In some scenarios it may be desirable to adjust your DPI settings in Windows XP. For example when a specific application requires a DPI setting of 120 to display correctly.
By default, standard users do not have permissions to change the DPI setting. You need to be an administrative user / administrator to adjust.
If you want users to be able to adjust DPI settings, you should change the following permissions:
- Grant the Everyone group Write and Delete permissions to the %SystemRoot%\Fonts\*.fon files.
- Grant the Everyone group Write permissions to the %SystemRoot%\System.ini file.
- Grant the Everyone group all access to the following registry keys:
1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontDPI
4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\GRE_INITIALIZE
5. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current\Software\Fonts
After setting these permissions, normal users are now able to change the DPI setting of their PC.
The settings described above can NOT be set with a Group Policy (GPO) (besides creating a custom GPO yourself).
Instructions to users to change their DPI are as follows:
- Right-click the Desktop
- Choose Properties
- Go to tab Settings
- Click Advanced
- In the first tab, General, you can change the DPI setting to 120, or you can enter a custom value.
Please note that changing the DPI size may also cause problems in applications. For example, a part of the right side of the application window may fall out of range, so i.e. the OK button may disappear. Therefor, I would advise first to see if changing the Font Size (Display properties, tab “Appearance”) meets your expectations, since changing the Font Size will not likely result in application problems.