In tip 29 I explained how to change your screen DPI to resize some of your UI elements. On the extreme end, you can resize to 480DPI, which makes everything 500% bigger. The problem with doing that is that everything is so big, some important things can’t be seen on the screen anymore, making it difficult to get back to a more usable DPI. Here’s how I went from 480DPI back to the default 96DPI:

1. After rebooting you’ll immediately notice your mistake. The boot screen is messed up. Notice over on the right side there is a scroll bar on the top edge, you can use that to scroll down until you see the password box. Your mouse will probably move much slower than you are used to. You might also be able to use the TAB key to get there. By pressing TAB once the password box showed up on my screen. You can then click on it, type in your password, and press ENTER.
   
   
2. Once you get logged in, things won’t look much better. Your taskbar is huge, as well as any desktop icons you have.
   
3. Right-click anywhere on your desktop, and from the menu that opens, choose Personalize
   
4. When the Personalization window opens, it will probably be small, and not show much. Click on the Maximize button to make it a bit bigger (the middle of the three buttons in the upper right hand corner of the window).
   
   
5. You should hopefully see the Adjust font size (DPI) link, if not, use the scroll bar on the right to scroll until you see it. Click on it, or press the TAB key until a grey box surrounds the text of the link, and press ENTER
   
6. If you have UAC enabled, you’ll get a prompt. Click Continue, or press TAB until Continue is selected, and press ENTER
   

In the DPI Scaling window, you should hopefully see the Default scale and Larger scale radio buttons. If so, click on the Default scale (96 DPI) button. If you can’t see it, press the down arrow on your keyboard once, which should select it.



7. With the Default scale button selected, press ENTER and you should get a window suggesting you restart your computer. Click the Restart Now button, or press ENTER to activate it (you can always use TAB to switch buttons if the wrong one is selected).
   
8. That’s it! Your computer will reboot, and you should be back to the default DPI. Once side effect you may have is that after rebooting, your taskbar is taller than it should be. To fox that, simply right-click on it, choose Lock the Taskbar to uncheck it, and click on the top edge of the taskbar and drag down until it reaches the height you want. You can then right-click and choose Lock the Taskbar again to prevent it from easily changing accidentally.

ITsVISTA

ITsVISTA Tip 43: Restore Your 480DPI Screen Back to Normal in Vista

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