Old programs on 4k monitor

[BadMouth]

I bought a nifty 27" 4k monitor to go along with my PC rebuild a while back.
It worked out exactly as I wanted for having multiple programs viewable and larger workspaces on design programs.

However, some old programs are borderline unusable because they don't scale well.  Even with Windows scaling cranked to 200%.
Some don't scale well so I end up with larger lettering inside a box that's still half size.
I wasn't that bothered by it until I started trying to use WinISD on it this week.

Any of you pros have a go-to method to work around this?

[yotsuya]

Buy a 20,000 watt sound system to go with it?

[BadMouth]

Buy a 20,000 watt sound system to go with it?

I already have it.
I am trying to run WinISD to design the speaker enclosures.
(actually more like 30 watts and the speakers are for my desk at work)

[yotsuya]

Maybe run the problem programs on a secondary monitor?

[BadMouth]

It might come to that or running it on my laptop which doesn't get used much anymore.

I thought maybe one of the IT guys on here had dealt with the issue where they work and had a go-to solution.
A search turns up things like creating a windows "manifest", but I don't want to get into learning how to set that up if there is a better and easier solution out there..

[Malenko]

Maybe run the problem programs on a secondary monitor?

^This is the easiest solution.  You can get fairly good results with manifests but you have to create one and the corresponding registry entry for every single program but you can still run into some of the same issues you're having with Windows scaling.

[BadMouth]

I ended up fumbling with the manifest thing enough to understand that the tutorial I was following was only half necessary.
Here is what I did (after getting it wrong a few times):

1. Changed registry key to allow for external manifests.
2. Accessed the programs real manifest using Resource Hacker
3. Copy and pasted real manifest into notepad.
4. Changed <dpiAware>true</dpiAware> to <dpiAware>false</dpiAware>
5. Saved in same folder as the WinISD.exe as WinISD.exe.manifest

It scales large enough to be usable now.
The text doesn't look real great, but compared to having to use a magnifying glass it is awesome.
(letting windows attempt to make it look "less blurry" only makes it worse)

 

EDIT: Worked well on WinISD, but on the other program (Family Tree Maker 2014) where the boxes didn't scale with the text it made things worse.  I can live with it.  Glad to have WinISD usable.

[BadMouth]

After fiddling with it some more I've realized that none of that was necessary. 
Since the program already had  <dpiAware>true</dpiAware> in its original manifest it was already scaling, just poorly.

All that was really necessary was to override the programs scaling with windows scaling.
right click on the exe>properties>compatibility>change high dpi settings>high dpi scaling override>performed by: system

same...damn....result

That was a long ride to learn a little.