Program displays correctly only when tested from Compatability Wizard

Question

The environment: Windows 2012R2 RDS in a VMWare ESXi environment

The problem: We have a program that is not displaying correctly when launched. The toolbar is not being displayed and window positions aren't being retained.

The workaround: If we use the troubleshoot compatibility wizard and test the program from within the wizard everything works. The wizard is choosing to disable display scaling on high DPI settings.

BUT! If we run the program outsize of the wizard the problem reappears even though we have the same compatibility options checked for the exe.

I'm working with the software vendor but I don't have high hopes. Does anyone have any idea if the wizard is doing something extra or special when launching the program?

Thanks.

Answer 1

So here's what the compatibility wizard is doing differently: It's not using the shortcut that was created on the desktop.

I found that by launching the program directly from the program files directory everything worked. When I recreated the shortcut on the desktop everything worked.