Windows 8 - scaling; why are some programs affected and some aren't?

I've noticed that with scaling on Windows 8 (and I'm sure the same goes for Windows 7), some programs are affected by it and some aren't. Spotify, for example, is only affected with the text in playlists and using 125% DPI makes the text a little bigger, but that's all. Skype, on the other hand, is completely distorted and ruined by the scaling. Is this just a matter of the program and there is no other way to change it? It's pretty annoying...

 

With windows, you always run into issues with how third party software implement their UI. I'm surprised with Skype not scaling properly given that MS now owns them. One thing you can expect though is that third party devs will get scaling right in future versions with the advent of high PPI displays. MS may share some part of the blame, but that's not something I can tell, I'm just an enthusiast, not a software dev.

Unfortunately, there's no way to change it.

 

Indeed.

That's one of the areas where OSX is *vastly* superior to Windows in any shape and form in my experience, and I'm not an Apple buff by any means...

 

Skype has a Windows 8 app (metro app) that scales just fine regardless of your screen resolution. Maybe their desktop program hasn't been updated to reflect the higher-res screens available on PCs nowadays?

 

Metro skype is something I'd rather avoid thinking of, I want to be able to sign in with whatever account I want, not my MS account...

Anyways, I remember Skype not handling DPI scaling well on Windows 7 back in 2010.

Apple's strict UI guidelines definitely pay off in regards to scaling.

 

Windows 8.1 is supposed to improve scaling. But if Skype was programed wrong, it may not help.

 

I absolutely hate this.

 

Thanks for the info, guys. And yes, I know about the Metro app, it just seemed a little "reduced" so I was trying to use the standard app, but the scaling was bothering me. It took quite a while for Spotify to embrace Retina-support, so it could be the same story with Skype and Windows. >.<

 

I don't think fixing this will be easy for Microsoft. They tried to do it with Vista. But a true fix would probably break a lot of programs, and people would blame MS for that...

At least MS is aware of it, and as I said they made improvements in Win 8.1. Maybe a service pack will make further improvements for the higher than retina displays.

 

To be fair, Windows and software like MS Office scale well, the rest is a mixed bag. Heck, GPU-Z scales properly, the ROG edition doesn't... Skype had issues with scaling before its acquisition by MS, I'm better it was never fixed and better integration with other MS products was prioritized. 7 itself had a bit of weirdness to its scaling too, 8.1 has less of that.