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I just upgraded to a dual display setup: a 4K and a 720p display. Both have vastly different DPIs. It seems that Windows 10 is interpreting both as having the same DPI, making the scaling not work well for either. Is there any way to configure the DPI setting per display?

I realize there are older questions regarding this, but I am interested in the current situation

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  • Thank you for the edit. You are correct in that the revised wording better contains the essence of the problem.
    – Weckar E.
    Apr 15, 2017 at 22:54

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Open the settings app by doing a rightclick on desktop and select Display settings

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Here select each Monitor and in the dropbown list select your DPi scaling (100 = 96 dpi). This value can be changed for each monitor.

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With Windows 10 v1703, MS improved DPI scaling, so that moving apps between Monitors with different DPIs works better.

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  • I tried this initially, but text on apps on the smaller screen is positively tiny, even though it has scaling maxed out - and before the dual screening it looked fine.
    – Weckar E.
    Apr 15, 2017 at 19:21
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I actually managed to solve my own issue. Using a method to make certain problematic applications non-dpi-aware, the offending applications look fine now on both screens.

Should that link die, the method goes roughly as follows: change the registry to prefer external manifest files per application (1), and from there provide per offending application a manifest file overriding dpi awareness (2):

1.
In regedit, nagivate to the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > SideBySide

Once there, add a new DWORD32 with the name PreferExternalManifest and value 1.

2.
For every offending application you will now need to provide a custom manifest file, which luckily can all be the same except for the name.
In the folder where the application's .exe is housed, put a file with the name [APPLICATION NAME].exe.manifest
Example working contents for such a file are as below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns:asmv3="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity
      type="win32"
      name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
      version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*"
      publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
      language="*">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity
      type="win32"
      name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT"
      version="9.0.21022.8"
      processorArchitecture="amd64"
      publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
  <security>
    <requestedPrivileges>
      <requestedExecutionLevel
        level="asInvoker"
        uiAccess="false"/>
    </requestedPrivileges>
  </security>
</trustInfo>

<asmv3:application>
  <asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">
    <ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware xmlns:ms_windowsSettings="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">false</ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware>
  </asmv3:windowsSettings>
</asmv3:application>

</assembly>

Finally, start or restart the application to check the results.

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  • change the registry ... How exactly? provide per offending application a manifest file ... again, how? Please edit this information into your answer to help make it a complete, self-sustaining answer.
    – I say Reinstate Monica
    Apr 15, 2017 at 22:42
  • @Twisty I'm not sure if I can do that without the answer becoming blatant plagiarism - especially with the length of the provided file.
    – Weckar E.
    Apr 15, 2017 at 22:53
  • As long as you cite your source, you're not at risk of plagiarism. Certainly though these two actions can be summarized in enough detail to help future visitors in case the link you provided dies (which is why we ask for self-contained answers at Stack Exchange).
    – I say Reinstate Monica
    Apr 15, 2017 at 22:57
  • @Twisty I find standards deviate much among SE sites. Is the above more to the liking of Superuser?
    – Weckar E.
    Apr 15, 2017 at 23:14
  • Looks good. Thanks for the valuable self-answer. Hope to see more of you in the future!
    – I say Reinstate Monica
    Apr 15, 2017 at 23:22

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