How to view apps using DPI Awareness mode on Windows 10

On displays, dots per inch (DPI) defines the number of pixels per each physical unit that make upward a panel. Traditionally, monitors shipped with 96 pixels per inch, but as the technology evolved, companies began to increase the number of pixels in the same physical space resulting on screens with 200 and even higher DPI.

Although college pixel density helps to ensure sharper images, a grade of display scaling is required to size elements on the screen properly. Otherwise, visual elements and text will appear then tiny that they'll exist difficult to use.

Related: How to change DPI settings for 'classic' apps on Windows 10

Windows 10 apps that you learn from the Microsoft Store tin dynamically adjust to the appropriate scale setting on a per-monitor basis. Even so, in that location are withal a lot of classic desktop (Win32) programs that can't properly handle scaling, and as a result, they'll appear with blurry text, icons, and boxes, and with incorrect size.

If you're wondering which applications may cause scaling bug, starting with the Windows ten May 2022 Update (version 1903), Task Director is receiving an update with a new "DPI Sensation" option to sympathise which apps are DPI aware and which apps volition appear blurry and stretch on loftier-DPI displays like those bachelor on Surface devices and external monitors.

In this Windows 10 guide, nosotros'll walk you through the steps to discover out which apps currently running on your device can respond to the DPI changes automatically with the choice available starting with the May 2022 Update.

How to view apps DPI Sensation using Task Manager

To see which apps are DPI-aware on your device, use these steps:

Open Showtime.
Search for Chore Manager, and click the top event to open the experience.

Quick tip: Yous can as well open Task Manager using the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keyboard shortcut, or yous can right-click the taskbar and select the Chore Manager option.
Click on the Details tab.
Right-click whatsoever of the column's header and choose the Select columns option.
Check the DPI Awareness choice.
Click the OK button.
Come across the listing apps capable of DPI Awareness:
- Unaware: When an app uses the DPI Unaware mode on a display with the scale settings higher than 100 percent (96 pixels per inch), Windows 10 will stretch the interface, and equally a outcome, it'll appear blurry. (DPI Unaware is available for all versions of Windows.)
- Organization: When an app is organization DPI enlightened, it'll obtain the scaling settings from the principal monitor allowing the app to scale and render correctly, no matter the scaling settings. However, if the app is moved to another monitor or the scale setting changes, Windows 10 volition stretch the interface, and as a effect, the app will appear blurry. (Organisation DPI aware is available since Windows Vista.)
- Per-Monitor: When an app uses the per-monitor DPI awareness mode, information technology'll render correctly automatically even if the scaling settings changes. (Per-Monitor V1 is available since Windows viii.i.)
- Per-Monitor V2: When an app uses the second version per-monitor DPI awareness, it'll immediately resize the interface accordingly like in version 1, but with several boosted benefits, including top-level and child HWNDs are notified of DPI changes, also equally automatic scaling of non-client era, theme-draw bitmaps, and dialogs. (Per-Monitor V2 is available since the Windows 10 Creators Update, and it's the recommended mode that developers should utilize to build applications.)

Once y'all complete the steps, you lot'll have a better understanding of which applications are likely to become stretched and blurry on a multi-monitor setup or as the DPI setting changes on Windows ten.

More Windows 10 resource

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions near Windows x, visit the following resources:

Windows 10 on Windows Central – All you demand to know
Windows 10 aid, tips, and tricks
Windows x forums on Windows Central

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