SSMS 16.3 Release: Initial high-resolution monitor support

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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
  1. 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>
  1. 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!