Windows 10 update made most of my programs big and blurry
Solution 1:
Here is the solution that worked for me, running with scaling set to my desired 125%:
Open notepad and paste in the following three lines:
REG ADD "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v DpiScalingVer /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00001018 /f
REG ADD "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v Win8DpiScaling /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001 /f
REG ADD "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v LogPixels /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000078 /f
Save the file as DPI_FIX.cmd someplace easy for you to find. Open the Group Policy Editor (enter gpedit.msc from the search bar). In User Configuration, click on Windows Settings then Scripts (Logon/Logoff). Double click Logon in the right pane. In the Scripts tab, click Add, then Browse, then navigate to your .cmd file, click Open, click OK, click Apply, click OK. Then sign out or reboot. Login to your account the first time after adding this script so it will be applied. It may not take effect the first time (if so sign out or reboot again). After that, it should work every time.
*Kudos to EShirou at Tenfourms for originally providing this solution.
Other things I tried that did NOT work:
- Changing drivers.
- Creating the above .cmd file and adding it to the the Startup folder or the Task Scheduler (it only worked on every OTHER sign in / reboot).
- I couldn't even download the "blurry fix" .exe as the site would not load for me, but I do not want to risk running a strange .exe file every time I start the computer.
Solution 2:
I've managed to get sharp fonts in CMD, Device Manager, etc at once using standard Windows settings UI (i.e., without changing the compatibility settings or using the auto-start registry script or 3rd party applications).
Basically, you need to go to the Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Display and set a custom scaling level to 125%.
The nuance is that the UI won't let you to apply the setting if you already have the recommended 125% setting in the Settings > Display. But there are at least two workarounds:
Workaround 1: You can just set the scaling level to some other value in the Settings > Display UI, just before changing the settings back to 125% in the custom scaling level UI.
Workaround 2: You can set the custom scaling level to some other value in the custom scaling level UI, Apply, choose to re-logon later in the popped dialog, then set the custom scaling level back to 125%, Apply, and re-logon manually.
I've tested both workarounds and they both worked on two of my laptops.