Windows 10: See DPI Awareness of Running Apps in Task Manager in Windows 10

How to: See DPI Awareness of Running Apps in Task Manager in Windows 10

How to See DPI Awareness of Running Apps in Task Manager in Windows 10


Dots per inch (DPI) is the physical measurement of number of pixels in a linear inch of a display. DPI is a function of display resolution and size; a higher resolution or a smaller size will lead to higher DPI, and a lower resolution or a larger size will lead to lower DPI. When a display has a higher DPI, pixels are smaller and closer together, so that the user interface (UI) and other displayed content appears smaller than intended.

Starting with Windows 10 build 18262, Microsoft added a new optional DPI Awareness column to the Details tab of Task Manager to know which of your running apps is DPI Aware.

*note High DPI Desktop Application Development on Windows | Microsoft Docs

One of the first concepts to be aware of when updating a desktop application to properly DPI scale is that desktop applications must tell Windows what level of DPI scaling they support. Desktop applications can run under multiple DPI awareness modes (by default, desktop applications are completely DPI unaware and are bitmap-stretched by Windows). By running under these modes, applications tell Windows how they do or not handle DPI scaling. When the display scale factor of the display that a desktop application is rendering on changes, the behavior that the application exhibits depends on the DPI awareness mode that the application is running under.

Below is a list of the different DPI awareness modes that Windows supports:

DPI Unaware
DPI unaware applications render as if the screen that they are on has a DPI value of 96. Whenever these applications are run on a screen with a display scale greater than 100% (> 96 DPI), Windows will stretch the application bitmap to the expected physical size, although this results in the application being blurry.

System DPI Awareness
Desktop applications that are system DPI aware typically detect the DPI of the primary connected monitor on startup. During initialization, they layout their UI appropriately (sizing controls, choosing font sizes, loading assets, etc.) for that single DPI. System DPI-aware applications are not DPI scaled by Windows (bitmap stretched) on the primary display (unless the display scale factor changes while the application is running). When the application is moved to a display with a different scale factor (or the display scale factor otherwise changes), Windows will bitmap stretch the application bitmap, which can result in it being blurry. Effectively, System-DPI-aware desktop applications only render correctly at a single display scale factor and become blurry whenever the DPI changes.

Per-Monitor and Per-Monitor (V2) DPI Awareness
It is recommended that desktop applications are updated to use per-monitor DPI awareness mode in order to render correctly whenever the DPI of the display that they re running on changes. When an application reports to Windows that it wants to run in this mode, Windows will step out of the way and not bitmap stretch the application when the DPI changes. It is completely the application s responsibility to handle resizing itself for the new DPI. The reason that work is required here, by the application, is that most UI frameworks that desktop application use (Windows common controls (comctl32), Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Framework, etc.) do not support automatic DPI scaling by default.

There are two versions of Per-Monitor awareness that an application can register itself as: version 1 and version 2 (PMv2). Registering a process as running in PMv2 awareness mode results in:

1. The application being notified when the DPI changes (both the top-level and child HWNDs)
2. The application seeing the raw pixels of each display
3. The application never being DPI scaled by Windows
4. Non-client area (caption bar, scroll bars, etc.) automatically being DPI scaled by Windows
5. Win32 dialogs (from CreateDialog) automatically DPI scaled by Windows
6. Theme-drawn bitmap assets in common controls (checkboxes, button backgrounds, etc.) being automatically rendered at the appropriate DPI scale factor

When running in Per-Monitor V2 Awareness mode, applications are notified when their DPI has changed. If an application does not resize itself for the new DPI, the application UI will appear too small or too large (depending on the difference in the previous and new DPI values).

This tutorial will show you how find out the DPI Awareness per process in Task Manager to know which of your running apps is DPI Aware in Windows 10.



Here's How:

1. Open Task Manager in more details view.

2. Click/tap on the Details tab. (see screenshots below)

3. If you haven't already, you will need to add the DPI Awareness column. (see screenshots below)
A) Right click or press and hold on a column detail name, and click/tap on Select columns.

B) Check the DPI Awareness box, and click/tap on OK.






