If you use Windows remote desktop and especially if you have a high-resolution display, there’s some different DPI and scaling behavior between versions that might interest you.
The classic Remote Desktop Connection has been around for decades, and still uses the executable name of its NT predecessor, Microsoft Terminal Services Client. Some notable features and behaviors:
- Resolution set at connection time: resizing your RDP window does not change the session resolution.
- Reducing RDP window size can show scroll bars, or Smart Sizing can enabled from the Control Menu to shrink and deform the remote image to fit local window size. Resolution remains unchanged.
- If you have the eyes for it, or just need to watch a remote session without interacting, you can connect at a higher resolution or full screen, then shrink the RDP window to use it among your local apps. Everything will scale down and be smaller within the RDP window though.
- Since it’s just simple scaling, text can be blurry.
- Will not expand and stretch to fill: if connection resolution is lower than local display’s physical resolution, the RDP window will be bound by the connection resolution.
- Example: if you have a 4K display and connect at 1920×1080, the RDP window will not maximize larger than 1/4 of your local display size. Works great when snapped into a corner though.
Among the obvious UI changes like a visual grid of remembered desktops instead of a combo list/text box drop down, The Microsoft Remote Desktop store app handles display resolution and DPI a little differently, and includes new controls to define your desired behavior.
- Allows for resize while preserving aspect ratio: window size is not constrained but will use pillar/letterbox type format.
- Allows for suppressing screen timeouts.
- Resolution can be dynamic to fit local RDP window size: if you resize it to any arbitrary size, the remote session will adjust to that exact pixel size while maintaining DPI scale. Unlike shrink and deform above, here the apparent size of remote UI will be maintained regardless of local window size. Remote apps will resize to fit the display so you can end up with some oddly sized windows on your remote workspace.
- Since the resolution is always “perfect”, the text in your remote session will be crisp and clear regardless of your window size.
Below is a side-by-side for comparison. The image is a screenshot of my local 4K desktop workspace with two remote desktop sessions open on the right side:
- Top: MSTSC, session launched full-screen resolution 3840×2160, then window snapped to top quarter of local 4K display’s desktop. The remote image is rendered at 4K then squeezed to fit the local window, which is just shy of 1920×1080 due to space taken by local title bar and taskbar.
- Bottom: Remote Desktop store app, session also launched at full-screen resolution, then window snapped to bottom corner of local 4K display’s desktop. Remote desktop area is resized but keeps local DPI scaling factor, maintaining apparent UI size that matches your local UI.
- Left/outer: for comparison, note the Store App DPI behavior means remote UI is the same size as local UI regardless of resolution, at the sacrifice of remote desktop work area.
I have no big preference or recommendation to make here: depending on your use case, one of these behaviors may be preferable to you.
PS. For what it’s worth, the Android app behaves like the store app.
