Hardware Doubt about Screens and it's resolution

[Gizametalman]

I have a 11' laptop. It's way too small to work comfortably. And I want to connect my Laptop to a bigger screen.
I have a 24' Samsung monitor laying around, and I was planning to use that in order to work comfortably.
My doubt is if, the whole environment will be the same even in that bigger screen. My lap has HDMI output and my monitor has VGA input. I do know that I must buy a converter.
Let me explain you my trouble with a screenshot:

Notice how I have to overlap the windows to see them clearly, of course, this bothers me to work comfortably.
So, my doubt is exactly this:
My lap has a native resolution of 1366 x 768. I don't know exactly what's the resolution of my Samsung monitor.
So, if I connect my lap to my 24' monitor, it'll look the same?
Also, if my Lap has HD resolution, and my monitor "doesnt" (I have it since 2008) it'll look pixelated or distortioned?
All I want is some way to have bigger windows without having to overlap them in order to see them better.
Thanks in advance.

 

[raystriker]

No, it all comes down to what resolution your laptop's graphics can support. You can find your external monitors resolution simply by hooking it up and opening the graphics options or display settings. It should be identified as a secondary viewing device.
Regardless of your resolution, you can always choose for Windows to 'look' bigger or smaller-if that's what you're asking.

 

[Gizametalman]

Oh, so basicall is based on my Graphics Card, guess I'll have to find out when I plug my lap to my monitor.
Thanks!

 

[Futurdreamz]

it depends on the resolution of your screen. I was originally using a 32" 720P tv and I always had to have the web browser fullscreen to see everything, but now I've upgraded to a 24" 1080p monitor and I generally keep the browser snapped to a 3/4 width. You can scale things a little using settings, but pretty much everything is locked to the dpi of the screen for the size. I earlier bought a 28" 4K screen and i had to return it as everything was so tiny and not even scaling could make it bigger. But I could fit a LOT on the screen...

 

[Gizametalman]

it depends on the resolution of your screen. I was originally using a 32" 720P tv and I always had to have the web browser fullscreen to see everything, but now I've upgraded to a 24" 1080p monitor and I generally keep the browser snapped to a 3/4 width. You can scale things a little using settings, but pretty much everything is locked to the dpi of the screen for the size. I earlier bought a 28" 4K screen and i had to return it as everything was so tiny and not even scaling could make it bigger. But I could fit a LOT on the screen...

So basically, if my Samsung monitor has HD, my lap, once plugged in will look in HD too? I think it has, it states in the box: "With High Definition resolution" or something along those lines.
It already supports HD but the windows are soo small that it's difficult for me to work comfortably.

 

[FAST6191]

Where to start...

Windows, and every other OS worth a damn, will support multiple screens. Multiple things can be done with these screens, though it will usually be one of three things

1) Clone
2) Independent secondary monitor
3) Extended monitor

1) does much as it sounds and will attempt to output the same image to both screens. It can still set resolutions so if one monitor is way outclassed it will probably look odd, and if a resolution is picked which the other monitor does not handle well it will also look odd. For some purposes this can also be a bit faster as you are not having to draw as much of the screen.

2 and 3 will be basically the same for most intents and purposes, the only different tending to come in certain types of full screen activities. If you wanted I imagine you could still set odd resolutions but typically you would set the best ones for each. you move your mouse from one screen to the other use it like a very wide (or very tall, or very diagonal if you really wanted) monitor. I have used such things for years and now can't use a single screen computer any more as it is so nice. 11 inches to me says netbook and they do not have the best cards but it should be fine as long as you are not driving a 4K display off it.

Different resolutions mean a different layout, hopefully it is better though (especially for massive UI programs like your image editor there).

I should also say that some laptops, typically business class ones, have docking stations. Said docking stations will likely have another video out, possibly including VGA. I would suggest one of these over a cable any day of the week -- the adapter cables are frequently junk as far as I am concerned (save for DVI to HDMI as HDMI and DVI are closely related) as you are converting signals which can be done well but not at the prices most of those cables go for. Again though netbook so probably not.

I could start talking about colour accuracy and even though you are doing what looks like some nice graphics work I will leave it at that for now.

As for "was too small" you all do know that windows, and most other OSes, have options to increase menu and window/ui sizes universally. You might find it under disabled/accessibility settings, or it might be under general graphics settings somewhere
http://www.pcworld.com/article/242942/how_to_change_font_size.html