4. You will now see the DPI Awareness mode of all your running apps. (see screenshots below)

*note The table below shows how applications will render under different scenarios:

[table][tr]DPI Awareness Mode Windows Version Introduced Application's view of DPI Behavior on DPI change [/tr] [tr][td]Unaware[/td] [td]N/A[/td] [td]All displays are 96 DPI[/td] [td]Bitmap-stretching (blurry)[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]System[/td] [td]Vista[/td] [td]All displays have the same DPI (the DPI of the primary display at the time the Windows session was started)[/td] [td]Bitmap-stretching (blurry)[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Per-Monitor[/td] [td]8.1[/td] [td]The DPI of the display that the application window is primarily located on[/td] [td]

• Top-level HWND is notified of DPI change
• No DPI scaling of any UI elements.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Per-Monitor V2[/td] [td]Windows 10 Creators Update (1703)[/td] [td]The DPI of the display that the application window is primarily located on[/td] [td]

• Top-level and child HWNDs are notified of DPI change

Automatic DPI scaling of:

• Non-client area
• Theme-drawn bitmaps in common controls (comctl32 V6)
• Dialogs (CreateDialog*)

[/td] [/tr] [/table]







That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change DPI Scaling Level for Displays in Windows 10
• How to Change Compatibility Mode Settings for Apps in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Fix Scaling for Apps that are Blurry in Windows 10
• How to Set Default Tab for Task Manager in Windows 10
• How to Change Data Update Speed in Task Manager in Windows 10

:)

 

DPI awareness not working for certain apps

Hello coth,

We regret the inconvenience. Let me assist you.

Please be informed, some desktop applications (except for the Modern Apps) may appear somewhat blurry or crisp sharp when you compare them with other applications on the screen. Also, which win32 apps are you referring to in this case?

In order to provide an optimal experience on high-DPI displays, desktop applications have to detect the DPI of the display that is being used and then scale their graphical elements, text, and screen layout appropriately. Some applications do not implement
this. In some cases, the application vendor may be able to provide an updated software version that better supports high-DPI displays.

If there is no updated DPI-aware version of the application available, you may be able to alter the appearance of the application.

You can disable display scaling for an individual desktop app in Windows 10. Here’s how:

• In the search box, type the name of the app.
• Select the app’s tile and tap or click Open file location to open File Explorer on the desktop.
• In File Explorer, tap and hold (or right-click) the app’s executable (.exe) file and select Properties.
• Select the Compatibility tab.
• In the Settings section, select Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.
  
• Click OK and check with the results.

Write to us with the updated status and the required information related to DPI settings in Windows, for us to be able to assist you further.

Thank You.

 

DPI awareness not working for certain apps

Some win32 looks poor in dpi awareness. How to force them to work in specific resolution instead?

Original title: Per-app DPI

 

DPI Aware programs that fail at 4K

I have a few programs that are marked as DPI aware that work great at 96 DPI (100%) (1024x768) and 120 DPI (125%) (1920x1080). Recently, I upgraded to a 4K monitor, and these particular apps have problems at 216 DPI (225%) (3840x2160). The most common
problem is that UI elements may be extremely tiny. Currently, Windows 10 does not offer any way to force DWM scaling on a program marked DPI aware, other than hacking the manifest in the EXE (or using an external manifest) to try to mark it DPI unaware.
(One of those EXEs is an online game where hacking the EXE is against their rules.)

From looking at these glitches, I'm under the impression that when the developers used something like Visual Studio to make these programs, that maybe Visual Studio marked them as DPI aware by default, and the developers might've never learned about DPI
awareness in their computer science courses. Therefore, the developers may have never known to even test these programs at different DPI settings, and they might've had no idea Visual Studio was enabling the DPI aware flag, since that setting is tucked away
in the project settings.

Now my question... how do I contact the Microsoft developers who work on the DPI awareness aspect of Windows to let them know about this issue, so that perhaps they could add some improvements to Windows 10 to address this? For example, perhaps they might
add another checkbox to the Compatibility tab to allow the forcing of DWM scaling even if the program claims to be DPI aware. But I think they'd have to be aware this issue exists first.

 

Windows 10 - cannot add exec to Startup in Task Manager

I purchased a new computer with Windows 10 already installed. I am trying to add an exec to the startup list but Win10 will not accept it. The exec runs successfully on my Windows 10 machine if I start it manually.

Steps I've taken: Task Manager, Startup Tab, File>Run New Task. (browse to location, select.) It will start immediately, but does not show up on the list to autostart, nor does it start on reboot.

Any suggestions?

 

Task Manager not running


I have added a new task to the ones already populated which I suppose were in Win7
The new task or the present tasks are not running as there is no entry in the history or
recently run file
are there other steps necessary to get the new task manager to start up ?