What screen resolution XP on MacBook?

[Bern]

Just curious. I have an external monitor and of course cannot use screen spanning like I can in OS X with XP in Bootcamp.

Anyways I have been playing around with resolutions between the two (my MacBook and the external monitor) and now I think I have set my MacBook's screen resolution incorrectly. When I'm using my MacBook without the external monitor the fonts still look kind of fuzzy.

What screen resolution do you have your MacBook set to in XP?

 

[Chundles]

The native resolution of the MacBook's screen is 1280x800 - you should not be using any other resolution.

 

[drval]

I'm not really sure what you mean by "screen spanning" but XP can be set up to use an Extended Desktop when an external monitor is connected correctly.

The software side of this is accessed via Control Panel/Display/Settings and then correctly specificy the desired/available characteristics of the external monitor. Help in Windows can give further information about this.

If your computer has a DVI output then you will either need a DVI-monitor or you will will to use the DVI-VGA converter from the Mac Mini (or similar) AND you will have to modify the VGA cable by removing one pin. Removing that pin has no effect on Mac compabability as far as I know but it is essential for Windows to see and utilize the screen correctly.

 

[Bern]

My monitor is DVI and I use it successfully on the OS X side for screen spanning. However, in Windows when I try to do the same it's not that great. Perhaps it has something to do with the graphics card?

When I plug the monitor into my MacBook in Windows and have primary/secondary screen setup the resolution on both drops (of course). What I use to do in OS X when using Corel Painter or Flash was leave all the tools on my laptop screen and pull the canvas over to the external monitor. Then make the canvas full screen. The thing is in XP it can't be done. I can pull all the tools over to the external monitor but not the canvas instead for some odd reason. Which defeats the point for me as I'd rather have the canvas on the external monitor and leave the tools on my MacBook screen. I have tried everything I can to get the canvas to move over instead of the tools, but it just won't happen.

 

[drval]

First of all, there are generally more resolution options available under Windows -- for the same hardware -- than in Mac, so you might want to check about how much you can modify your resolution settings for each of the monitors. Again that would be in the same Settings area that I posted on above.

Now I don't know how much you know about Windows so, one idea is that if you double click in the Title Bar of the running app (Or on the middle icon of the group of three in the upper right corner of the running app) you will toggle between "Maximized" and non-"Maximised" mode for that app on that monitor. A "Maximized" window can not be moved from one monitor to another. This may be the problem you're having.

Another aspect of this though is that some apps (or some modes of some apps) automatically "Maximize" on the "Primary" Monitor and leave no provision for un-"Maximizing". So no Title Bar is visible for instance. MS PowerPoint is like this in Slide Show mode. The work around for that is to either start Power Point on Monitor two -- so all of the control show up there and the Slide Show shows up on Monitor one (which remains the Primary); or use the Advanced/Displays option from the Settings area (described above) to change the assignment of your two physical monitors. There you can make the onboard LCD/TFT be Monitor 2 and the external Monitor be Monitor 1, which is the primary.

 

[Bern]

Well I'll give that a go, thanks.

I know I don't have the canvas maximised as I can see the tool bar. I'm not sure which to make primary and secondary (I'm extremely unfamiliar with Windows) but will play around some more with the information you provided.