MacLochlainns Weblog

The first time you launch SQL Developer, you may see a very small or tiny display on the screen. With some high resolution screens the text is unreadable. Unless you manually configure the sqldeveloper shortcut, you generally can’t use it.

On my virtualization on a 27″ screen it looks like:

As an Administrator user, you right click the SQLDeveloper icon and click the Compatibility tab, which should look like the following dialog. You need to check the Compatibility Mode, which by default is unchecked with Windows 8 displayed in the select list.

Check the Compatibility Mode box and the select list will no longer be gray scaled. Click on the select list box and choose Windows 7. After the change you should see the following:

After that change, you need to click on the Change high DPI settings gray scaled button, which will display the following dialog box.

Click the Override high DPI scaling behavior check box. It will change the gray highlighted Scaling Performed by select box to white. Then, you click the Scaling Performed by select box and choose the System option.

Click the OK button on the nested SQLDeveloper Properties dialog box. Then, click the Apply button on the SQLDeveloper Properties button and the OK button. You will see a workable SQL Developer interface when you launch the program through your modified shortcut.