How To Fix Cisco ASDM Font Size Too Small Or Overlap

You manage a Cisco ASA Firewall or any other Cisco appliance that is managed using the Cisco ASDM launcher, you might run into an issue were your font sizes are too small or the fonts overlap making it difficult to read and navigate. This is especially true on newer hardware with high DPI settings like the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. Since Cisco ASDM uses Java, there’s no easy fix after Java 8 because the dpiAware setting is now hard coded into the javaw.exe file. Good news is that there’s still a fix. The bad news is that you’ll have to apply the fix every time Java is updated.

How To Fix Cisco ASDM Font Size Too Small

Download and install the free Resource Hacker utility.

Open Resource Hacker with Administrator rights, then you’ll want to open each of the exe files located at C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath. You should have java.exe, javaw.exe, and javaws.exe. You’ll want to make the below change to all 3 files.

Once you have one of the exe files open in Resource Hacker, click on Manifest then 1:Neutral (in my case it was 1:0). Look for the dpiAware setting and change it from True to False.

Then you’ll want to save the file, replacing the original exe file. When you close Resource Hacker, it’ll ask you to compile the exe, select yes and save the file again.

After you reboot your computer, your Cisco ASDM fonts should be back to normal.

Remember, you’ll have to apply this fix every time Java installs an update.