This is a copy of the KeePass v2.59 source, with a few changes described in this file. See this page for the original application downloads and source packages.
https://keepass.info/download.html
This repository is maintained to keep track of source changes and to share the experience with other developers who may find these changes useful. However, these steps and source changes have not been tested beyond personal use and may not work in other environments and may even cause unexpected results, including possible loss of data. Use these instructions, modified source and build artifacts at your own risk.
All UI forms in this repository are updated to use an 11pt font size instead
of the original 8pt, which is very hard on the eyes, especially on high
resolution displays.
There are a few questions on KeePass forums about increasing font size and many of them are either unanswered, answered dismissively or described as working as designed.
https://sourceforge.net/p/keepass/discussion/search/?q=font+size
The official advice given on the page below is to increase the display scaling, which actually affects all applications, and if it is changed to make KeePass readable, it would render all other applications unusable because of the system-wide excessive scaling. In addition to this, the advice given with regards to not using the Accessibility settings is counterproductive, as these settings play a very important role in scaling font size in many applications, such as File Explorer or Chrome.
https://keepass.info/help/base/faq_tech.html#guifont
This repository is an attempt to address the need for larger fonts in KeePass for those who feel comfortable building it from the source.
A bug was created for Visual Studio in that automatic form scaling does not compute form layout correctly when display scaling changes at application run time from what it was when Visual Studio was running, but it was closed with an unusable suggested workaround. Add a No vote in this thread if you agree that this problem should be addressed in Visual Studio.
KeePass comes with excellent data export capabilities, but the bundled XSL style sheets do not export entry history, collapse entry notes, drop group notes and group hierarchy.
Being able to search through password history is quite important for those who want to track down some old compromised passwords and KeePass does not offer history search in the application either.
The new XSL template Ext/XSL/KDBX_Dump_HTML.xsl outputs all fields,
including history, and preserves the group hierarchy in the output. It
also recognizes the recycle bin group and omits it from the output.
History output may be disabled by changing the following line in the XSL source to look like this:
<xsl:variable name="dump-history" select="'no'" />
Output font size and other CSS properties may be changed in the XSL at the top of the source file.
KDBX_Dump_HTML.xsl may be used in two ways. You can copy this file into
the XSL folder in the KeePass installation folder, where other XSL templates
are, and use it via KeePass' export functionality. Alternatively, you can
export the KeePass XML file and use a standalone XSL processor to produce the
HTML. For example, using msxsl.exe:
msxsl MyKeePass.xml KDBX_Dump_HTML.xsl -o MyKeePass.html
The latter provides greater flexibility, but you must ensure that exported XML and generated HTML are saved in some encrypted storage, such as a BitLocker drive or a USB drive attached via a hardware encryption key.
The original KeePass source is always committed on main and tagged
with the original version number. All changes are maintained in version
branches, which contain cherry-picked changes from the previous version
and new changes. The current topology looks like this:
VS2019 8pt/10pt VS2019 8pt/10pt
| | | |
+--o---------o-----> +---o--------o----> +---... v2-48-1
/ v2-46-0 / v2-47-0 /
-o---o------------------------o----o-------------------o---o---> main
| README.md | README.md | README.md
keepass-2-46-0 keepass-2-47-0 keepass-2-48-1
Version branches v2-46-0, v2-47-0 and v2-48-1 contain modifications
of the original code, which is maintained in main and is tagged with
keepass-2-46-0, keepass-2-47-0 and keepass-2-48-1, respectively, for
each new source drop.
The main branch contains the original KeePass source and two additional
files, .gitignore and README.md. The latter is required for GitHub to
show the README on the repository home page. README.md on main should
be cherry-picked from the latest version branch for each new modified
source drop.
New KeePass source is imported using the following steps.
-
Checkout
maingit checkout main -
Delete all source, except
.git,.gitignore,.github,README.mdand, perhaps,.vs. -
Unzip the new source archive.
