In a new Building Windows 8 blog post, Microsoft goes over the minimum and maximum screen resolution for Windows 8. Microsoft is enforcing the resolution requirements so developers can have an easier time creating their apps and making it look beautiful rather than worrying about resolution compatibility.
As you can see from the image above, these are the common resolutions for monitors available today. App developers have to deal with a ton of resolutions to get their apps working properly. By having a minimum resolution, this can help save some trouble.
So whats the minimum resolutions for a Windows 8 Metro App so everything can work well? According to Microsoft, it is 1024×768. “We chose a minimum screen resolution of 1024×768 in order to make it as simple as possible for developers to create great apps that work on all the different screens that are available now and in the future,” Microsoft stated in an official Building Windows 8 blog post. The reason behind this is that 1024×768 just works and is large enough to support rich layouts. On top of that, websites are typically designed for 1024×768 as the minimum resolutions and web developers are used to targeting this resolution in their development. Now, if an app is not designed with consideration for lower resolutions, the layout could truncate, wrap, or break in unpredictable ways. That is why Microsoft choose to set a minimum limit.
When it comes to the operating system as a whole, especially the new snap feature in Windows 8, the minimum screen resolution is 1366×768. This resolution apparently “supports all the features of Windows 8, including multitasking with snap.”
How about a maximum resolution? “You can run Metro style apps on a screen as big as 30” with a resolution of 2560×1600! But although apps aren’t broken when they have more space, developers should give some consideration to these larger resolution screens, so that they make use of the space in a way that keeps their apps looking beautiful,” Microsoft adds.
