LabWindows Screen Resolution

[salcock]

I have just installed LabWindows 2015, having never used the product before. The resolution of everything except for the menu bar is unusably small. After a cursory search of this forum, I am aware that I can set all the fonts to be larger sizes, but this feels like a poor solution as, for example, all the menu buttons are still too small. I have attached a screenshot with a Windows Explorer window open for comparison. Has anyone else encountered this?

Thanks,

Steven

[edjones93]

Hello,

I am Ed from National Instruments Applications Engineering. I have been forwarded your query with regards to the screen resolution, which I am happy to assist you with.

From research into our internal resources, it looks like this issue has already been identified and is at this time only resolvable by changing the display resolution of your computer.

We are working to resolve this issue however unfortunately at this time this is the only workaround, please note that this is not considered to be unexpected behaviour but a feature request.

Apologies that I could not be more helpful with this matter,

Ed

[carlox]

This happens with several "old" programs.
There is a workaround to make program usable and I hope this will be not an excuse for NI to delay the fix.

I was bitten by this "feature" when I bought a new 15" laptop with 4K display.

I don't think this can be classified as a new feature, missing from present LabWindows/CVI version.

This is an explicit programming error: the program is not HiDPI aware, while declaring to Windows it is able to do.
It's very strange that NI engineers didn't try to do a simple google search to look for a possible workaround.

I looked for a solution and I found the following. I cannot be sure of the original author to credit him/her because this trick is now everywhere on web, mainly applied to Adobe programs. Anyway I can reasonably sure that Mr Dan Antonelli was one of first discovering a solution here http://www.danantonielli.com/adobe-app-scaling-on-high-dpi-displays-fix/

I have successfully used with CVI IDE. 

The solution is not perfect, the text and icons are somewhat blurry, but it's enough for me to be able to run CVI on my 4K display at native resolution.

Step 1: Edit the Registry

Open regedit.exe as an Administrator and navigate to the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > SideBySide.

Right-click the right pane and choose NEW > DWORD (32 bit) Value.

Type PreferExternalManifest, and then press ENTER.

Right-click PreferExternalManifest, and then click Modify.

Enter Value Data 1 and select Decimal.

Click OK. Exit Registry Editor.

Step 2: create Manifest file

The next step is to create a new text file with the name of the program’s executable followed by “.manifest” at the end.  You’re going to place this file in the same directory as the executable file that you want to force DPI scaling on.  So for example, if you want “cvi.exe” to scale, you’ll make a text file called “cvi.exe.manifest”.  Then you’ll want to copy and paste the entire contents of the below XML code into the manifest file and save it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns:asmv3="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity
      type="win32"
      name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
      version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*"
      publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
      language="*">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity
      type="win32"
      name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT"
      version="9.0.21022.8"
      processorArchitecture="amd64"
      publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
  <security>
    <requestedPrivileges>
      <requestedExecutionLevel
        level="asInvoker"
        uiAccess="false"/>
    </requestedPrivileges>
  </security>
</trustInfo>

<asmv3:application>
  <asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">
    <ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware xmlns:ms_windowsSettings="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">false</ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware>
  </asmv3:windowsSettings>
</asmv3:application>

</assembly>

That's all.

[Colink]

Hi. It is now 19/6/2017 and I am wandering if there is some resolution to fix the UHD display incompatability.

I am trying to write software for distribution to modern computers like the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 but at this stage it does not look possible.

I hope I am wrong.

[Constantin--P]

Hello,

We've changed LabWindows/CVI 2017 environment to be DPI unaware - see more details in this post.

The user interface applications you develop in CVI will be also DPI unaware by default. This means they will scale correctly but the display might be blurry. You can switch back to CVI 2015 behavior if you like by embedding a manifest  in your executable.

[Colink]

Hi ConstantinP,

Thanks for the help but I don.t seem to be able to download the manifest file like I would an attachment.

It just executes so I don't know where to save it.

I can copy it but I don't know if I should paste it in a document or save it to an xml file.

Then I can browse for it and include it in the build.

I need some more help.

Cheers

Col

[Colink]

Sorry.

File save as manifest

Cheers

Col

[Colink]

Thank you so much.

All sorted now.

Nice to have a marketable product again.

Cheers Again

[mail.kirancg]

That's so cool. Cant find the solution other than anywhere in the forum.

Enabling the registry key to use external manifest worked for me too.

https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z000000P9qgSAC&l=en-US

Thanks,

Kiran