Hi Asblut,

With your primary concern being the high display resolution on the ---- system there are a few features within Windows 7 that could have an impact on your decision.

Your desired appearance might be achieved simply by adjusting the resolution at which your system pushes video to the display. Settings in ‘Display’ can change text and icon size without adjusting your screens resolution and Microsofts ‘ClearType’ tool can help clear up text viability issues. Check out the guides below for information from Microsoft and Dell in reference to making resolution and visual adjustments to a system running Windows 7.

Windows 7 Video Settings

http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/04/KCS/KcsArticles/ArticleView?docid=DSN_362047&isLegacy=true#Issue3

Change screen resolution

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/change-screen-resolution

Make text easier to read using ClearType

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/make-text-easier-read-cleartype#1TC=windows-7

Hope it helps!

Thank you Shawn-B for you answer. Very informative.

One last question: since the size of the external display makes the default viewing settings comfortable i don't need to adjust the appearance  of items on the screen. Is it possible to independently adjust them across different  screens or i should every time i undock the laptop adjust the settings manually?

Hi Asblut,

Individual monitors could be set to different resolutions through the control panel > Display > Screen Resolutions settings, unfortunately settings for text/icon size and ClearType would affect all of the attached/configured displays.

Thanks,