Disable automatic DPI change by VMware Tools in VMware 12?

[johnredcorn]

VMware Tools in VMware 12 seems to set DPI of guest OS automatically according to the DPI of the host OS. It shows

"VMware Tools has modified the user interface size settings. You must log off to apply these changes. Close all applications and press OK to log off now, or press Cancel to log off later." automatically each time the DPI of the host OS changes.

Can this behaviour be disabled? I do not want VMware Tools to change DPI on the guest OS.

[KevinGG]

Did you manage to get a solution to this?

(Its driving me crazy!)

[lkong]

Welcome to Workstation community!

You can uncheck the option from "VM->Settings->Display->Display scaling" to disable the function.

[KevinGG]

Brilliant, thanks.

That's solved my issue.

Regards,

Kevin.

[munrobasher]

Anyone any idea why this annoying feature has been implemented in the first place? And can you disable it globally or at least for all new VMs?

Cheers, Rob.

[quiettime]

Yes, there is a way to prevent this. You can add gui.applyHostDisplayScalingToGuest = "FALSE" to C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\settings.ini. Please see my post How can I disable a VM pref retroactively for more information on configure file locations.

I think enabling this pref by default in Workstation 12 was a bad move on the part of VMware. I have hundreds of snapshots taken and of course in them I've already set the display the way it should be. Every time I went back to a snapshot without that system-wide ban on scaling VMware tools in the guest changed the display settings. They should have done it differently. I understand why people might want this option but I have so many snapshots in the past it's easier to work without modifying them. Today is my first day with a system-wide ban and so far it's working as expected.

[gregatHino]

I'm not seeing an option under "VM->Settings->Display->Display scaling" to disable the function.

Nor am I having any luck with the .ini file change.  So far the only thing that seems to work for me is to turn off display scaling on the host.

The really odd part is that my host was set to 125% display scaling, but vmware tools kept setting the guest to 175%, which was large enough to make some programs really un-useful.  Now I can use my VMs, but I have to squint to read everything.

[bogd13]

gregatHino‌ - it's the last option in the bottom right (which is actually titled "Display scaling" ). If that is unchecked, the scaling will not be automatically adjusted in the guest.

[asimov6]

When using Unity, this is an asset. Without this setting the Unity window will have a different scaling than the "native" windows.

[sponsler]

This solution works great on in a win10pro guest vm running in workstation 14 pro.

[bdeksnys]

How do you do this via the vSphere Web Client?  There is no display option when you edit a VM settings. There is only Video Card options and no checkbox for Display Scaling.  We use a vSphere appliance, so it is not possible to log into the fat client.

[jmcdaniel001]

I know this question is old, but this seems to be Google's top result. I just had to fight this again on a new computer. In addition to the solution here about the specific VM settings for "Display Scaling", there is also a VMWare client setting under Edit->Preferences->Display that needs to be set if you're using full screen. Make sure "Autofit guest" is not checked and that the "Full Screen" option of "Stretch Guest" is chosen.