How to change the default system dpi?

I have a 15.4" work laptop with 1680x1050 native resolution that came with Vista. After re-installing it with 7 a few days ago I noticed that the DPI setting in Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization was not on 100 % but on 125 % (or 150 %, I don't remember). Apparently Windows decided that with 100 % on that screen text would be too small and made 125 % the system default.

I changed it to 100 % for my account, but the system default is still 125 %. The login screen is still on 125 % (not really a problem), but more annoying the msi installation packages created with Visual Studio 2010 are using the system default and look weird.

Is there a way to change the system default dpi setting?

Sacha K

Posted 2013-04-03T19:10:29.237

Reputation: 877

Answers

Check out HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current\Software\Fonts\ in the registry.

It will/should have a key named "LogPixels" (type REG_DWORD), with the default DPI as it's data. I.E.: set it to (decimal) 96 for 96DPI, which is "100%".

If you change it there in the registry, you'll need to reboot to have it take effect.

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

Posted 2013-04-03T19:10:29.237

Reputation: 103 763

1It worked but it's not binary it's 96 decimal or 0x60 hexa. – Sacha K – 2013-04-04T07:17:05.950

hehe, fixed that. :) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-04-04T10:59:53.767