Solved SB display problems with PowerSchool Gradebook

[mtmowl]

From the get go, I've had a display problem with my school's grade keeping software, Gradebook in PowerTeacher from Pearson. Upon opening, the text and all fields are tiny, like 1/4 size. Needless to say, it's impossible to work on. Other Windows 10 devices that I have display properly, only the SB does this. My SB is used extensively in a teaching environment, and this is a real hassle. I have been hoping that the updates would eventually fix this, but nothing has.

Does anybody else have this problem? Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[sharpuser]

Sorry about this.
On the other Windows 10 devices, is the text the same size in proportion to the window? Is the problem the overall screen size, or the text scaling?

Is the text-to-window size similar to the screenshot below?

Post a screenshot if you can.

 

[mtmowl]

Most of the text is miniscule, but even with the view magnification pushed up to 200%, only the central pane gets somewhat better. Other panes for different functions & options are pretty much unreadable.

 

[sharpuser]

Thanks for that screenshot, @mtmowl .

The software appears to be sizing items based upon Windows system fonts. Other software, including parts of Microsoft Office have this problem, too.

Have you tried modifying the Windows font sizing using Settings, Display, Advanced Sizing of Text ...

 

[mtmowl]

Sorry about this.
On the other Windows 10 devices, is the text the same size in proportion to the window? Is the problem the overall screen size, or the text scaling?

Is the text-to-window size similar to the screenshot below?

Post a screenshot if you can.

View attachment 8128

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I've tried changing the font settings there, to no avail. They are set exactly as they are on the two desktop PCs running win10 that don't have the problem, and that's what makes me think it's a SB issue, not platform or program related.

 

[jnjroach]

It appears that this is a JAVA application and it will have difficulties with High DPI Screens, you would see the same issues with a Desktop using a 4K Monitor. The best solution would be lowering the resolution of the SB when using the program to 1920x1080...

 

[mtmowl]

It appears that this is a JAVA application and it will have difficulties with High DPI Screens, you would see the same issues with a Desktop using a 4K Monitor. The best solution would be lowering the resolution of the SB when using the program to 1920x1080...

Thanks. That helps, but it's still not great. And thanks for the explanation. Am I correct in guessing that a true fix has to come from Java getting better at high res?

 

[Niterider4]

I have had a couple of similar situations on my SB with Java based applications.

 

[jnjroach]

Thanks. That helps, but it's still not great. And thanks for the explanation. Am I correct in guessing that a true fix has to come from Java getting better at high res?

Yes, this is currently a huge limitation on how JAVA renders it's UI on High DPI Screens.

 

[peronis]

I found a solution for my sp4, and it works great.... I found it on superuser.com

Anyways, this fixed my gradebook issue showing up tiny. Below is pulled from this thread: How do I run Java apps upscaled on a high-DPI display?
and I wrote the instructions below that.

"The problem here seems to be that Swing is by default claiming that it is DPI aware, so windows doesn't scale it. Use this switch to turn off this behavior and windows will start scaling your swing app:

-Dsun.java2d.dpiaware=false

[EDIT: Unfortunately, this flag no longer seems to work in Java 8, I was testing it in Java 6. Looks like this is a known issue.]

[EDIT 2: You can modify a Java 8 install to work correctly, using a program to modify the EXE manifests. I changed the setting from true to false in the manifests inside of java.exe and javaw.exe, and now my Swing programs scale correctly in Windows 10 high dpi. I used Resource Tuner to this.]"


Instructions:
Download and install Resource Tuner (its a free trial and works fine for this)
Assuming you installed the launcher and already opened up powerschool do the next steps
Open Resource tuner
Open the java.exe file... I found it under C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Pearson\PTg\jre\bin, go to manifests and open up manifest 1 and in the file find the line --> <dpiAware>true</dpiAware>

CHANGE IT TO FALSE!

Then save it..(use the top save button..theres two)


Now, do the same change to the javaw file in the same directory and save it.

Hope this helps other teachers in the same situation as me.

 

[Orlbuckeye]

Thanks. That helps, but it's still not great. And thanks for the explanation. Am I correct in guessing that a true fix has to come from Java getting better at high res?

I think it will work better once Java is eliminated and the application uses HTML5 and/or newer technologies.