Here's a fast and effective method to find App DPI Awareness in Windows 11. If you have a PC with a monitor resolution higher than FullHD (1080p), you probably have already encountered a blurry app with poor scaling, blurry fonts, and other weird-looking parts of the UI. That is a DPI-unaware app that cannot adapt to monitors with higher resolutions and scaling.
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By default, Windows uses 96 pixels per inch as 100% scaling. As the screen resolution and pixel density grow, that value creates a problem. The higher resolution gets, the smaller UI with 100% scaling becomes. To fix that problem, users increase system scaling that, in turn, causes unoptimized apps to go blurry and stretch. Windows 11 allows finding such apps in Task Manager. Here is how to find DPI awareness in Windows 11.
Before we proceed, it is important to note that Microsoft has changed how you open Task Manager in Windows 11. Unlike Windows 10, where you can open Task Manager by right-clicking the taskbar, Windows 11 forces using different methods. We have a dedicated guide on how to open Task Manager in Windows 11, so be sure to check it out if you have a hard time opening that crucial part of the operating system.
Find DPI Awareness for an App in Windows 11
- Launch Task Manager using any preferred option, for example, with the Ctrl + Shift + Esc shortcut.
- Switch to the Details tab and right-click any of the column headers.
- Click Select Columns.
- In a new window, scroll down and find the DPI Awareness line. Place a checkmark next to it, then click OK.
- See the value of the newly added DPI Awareness column for your are running.
You are done.
Tip: If you have a spare key on your keyboard that you do not use frequently, you can remap it to open Task Manager using Keyboard Remapper in PowerToys.
What is DPI Awareness and its values
You can see several DPI-awareness states after enabling the DPI Awareness column in Task Manager. Here is a brief explanation of each:
- Unaware means an app cannot properly scale if a monitor has DPI scaling larger than 96 pixels per inch or 100%. DPI-unaware apps will appear blurry and stretched on monitors with the scaling set to higher than 100%. If you spot such an app, you can try to fix blurry apps in Windows. Ironically, many different and quite popular parts of Windows 11 remain DPI-unaware.
- System indicates an app gets the scaling information from the primary monitor. System scaling works well but may lead to blurry fonts and poor scaling if you move the app's window to another monitor with a different DPI.
- Per-monitor means an app can adapt to each monitor scaling setting immediately without restarting or blurry fonts. Per-monitor DPI-awareness is available in every Windows version since 8.1.
- Per-monitor V2 is the latest and greatest technique that every Windows developer should use in a modern world with high-resolution monitors. Per-monitor V2 ensures correct scaling of every component of the app's UI.
That is how you check DPI-aware apps in Windows 11.
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