Visual Studio 2013 High DPI workaround causes debugger to fail

Question

Similar to this question Visual Studio 2013 High DPI on 4k Screen to which I had posted an answer but have now removed since uncovering the issue below.

I too have just bought a new 4K laptop and have been having problems with high DPI with the display of the SSIS package designer and dialogs in VS2013 as well as dialogs etc in SSMS.

A workaround I found for SSMS is to enable bitmap scaling and create a manifest file - ssms.exe.manifest - in the same folder as ssms.exe.

This article describes how to fix this for SSMS

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/spaghettidba/2015/10/14/ssms-in-high-dpi-displays-how-to-stop-the-madness/

For completeness, I've duplicated the process described in the article.

Set this registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide]
"PreferExternalManifest"=dword:00000001

And then paste this xml into a manifest file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns:asmv3="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" language="*">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
  <security>
    <requestedPrivileges>
      <requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false"/>
    </requestedPrivileges>
  </security>
</trustInfo>

<asmv3:application>
  <asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">
    <ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware xmlns:ms_windowsSettings="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">false</ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware>
  </asmv3:windowsSettings>
</asmv3:application>

</assembly>

Now this works great (so far) for SSMS, so I tried to apply this fix to VS2013. While it does fix the SSIS designer display problem, it causes an issue when attempting to launch the debugger. Additionally, this is affecting debugging other project types - C#, VB as well as SSIS projects.

I'm guessing the dependencies in the manifest are incomplete or inaccurate, since 0x80040155 is a COM interface not registered error code.

Unable to start debugging.

An error occurred that usually indicates a corrupt installation (code 0x80040155). If the problem persists, repair your Visual Studio installation via 'Add or Remove Programs' in Control Panel. (Microsoft Visual Studio Debugger)

Unable to start debugging.
The debugger is not properly installed.
Run setup to install or repair the debugger. (Microsoft.DataTransformationServices.VsIntegration)

------------------------------
Program Location:

   at Microsoft.DataTransformationServices.Project.DataTransformationsPackageDebugger.LaunchVsDebugger(IVsDebugger iVsDebugger, DataTransformationsProjectConfigurationOptions options)
   at Microsoft.DataTransformationServices.Project.DataTransformationsPackageDebugger.ValidateAndRunDebugger(Int32 flags, IOutputWindow outputWindow, DataTransformationsProjectConfigurationOptions options)
   at Microsoft.DataTransformationServices.Project.DataTransformationsProjectDebugger.LaunchDtsPackage(Int32 launchOptions, ProjectItem startupProjItem, DataTransformationsProjectConfigurationOptions options)
   at Microsoft.DataTransformationServices.Project.DataTransformationsProjectDebugger.LaunchActivePackage(Int32 launchOptions)
   at Microsoft.DataTransformationServices.Project.DataTransformationsProjectDebugger.LaunchDtsPackage(Int32 launchOptions, DataTransformationsProjectConfigurationOptions options)
   at Microsoft.DataTransformationServices.Project.DataTransformationsProjectDebugger.Launch(Int32 launchOptions, DataTransformationsProjectConfigurationOptions options)

===================================

So my question is can anyone suggest a suitable manifest for VS2013 (or another way to make the SSIS designer behave)?

Answer 1

Ok, so I absolutely have no idea what I'm doing.

However, in the same folder as devenv.exe (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE), there are a couple of other manifest files, one of which is for DebuggerProxy.dll.manifest. Since this is a debugger problem and there seemed to be a missing reference to the debugger, I merged the content into the devenv.exe.manifest file and came up with this, which works for me:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns:asmv3="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity
      type="win32"
      name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
      version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*"
      publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
      language="*">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity
      type="win32"
      name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT"
      version="9.0.21022.8"
      processorArchitecture="amd64"
      publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
  <security>
    <requestedPrivileges>
      <requestedExecutionLevel
        level="asInvoker"
        uiAccess="false"/>
    </requestedPrivileges>
  </security>
</trustInfo>

<asmv3:application>
  <asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">
    <ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware xmlns:ms_windowsSettings="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">false</ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware>
  </asmv3:windowsSettings>
</asmv3:application>
<file name="debuggerproxy.dll">
    <comClass clsid="{C5621364-87CC-4731-8947-929CAE75323E}" threadingModel="Both"/>
</file>
  <comInterfaceExternalProxyStub name="CausalityInternal_IAD7ALCausalityEventBridge" iid="{F6A124D7-5BB7-47B2-A9AF-AAB0EEAB60E3}" numMethods="5" proxyStubClsid32="{C5621364-87CC-4731-8947-929CAE75323E}"/>
  <comInterfaceExternalProxyStub name="CausalityInternal_ISDMCausalityEventCallback" iid="{74D108F1-1FD2-4699-991E-C4BAD52E773D}" numMethods="4" proxyStubClsid32="{C5621364-87CC-4731-8947-929CAE75323E}"/>
... many more entries ...
</assembly>

Unfortunately, there is a 30k limit on characters to a post and it would not fit, so I stuck a copy of the file in my one drive here.