Came across a unique issue on a friend’s laptop where he has high resolution screen but when trying to remote desktop any server then the remote server also inheriting the same resolution and text looks very small, MSTSC settings, desktop resolution settings, etc. everything is tried what possible but it didn’t fixed the issue. To resolve this, he found following solution to fix.
Note: I am writing this post to keep a record of this as sooner or later someday screen resolutions are bound to grow and we as a DBA should know what action to take to cope up with such issues as it hinders work 
Steps to fix Screen resolution issue:
- Create the following registry key under,
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide
- Once registry key is created, identify the program. Let’s say if mstsc.exe is not displaying properly, then create an mstsc.exe.manifest file.
- Below should be the content of text file, Name file as – mstsc.exe.manifest
<?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>
- Then copy the manifest file in the same location as mstsc.exe
- Then open the program and set the resolution and it will work.
- Similarly if you have other program say test.exe then use the same file rename it as test.exe.manifest.
