Windows Forms on hi-def screen

Question

Hi all, Scenario : I have a project that compiles and looks fine/awesome on every laptop/desktop it's compiled/deployed to. Problem : I just got a new Dell Precision laptop with a hi-def screen (1900x1080 on 15.6") and that is no longer the case. Everything seems to be sized "smaller". All the docking and anchoring properties are still set and functional, but instead of a control spanning, say, the entire width of its parent, it only spans 2/3rd of the width. I can "correct" this by resizing every control and then recompiling on the laptop. But then when I run this version on a non hi-res-configured machine, then the inverse occurs where everything is "too big". My current thoughts : It seems like windows is configured to scale things so they don't appear tiny on the hi-res screen. I know that fonts, for instance, are larger. They've scaled things so that font 10 appears the same size physically (i.e. on the screen). I imagine that this scaling thing is what's causing the inconsistencies, but how the hell do I avoid this problem?! It would be massively awesome to not have to compile a "HD" and "non-HD" version of the code. I can't find a single thing about this online. It's like it's never happened to anyone else... If someone could even point me to some thread or article somewhere that talks about this, then at least I won't feel so alone. Many thanks in advance! Oliver

Mahesh Chand · Answer

It happens all the time. You are definitely not alone. You can avoid this by making screens dynamic and taking size from your current display size. You basically have to create all of your controls dynamically based on the size of the screen. In this manner, WPF is more flexible than Windows Forms.

oli b · Answer

Hmm, I was worried this would be the only solution. Although I'm somewhat relieved to discover that there isn't some obvious (quickly implemented) solution that I didn't think of. Thanks!