Vsphere C# or VMRC client on 4k display

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dwright1542

Active Member
Dec 26, 2015
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Sooo......brand new Alienware 17" laptop with a 4k display (upgraded from 1920x1080). Many of my VM's are running in 1024x768 or 1280x1024 ish size screens. The old C# client scales but the console is just broken. It doesn't display properly at all.

The VMRC in the web client displays ok, but does not scale at all. No zoom function. So it's the size of a post-in on my screen. When you resize it (which doesn't work well anyway), it's actually changing the resolution on the fly inside the client. Which doesn't make anything bigger.

I've got workarounds for RDP, and I use Screenconnect which works perfect, but consoles (especially linux consoles) are nearly non-functional because of the size issue.

Oddly enough, the OLD web client displays BEATUIFULLY, but the mouse / keyboard don't function properly

VmWare support useless at this point, does anyone have this running properly? I may actually have to return this laptop and get one with the lower 1920x1080 screen.
 
Last edited:

NetWise

Active Member
Jun 29, 2012
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Edmonton, AB, Canada
Why not just adjust your resolution to non-4K when doing VM work?

Ultimately in the past I returned a 4K unit as not only was it too small for this old guy but everything from RDP to consoles assumed I wanted that size and I gave up fighting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

dwright1542

Active Member
Dec 26, 2015
377
73
28
50
Why not just adjust your resolution to non-4K when doing VM work?

Ultimately in the past I returned a 4K unit as not only was it too small for this old guy but everything from RDP to consoles assumed I wanted that size and I gave up fighting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Too PITA. I'm in VM stuff all day long.
 

jgreco

New Member
Sep 7, 2013
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I'm glad I'm not the only one frustrated by these type of issues. I haven't found 4K to be useful for small screens. I did buy a nice Samsung UN49KS8500 (49" 4K TV) for use as a monitor and it's pretty awesome in the "lots of glass" department - thinking about another one or two. ;-) Otherwise I'm not seeing 4K as all that useful, unless you're scaling the entire display, which seems to work rather well in Win10. I really need something in the sub-100-PPI department.

So, first, the thing that caught my eye was C# client with broken console. Is this where the display of the console itself is messed up, as though the window itself is busted (mis-sized)? I'm wondering if anyone knows what causes that. It seemed to happen after a Windows update where .NET was updated. I still find the C# client useful enough that I'd like to figure this out.

In return, I'd offer the thought that a laptop is typically a several year investment, at *least*. Returning your 4K unit for a lower resolution will possibly save you some money, but the world of virtualization evolves quickly and it may not be a good idea to etch in stone a decision such as a lower resolution display, when some software update might suddenly allow for scalable VMRC. You might be better served by cranking the Windows display scaling to something like 300%. This seems to work fairly well, not perfectly, but it gives you an option: if a VMRC scaling fix appears in the future, you won't be kicking yourself for having returned the laptop for one with a crummier display.
 

jgreco

New Member
Sep 7, 2013
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And the irony is that the fix for the C# client is to disable high DPI in the compatibility layer. So, yeah, that seems to suck.
 

cheezehead

Active Member
Sep 23, 2012
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Midwest, US
Download the html5 fling vSphere HTML5 Web Client which supports DPI scaling, the C# client is past EOL.

I'm running a QHD+ laptop and DPI scaling is to this day still 1/2 baked imo. I would have returned/exchanged my laptop for a normal 1080p res but I just couldn't pass up the deal.