How to disable scaling in apps on Windows 10
Larger monitors are great for the screen real estate they provide but in order to use them, especially HD displays, you have to scale it up or everything is going to look too small to read. Windows 10 has a built-in DPI scaling feature that magnifies the display and it mostly works well. The scaling applies to everything on the Windows interface and the apps that you’ve installed.
While Windows 10 works great when it’s scaled up, the apps are a different story. This sometimes results in blurred text in apps or overflowing elements. Windows added a fix for this in the April 2018 update but of course there’s no one-size solution for everything. Not all apps work well with this feature and often you get blurry text and overflowing elements making it difficult to use the app.
Here’s how you can disable scaling in apps but still keep it On for Windows 10.
Disable scaling in apps
First things first, if you’re not already using scaling but intend to, turn it on and set it to the scale that suits your screen. You can enable scaling from the Settings app. Go to the System group of settings and select the Display tab.
Once you’ve done that, check which apps have problems with scaling. To disable scaling for a particular app, you need to first examine how you access it i.e., the app shortcut that you use.
Note that changing scaling options for apps only works for classic or desktop apps. It will not work for UWP apps i.e., apps downloaded from the Microsoft Store.
In order to exclude an app from DPI scaling, you need to access its properties. There are two ways to do this:
- Find the app’s EXE, and right-click it. Select Properties from the context menu.
- Or launch the app and when it’s running, right-click the app’s icon in the Task Bar. From the context menu, right-click the app’s name. Select Properties from the context menu.
Look for a tab called Compatibility. If this tab is absent, look for the app’s EXE in its install folder. This should be in the Program Files or Program Files(x86) folder in your Windows drive. If the tab is still absent, the app likely doesn’t support scaling.
On the Compatibility tab, click the ‘Change high DPI settings’ button.
In the new window that opens, enable the ‘Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by:’ option, and open the dropdown under it. Select the ‘System’ option, and click OK.
It’s a good idea to restart the app, and your system after you make changes to the scaling settings. The above method should be repeated for all apps. That’s all there is to it. It seems you cannot disable scaling for UWP apps. This method only works for desktop apps though you’ll find that they’re the ones that generally do not work well with Windows 10 scaling.
If you’re having trouble with a UWP app i.e., blurred text or overflowing UI elements, it might be a problem with the app itself. You can go to advanced scaling settings in the Settings app and allow Windows 10 to fix these problems. It may, or may not make a difference.
This has NOTHING to do with disabling the scaling, it only disables the OPTIMIZATION (blurry fix) for a specific program.
Having used all sorts of computers with different operating systems. I do think Windows 10 hit the mark with scaling. It’s certainly not perfect but scaling is not perfect especially fractional scaling or non integer scaling as it is sometimes called. Some of this is just bad choices by PC makers in terms of resolution for a certain size monitor or screen. Some of it is applications that simply don’t scale properly or at all. Apple had less probably getting everyone onboard but Apple also uses integer scaling mostly although lately their Macbook’s have begun to use non integer mainly to gain more screen space by default. The real problem OS is Linux desktop and its varied degree of how it applies scaling and fractional scaling. To put it mildly the fractional aspect of so many Linux desktop versions makes this a daunting task to do. Linux has always offered doubling of DPI at 200% which is similar to what Apple has done. Makes sense and is easier to do. Fractional scaling is hard, always will be and never will be perfect.
Thank you so much!!!