

It looks like Intel is for the display while nVidia is for 3D graphics in games. I am not sure if you can force nVidia only. Probably you can force Intel only, but that won't help your case and it will not allow you to play any games or run image/video editing applications. I would download the official drivers and upgrade both Intel and nVidia drivers. Probably you only have to upgrade Intel, but it doesn't harm to also upgrade nVidia.

Click to expand...

OK, that makes sense. I'd never noticed it could work like that. I just fired up my video editing software (Camtasia Studio) and in the preferences there I can see that it uses the RTX card by default:

d4005 said:

I looked at the display adapter properties for the display expecting to see my NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 as the active graphics card, but instead it's the Intel Graphics from the motherboard. I don't know where you can go to switch from onboard graphics to the installed graphics card.

Click to expand...

In the Lenovo Vantage app go to Gaming settings in the Left hand menu.

GPU Working Mode. Click on that, it should list 4 modes.
Hybrid mode is the most useful, the first option in the list, read the description.
> Save.

The Nvidia graphics only clicks in automatically when playing a game or an application you have chosen to use the Nvidia graphics.
Camtasia Studio would be one of those.
The vast majority of time the integrated graphics are more than adequate.

Your internal display mode is set to wrong resolution and aspect ratio, it should be 2560 x 1600 assuming Display 1: is the Internal Display.

Helmut said:

In the Lenovo Vantage app go to Gaming settings in the Left hand menu.

GPU Working Mode. Click on that, it should list 4 modes.
Hybrid mode is the most useful, the first option in the list, read the description.
> Save.

Click to expand...

Weird that in that left hand menu in Vantage I don't have a Gaming settings. I don't care though, not a gamer anyway. This is a Dev machine mostly. The nearest thing to a game I have is online Tetris during a boring zoom meeting

Helmut said:

The Nvidia graphics only clicks in automatically when playing a game or an application you have chosen to use the Nvidia graphics.
Camtasia Studio would be one of those.
The vast majority of time the integrated graphics are more than adequate.

Click to expand...

Absolutely. If it can drive 3 displays at a high refresh rate, that'll do for me.

Helmut said:

Your internal display mode is set to wrong resolution and aspect ratio, it should be 2560 x 1600 assuming Display 1: is the Internal Display.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I find that at max resolution the display is pretty hard to read the text. I'd need to be using Scale or Ctrl+ all the time if I didn't have it set to 1920x1080. I anyway mostly use the laptop screen as a third display, playing a video or something.

Just thinking aloud, so ignore me if I am being stupid, but isn't the internal graphics an option in the bios? Like I turn the integrated audio off as I use a CHORD 2Qute USB DAC and don't need the onboard audio. I seem to remember in my bios something like picking the pci-e port to use on first boot.

Why not set 125 scaling for the internal display only? The other two can be at 100.

thecaretaker said:

Just thinking aloud, so ignore me if I am being stupid, but isn't the internal graphics an option in the bios? Like I turn the integrated audio off as I use a CHORD 2Qute USB DAC and don't need the onboard audio. I seem to remember in my bios something like picking the pci-e port to use on first boot.

Click to expand...

That's for desktop computers with a separate (aka discrete) graphics card. Laptops don't have this option as the onboard graphics card is used for everything while the discrete only in 3D.

spapakons said:

That's for desktop computers with a separate (aka discrete) graphics card. Laptops don't have this option as the onboard graphics card is used for everything while the discrete only in 3D.

Click to expand...

OK thanks.

d4005 said:

Yeah, I find that at max resolution the display is pretty hard to read the text. I'd need to be using Scale or Ctrl+ all the time if I didn't have it set to 1920x1080. I anyway mostly use the laptop screen as a third display, playing a video or something.

Click to expand...

You should set it to 2560 x 1600 (Recommended), and use a scale of 150 %(Recommended)
My laptop has the same sort of display panel, so I can assure you that is probably the best.

Lenovo Vantage App
Left Menu 2nd one down, the icon is supposed to be a game controller.
Expand horizontal size of Lenovo Vantage App if you cannot see Menu.

It is not only for games, as I said, useful for what you have, Camtasia Studio.

View attachment 148727

spapakons said:

That's for desktop computers with a separate (aka discrete) graphics card. Laptops don't have this option as the onboard graphics card is used for everything while the discrete only in 3D.

Click to expand...

That is not correct, you can set any App to use discrete Nvidia graphics on this type of Laptop.
You will find that App list in Windows settings > System > Display > Graphics > Customised settings only when apps support the feature

View attachment 148728

Helmut said:

That is not correct, you can set any App to use discrete Nvidia graphics on this type of Laptop.
You will find that App list in Windows settings > System > Display > Graphics > Customised settings only when apps support the feature

View attachment 148728

Click to expand...

Exactly, only when it is a game or graphics app that needs 3D acceleration. Not for a common 2D app, such as Word, for example.

spapakons said:

Why not set 125 scaling for the internal display only? The other two can be at 100.

Click to expand...

Scaling seems to be a system wide option from how it seems. I haven't seen how to scale per-display. I quite like having the system display set to 1920x1080 though, it gives consistency across all three displays. If I were to resize a window on display 1 and then drag it to display 2, it's going to appear the same size/ratio.

Helmut said:

That is not correct, you can set any App to use discrete Nvidia graphics on this type of Laptop.
You will find that App list in Windows settings > System > Display > Graphics > Customised settings only when apps support the feature

View attachment 148728

Click to expand...

Odd that my Vantage doesn't have that, but I'm fine with it. The only app I'd like to use it is Camtasia Studio anyway, and it already is.

You go to Settings, System, Display and click on the monitor you want to change the scaling. Click the internal display. Set scaling to 125. The other monitors should not change. Of course this implies that the other monitors extend the desktop, not copy (clone) the internal display.

spapakons said:

You go to Settings, System, Display and click on the monitor you want to change the scaling. Click the internal display. Set scaling to 125. The other monitors should not change. Of course this implies that the other monitors extend the desktop, not copy (clone) the internal display.

Click to expand...

You are indeed correct. I'm sticking with my 1920x1080 with 100% scaling though, it just looks nice