Take the 2-minute tour ×

I'm trying to disable dpi scaling for Wireshark, except Windows won't let me:

enter image description here

Yet i pick any other random executable in the folder, uninstall.exe for instance, i can do it fine:

enter image description here

What gives?

i know Microsoft won't let you turn off scaling for their own signed applications:

enter image description here

But that's not the case here.

i also checked the wireshark.exe manifest, in the hopes of finding a clue there, only to discover that Wireshark isn't designed to run on Windows:

enter image description here

Why won't Windows let me disable high dpi scaling on wireshark.exe?

share|improve this question
+1 for thinking of checking the manifest. :) Have you tried running the "Compatibility Wizard" to see how it reacts? What edition of Vista is this? –  techie007 Nov 10 '11 at 14:43
i'm experiencing this on Windows 7, but presumably it applies to all versions of Windows that support dpi scaling, and the ability to turn it off (introduced with Windows Vista) –  Ian Boyd Nov 10 '11 at 18:48
OK, what Edition of 7 is it then? Pro, Starter? 32-bit? 64-bit? It helps to formulate an answer when we have all applicable information. :) –  techie007 Nov 10 '11 at 18:51
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. It begs the question, does the edition of Windows (Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate, N, KN, VL) affect the ability to set compatibility flags? –  Ian Boyd Nov 10 '11 at 18:54
Probably not in this case, but knowing it's 64-bit from the get-go would have helped. ;) –  techie007 Nov 10 '11 at 18:56
add comment

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote accepted

If the software you are using (Wireshark in this case) is 64-bit, then the compatibility boxes will be unavailable.

You can try setting the compatibility flags directly in the registry which are at the following registry location:


In that key, create a (string) entry as such:

  • Name: The full path to the application's .exe
  • Type: REG_SZ (String)
share|improve this answer
Incredible. i had no idea that 64-bit apps couldn't be shimmed through the UI. Adding the registry key manually solved the issue. Great job! –  Ian Boyd Nov 10 '11 at 18:51
I think it's because they figure there's no reason to make a 64-bit application "compatible" as they won't be "legacy" in the first place (currently, anyway :) ). –  techie007 Nov 10 '11 at 18:53
The most recent Windows 8 update did something to Powerpoint on my Surface Pro to make it all blurry. Disabling DPI scaling was the solution, but because it's 64-bit, I couldn't do it through the GUI. this solution worked like a charm, except that the data value for me needed to be "~ HIGHDPIAWARE" instead of "HIGHDPIAWARE" –  Mike Monteiro Oct 24 '13 at 15:34
add comment

Your Answer


