Problem


In Windows Vista/7/8 the resolution scaling options in Control Panel will affect the way that Medilink displays some lists, making them hard to read.


Note that this is less of an issue in Windows 10 (discussed further below).


To demonstrate the problem we will use Windows 7. Note that some of the setting names are slightly different in Vista and 8, but they are similar and function in the same way.


First we will show you what it looks like with standard scaling, i.e. 100%.


1. Go to Control Panel >> Appearance and Personalization >> Display, 


Or right click the Desktop >> Screen Resolution >> Make text and other items larger or smaller.



2. If you have to change it to Smaller - 100%, then you will be prompted to Log-Off Windows for this to take effect.


Once set to 100%, Medilink lists will look like this (as intended):



3. Now, if we change the scaling to Larger - 150%:



(Again remembering that you may need to Log-Off Windows for this to take effect.)


Now the Medilink lists will look odd:



Solution


The simple solution is to change your Windows Display scaling back to Standard, 100%. Unfortunately there is no special setting or anything in Medilink that can work with larger scaling settings - they will sort of work, but some things will be truncated, and the tab stops will be out of whack.


Another option is to use Windows 10, which scales in a more natural way.


Longer term we hope to have a programmatic fix for these scaling issues. We are committed to maintaining the Medilink application, and will in time review all of these lists, and update them to use more modern techniques; such as:


  • Scaling properly
  • Separate columns
  • Sort-able columns
  • Resizable columns
  • Resizable dialogs
  • Scroll-able dialogs


You will notice these changes gradually in newer versions of Medilink, for example the Appointment Search dialog in 2016 R1:



Windows 10 additionally allows users to bypass scaling issues by modifying the Properties of Medilink (BIN\MPW2000.EXE and others), by going to the Compatibility tab and setting Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by: System.