Those planning to buy an Ultra HD monitor or a laptop with a very high-res screen can now do so with confidence; Windows finally works properly with screens with a very high pixel density (according to the results of our latest test). You do need up-to-date modern software for it to work, but as long as that's not a problem, a high-res screen can now give you a much more pleasant working environment.

In early 2014, we published a test in which we explored how well Windows and a large amount of Windows software works when the screen scaling is set to 200%. The reason why we decided to explore this topic is because of the introduction of 13.3" 3200x1800 laptops and the first 4K/Ultra HD monitors. In both cases, the pixel density was so much higher than what was considered normal at that point in time that Windows didn't work properly any more on those screens: images and text were just much too small.

Luckily, Windows has long since given users the option to adjust their scaling (ever since Windows XP, in fact), which allows you to - theoretically - enlarge all elements on your screen by 125%, 150%, 200% or even more. The concept here is simple, but effective: use an Ultra HD screen at 200% scaling, and everything on the screen should take up as much room as it would on a Full HD screen, but it will be mich sharper. Unfortunately, in 2014 that only worked in theory.