5 (FIVE!!) years ago I posted an article titled “Adobe App Scaling on High DPI Displays (FIX)” that would help Windows users scale their older or non DPI aware application to be usable on their new high pixel density displays. This was needed since Windows (or Adobe) did not have a solution at the time and application elements would be too small for proper use.  

Fast forward to April 2018 and Microsoft releases an update to Windows that offers built in High DPI settings. To this day get emails regarding the old solution despite updating it last year with this new solution. My hopes with this article is to encourage users to follow these steps and not the old ones. 

Windows High DPI Fix 2019

How it’s done:

  1. Right-click the shortcut icon of applications you want to adjust
  2. Select ‘Properties’ (If the icon is in the taskbar, you will have to right-click the second app icon)
  3. Select the ‘Compatibility‘ tab 
  4. Select ‘Change high DPI settings‘ at the bottom of the tab
  5. Check ‘Override high DPI scaling behavior‘ at the bottom
  6. Select ‘System (Enhanced)‘ from the drop down
  7. Select ‘OK‘ and then ‘OK‘ again to apply
  8. Launch the application to see the difference 

Step 1 & Step 2:

  • Right-click the shortcut icon of applications you want to adjust
  • Select ‘Properties’ (If the icon is in the taskbar, you will have to right-click the second app icon)

Step 3 & Step 4:

  • Select the ‘Compatibility‘ tab 
  • Select ‘Change high DPI settings‘ at the bottom of the tab

Step 5 & Step 6:

  • Check ‘Override high DPI scaling behavior‘ at the bottom
  • Select ‘System (Enhanced)‘ from the drop down

That’s it!

Once you ‘OK‘ out of both menus, re-launch the application and you should see the changes. If the application still doesn’t look right you can try some of the other options from the drop down:

  • Application | This will use the monitors DPI settings.
  • System | This will do will magnify everything. You may get blurriness.