I’m using Scrivener 3 for windows on Windows 11. I got a higher DPI laptop with a 150% scaling display, and the scrivener app is scaling incorrectly. It’s massive. Per Grok, I fiddled with Compatibility settings in Properties but that didn’t resolve the issue. I also added a manifest file to the scrivener exe. folder which didn’t work either.
The only thing I’ve found that works is to run the app as Administrator. The app scales perfectly then. But that’s annoying because i have to clear a warning notice every time I open the app.
Has anyone had a similar problem that was resolved?
Grok isn’t technical support and is wrong as often as right. At a loss to understand why people put any trust in AI for tech support. It scrapes wrong answers as well as right and may give equal weight to.
Is there any particular reason why you don’t give yourself admin privileges on the computer whcih is the only reason off the top of my head I can think of that.
I run Win Scrivener on a MBP which has a high res screen with zero issues.
I do have administrator privileges. That’s part of my confusion. I asked…elsewhere… and it turns out:
“Even though your user account is an administrator, Windows doesn’t run most apps with full elevated (admin) privileges by default—this is a security feature called User Account Control (UAC). Apps launch at standard user level unless explicitly elevated. When an app isn’t fully DPI-aware (like Scrivener), Windows applies DPI virtualization for non-elevated processes: it scales the app’s output bitmap to match your display scaling (e.g., 150%+ on high-DPI monitors), which often results in oversized or blurry UI. Elevated (admin) processes bypass this virtualization by default, so Windows treats them differently—letting the app render at native size without the forced bitmap stretch.”
If I set Scrivener to run with admin privileges via Properties, the scaling is correct, but I have to answer a UAC prompt each time I open it.
Not sure about everyone else, but I ask AI for tech support because it provides me with immediate answers that I can try before having to ask for help in a public forum where I may also get an answer from someone who’s not tech support.
My point about using AI is that often as not, it gives incorrect information, and has resulted in the user compounding the issues. Also recent cases where AI advice resulted in the installation of malware.
Scrivener tech support have warned against relying on AI in a recent post.
Yes, in this forum you will get answers from people who are not tech support, but who are very knowledgeable in using Scrivener.
Is it the entire Scrivener app, or only the editor’s scaling, which may have been set to a preferred scaling level on your prior computer and carried over to the new one?