How to Change DPI Scaling Settings in Windows 10

January 16, 2018 updated by Admin Leave a reply »

A lower DPI will make screen elements (for example, icons, fonts and windows) appear smaller and a higher setting will make them appear bigger. By default Windows has system-wide scaling setting of 96 DPI. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 ways to change Windows 10 DPI settings to the scaling level you want.

Method 1: Change Windows 10 DPI Settings from Settings

  1. Right-click an empty area on your desktop, and then select Display settings from the context menu.

  2. The Settings app will open the Display tab. In the right pane, click on the drop-down menu to “Change the size of text, apps, and other items” and select the DPI percentage you want to set for your display.

  3. Just underneath that you’ll see a link labelled “Custom scaling“. If you don’t like the default scale levels, you can click that link to set a custom scaling percent from 100 to 500.

  4. When you’re done, sign out and sign in to see the DPI changes.

Method 2: Change Windows 10 DPI Settings from Control Panel

  1. Open the Control Panel in Large icons view. Click Display.

    display

  2. Under Change size of items, click on the set a custom scaling level link.

    set-custom-scaling-level

  3. This brings up the familiar old Custom sizing options dialog. From there, you can select the scaling percentage you want from the drop-down menu, or drag the ruler left or right to the scaling percentage that suits your monitor.

    custom-sizing-options

  4. Click OK and sign out for the new DPI settings to take effect.

Method 2: Change Windows 10 DPI Settings Using Registry Editor

  1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter to access Registry Editor.

    regedit-via-run

  2. Navigate to the following registry key in the left pane.
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
  3. In the right pane you’ll see two settings labeled Win8DpiScaling, LogPixels. In my example, LogPixels is set to (decimal) 96 for 96 DPI.

    Win8DpiScaling

  4. Set Win8DpiScaling to 0 if you want to disable DPI scaling, or set it to 1 for enabling custom DPI scaling. When Win8DpiScaling is set to 1, you can then change the DPI scaling level by modify the LogPixels value.
  5. When it’s done, close the Registry Editor and reboot your computer.