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Windows has a "high DPI" feature which lets users effectively use high DPI displays, in since Windows XP.

However, many applications implemented display scaling incorrectly. In Windows Vista, they added a backwards compatibility feature which scales the application as a bitmap, resulting in blurry controls.

I would like to make my application be high-DPI aware, which means testing in high DPI mode. But switching back and forth (and logging in/out) to check if the scaling code works correctly is annoying.

Is there some way to force my application to run in high DPI mode for testing purposes?

(I am well aware that the answer may be "you can't; sorry." I worded this as a "How..." question because I don't want someone to say "Yes" and say nothing else)

Billy ONeal
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  • Possible duplicate of [Set DPI of individual applications in Windows](http://superuser.com/questions/66101/set-dpi-of-individual-applications-in-windows), [How to force high-dpi scaling?](http://superuser.com/questions/127214/how-to-force-high-dpi-scaling) ... – Karan Mar 10 '13 at 03:22
  • @Karan: Agreed. Also voted to close. – Billy ONeal Mar 10 '13 at 03:47
  • Wait, you work *for* Microsoft? *You* should be asking company experts about questions like these or posting on some internal mailing list and giving *us* useful tips and answers! – Karan Mar 10 '13 at 03:56
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    @Karan: It doesn't work like that. It's a company of 40,000 developers; there's no magic system that lets one figure out exactly which of the other 39,999 one needs to talk with about a feature. Nor do people in the Windows group treat people outside the Windows group like insiders, even if I knew with whom I should speak. – Billy ONeal Mar 10 '13 at 04:08
  • Ah well, there goes our dream of obtaining answers to some *really* burning questions about Windows and its oddities! :) Was just hoping there might be a mailing list where you guys can at least post queries and hopefully receive informed answers. – Karan Mar 10 '13 at 04:20
  • @Karan: You're more likely to get answers posting comments in Raymond's suggestion box :) – Billy ONeal Mar 10 '13 at 04:36
  • Yeah, but the 2-3 year wait is a killer! Thankfully [he](http://stackoverflow.com/users/902497/raymond-chen) does answer queries on SO, but of course those have to be programming-related. – Karan Mar 10 '13 at 04:43

1 Answers1

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Go to Properties for your application's executable file and switch to Compatibility tab and check Disable display scaling on high DPI settings option.

Mxx
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  • This disables scaling, but doesn't cause the application to run in high DPI mode. – Billy ONeal Mar 09 '13 at 06:03
  • Why can't you enable high dpi by default and disable it only for problematic apps? (and at the same time submit bug report to app developer to fix that issue) – Mxx Mar 09 '13 at 06:06
  • Because I don't want to run in high DPI mode; it isn't something I have any desire to use. I just want to make sure my app doesn't fail for those users who are using high DPI. – Billy ONeal Mar 10 '13 at 03:45
  • (Also, there isn't a way to disable it for problematic apps; this setting disables display scaling, it doesn't disable high DPI for the app itself) – Billy ONeal Mar 10 '13 at 03:46
  • Ah, well, you didn't mention that you still wanted to run in low-dpi and it was testing for other users. – Mxx Mar 10 '13 at 08:14
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    I don't see how my question "Is there some way to force my application to run in high DPI mode for testing purposes?" could be interpreted any other way. – Billy ONeal Mar 11 '13 at 18:50