Adobe Photoshop Elements and Windows 11 - installation risk

[Steerpike]

I have an old version of Adobe Photoshop Elements - version 14. Does the job for me so didn't want to upgrade, and it works fine on my Windows 10 daily driver.  I tried to install it on my new LG Gram 17 / Win 11, and after the installation completed, I launched the program and got an error saying the application could not run - "A driver can't load on this device" (a driver was mentioned but sadly I didn't write it down). A bit of research suggests - "You are receiving this message because the Memory integrity setting in Windows Security is preventing a driver from loading on your device".  Article tells you how you can turn off Memory Integrity, but also warns of possible dire consequences. 

 

My normal instinct would be to ahead, and turn off the setting, but I did a bit more searching and came across several reports of people bricking their systems due to installing older versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements on Win 11, like this one. Since I'm new to this system, and haven't yet had to deal with backups, restores, I decided not to risk it and purchased a new copy of PE (2022 version).   Have others successfully installed older versions of PE on Win 11? 

 

Also, I have to say, Adobe STILL can't seem to get high DPI scaling to work properly on Windows!  My system has a native resolution of 2560x1600, and I'm scaling it at 175% (my eyesight is not great). Every app so far has dealt with this decently; everything simply looks 'normal'.  But Adobe Photoshop Elements shows huge menu entries; this is how it compares with Notepad:

 

 

They offer a setting specifically for 'High Density' displays (as they call them), and if I choose the only other alternative, I get this (3rd set of menus on the right): 

 

The entries in the drop-down are actually quite reasonably sized, but the main menu row at the top (File/Edit/Image/etc) is virtually unreadable.  And as you get into using the tools within PE, many of the dialogs have text that is almost unreadable. So you either have to have monster text that takes up way too much room, or miniscule text that can hardly be read! This is 2022, and high DPI displays have been around for years now; I can't believe a mainstream company like Adobe is still not dealing well with it. 

 

[Aaron44126]

I can say that turning off memory integrity is fine.  Windows 11 actually ships with it off by default.  If it was enabled on your system, it is because Dell decided to set it that way.

 

That said, I have no idea why Photoshop Elements would need to load a device driver.  It could be to support some hardware (scanner or camera input?) or it could be some crazy way that they implemented basically DRM to make sure that the software is “genuine” or licensed appropriately.

 

The DPI stuff is on Adobe to fix.  I know that some of their software works well at 100% and 200% scaling levels, but not so well at in-between scaling levels.

[Steerpike]

11 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

I can say that turning off memory integrity is fine.  Windows 11 actually ships with it off by default.  If it was enabled on your system, it is because Dell decided to set it that way.

 

This article suggests it's on by default in some Win 10 releases, off in others (and on for new installs), but I can't find any article that talks about the default for win 11. Could it be that, just like with windows 10 (per the article), it's off in some releases, on in others?  FWIW, the laptop in question is my LG Gram 17; I sent the XPS 17 back to Dell.  But regardless, the article suggests its only relevant to hypervisor environments, which sounds a far cry from Photoshop Elements! 

11 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

That said, I have no idea why Photoshop Elements would need to load a device driver.  It could be to support some hardware (scanner or camera input?) or it could be some crazy way that they implemented basically DRM to make sure that the software is “genuine” or licensed appropriately.

I really wish I'd noted down the exact message now; it did show an item, but I don't recall what it was now.  I'm very tempted to re-do the whole procedure now, but ... we shall see how PE 2022 fares ... 

11 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

The DPI stuff is on Adobe to fix.  I know that some of their software works well at 100% and 200% scaling levels, but not so well at in-between scaling levels.

 

After a whole day of searching, I did find a fix that worked.  The trick is, in PE, to go to 'Edit / Preferences / Display and Cursors', then in the High Density Displays section, set 'UI scale factor' to 'small - 100%'.  Then, in File Explorer, go to the program files location for the editor itself - "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 2022" and locate the file ‘PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe’. right click, choose properties, and then the 'compatibility' tab.  There, click 'Change High DPI Settings', and then finally, in the 'High DPI Scaling Override' section, choose 'override ...' and then choose 'System (Enhanced)'. 

 

 

The combination of these things finally resulted in 'normal' looking menus, and other elements within the program. 

 

 

It's important not to make the mistake I made at first; be sure to adjust the properties of the executable "PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe" in the 'root' program files folder, and not the executable "Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022.exe" in the sub-folder "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 2022\Elements Home". 

 

I used to be passionate about editing my pictures using Photoshop (and later Photoshop Elements) but now, I hardly ever touch them. Maybe having spent all this effort on getting PE to display correctly I'll be inspired to get back into photo editing! 

[Aaron44126]

12 hours ago, Steerpike said:

There, click 'Change High DPI Settings', and then finally, in the 'High DPI Scaling Override' section, choose 'override ...' and then choose 'System (Enhanced)'.

 

"System (Enhanced)" can cause window layout issues in some apps, so just be on the lookout.  "System" will pretty much always work for apps that don't handle scaling well, but it introduces a sort of blur effect as the app is just bitmap scaled up from 100% scaling.