SSMS 16.3 Release: Initial high-resolution monitor support

The 16.3 (August 2016) update for SSMS includes initial beta support to allow SSMS to display appropriately on high-resolution monitors. This functionality is turned off by default while we continue to test and improve the quality of this support. However, we have written this blog post to provide instructions for those eager to test initial High-DPI support, and provide us feedback. Please follow the instructions below to enable SSMS support for high-resolution monitors:

1. Enable SSMS to use the external manifest file if available by adding the following registry key:
   Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide
   Name: PreferExternalManifest
   Entry type:  DWORD
   Data: 00000001

2. Now, make SQL Server Management Studio DPI aware.
   Paste the XML content below to a text-editor and save the file in the folder where ssms.exe is located. This is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio” by default. Save the file as ssms.exe.manifest and set the encoding to utf-8.

 <?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">
  <!--<assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" name="CompanyName.ProductName.YourApp" type="win32"/>
  <description>Your application description here.</description>-->
  <asmv3:application>
    <asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">
      <dpiAware>True</dpiAware>
    </asmv3:windowsSettings>
  </asmv3:application>
  <dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" language="*" />
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="debuggerproxy.dll" processorArchitecture="X86" version="1.0.0.0"></assemblyIdentity>
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>
</assembly>

3. Restart the machine for these changes to take effect.

Feedback & Bug Reports

Please file any bug reports or issues found at our Microsoft Connect page. If you have any questions or feedback, please visit our forum. You can also tweet our Engineer Manager at @sqltoolsguy on Twitter. We are fully committed to improve the SSMS experience and look forward to hearing from you!

• Anonymous
  August 15, 2016
  Some auto formatting seems to have messed with the provided code snippet.Double quotes and hyphens have been replaced by smart quotes and dashes.
  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2016
    Thanks for the comment. The code block has been updated to remove the smart quotes and dashes.
• Anonymous
  August 16, 2016
  I copied the XML from announcement, but ran into problems as several parts of the document has suffered from wrong formating.I had to replace the remark "" as well as several types of " before the XML was legal on my test Surface 4.
  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2016
    Thanks for the comment Jakob. The code block has been updated to remove the smart quotes and dashes.
• Anonymous
  August 16, 2016
  Ahh .. it looks much better now!
• Anonymous
  August 18, 2016
  The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    August 29, 2016
    I second that question. Answer, please, after two weeks of silence... URL? Are we talking pixel totals? Is it related to vertical pixel count? How does this apply to a MacBook Pro with retina display? Dell 34" widescreen? Why do I care?Turning something Beta on when it's unnecessary is a waste of time... Let alone it's a risk.Thanks.
• Anonymous
  August 27, 2016
  Is the registry value a 32-bit or 64-bit DWORD?
• Anonymous
  September 20, 2016
  I frequently need to filter my tables by schema. What happened to the Schema Filter Setting? Thanks.