-
Add all new source, commit and tag with
keepass-x-y-z, wherex-y-zwould be the actual version, such askeepass-2-59-0. -
Create a new branch for changes to the new version, with an actual version instead of
x-y-z(e.g.v2-59-0).git checkout -b vx-y-z -
Open
KeePass_N48.sln. -
Cherry-pick non-conflicting changes from the previous version branch, which typically includes added files, such as the new XSL template. For example, if
12345678represents a commit with the last non-conflicting change for version 2.58.0, the cherry-pick command for version 2.58.0 would look like this:git cherry-pick keepass-2-58-0..12345678If the first commit has conflicts, you will need to cherry-pick changes individually.
-
Trying to cherry-pick font size changes from the previous branch would be quite error-prone, given how Visual Studio maintains form layout in the source. Instead, try applying patches described in Font change patches and otherwise apply font size changes manually.
-
Once font size changes are applied, tested and committed,
README.mdshould be updated to reflect the new application version and any additional changes and should be cherry-picked tomain.
These steps are tested on Windows 10/11 (x64) with Visual Studio 2022, Community Edition. The original KeePass project was upgraded to Visual Studio 2022.
Clone this repository and check out the version branch you would like to build.
git checkout v2-50-1
Run cmd.exe and run vcvarsall.bat from the Visual Studio installation to set
up the x64 build environment.
vcvarsall.bat x64
The original solution is configured to sign KeePass binaries with a
dummy KeePass.pfx, which cannot be automated because it requires
user input in importing this key file on the build machine. This key
file was removed from the repository and all projects were modified
not to sign build output.
Note that the application built this way will not be digitally signed and if your Smart Screen is turned on, it may pop up a warning that the application is not signed. You will need to click More info and then click the button to run the app anyway.
Start Visual Studio from the same command prompt.
devenv KeePass_N48.sln
Change the solution configuration to Release, platform to Any CPU,
startup project to KeePass and build the solution.
Versions of KeePass from around v2.58.0 require a new configuration
file KeePass.exe.config in the directory where KeePass.exe is
located or the program would terminate with a debug assertion for
debug builds. The initial copy of this file may be obtained from a
portable download of KeePass for development environments and it will
be installed by the official KeePass installer on Windows.
This repository is configured to build KeePass.exe as described above
and maintains release packages with relevant files, which can be used as
the installation source instead of the local build output.
The package with the 150pct in the name is intended for Windows
configurations with the primary display scaled at 150% and the one with
200pct in the name is intended for the primary display scaled at
200%.
Install the official version of KeePass matching the version in this repository from the application website:
https://keepass.info/download.html
Make sure KeePass is not running and make a copy of your password database file.
Open the KeePass installation directory, which will be one of these:
C:\Program Files (x86)\KeePass Password Safe 2
C:\Program Files\KeePass Password Safe 2
, and rename the original KeePass.exe file. Do not delete it. Copy
the new file from the downloaded archive to replace the one you just
renamed.
If you would like to add the new XSL template for exporting passwords,
copy the XSL\KDBX_Dump_HTML.xsl file into the XSL directory in the
installation directory.
It's worth noting that this step replaces only the executable and not the KeePass encryption library, which implements encryption and other secure algorithms.
Open the new KeePass application and test it based on your typical usage.
Before installing a new version of KeePass, restore the original KeePass.exe
file.
Visual Studio is buggy and inconsistent in handling forms and DPI settings and depending on the version of Visual Studio, it may not work as described.
Note that on a two-display system, the scaling of the primary display is used by Visual Studio, even if it is running on the secondary display. This makes it very confusing and error-prone in reworking forms, as described below.
For example, if the primary display is a laptop screen with 150% display scaling and the secondary display is a 4K display with 200% display scaling, then running Visual Studio on the secondary display will change forms such that they are suitable for displays scaled at 150%, not for displays scaled at 200%. If, however, the laptop display lid is closed, then the 4K display becomes the primary display, and forms are created with measurements appropriate for this 200% scaling configuration.
What is worse, is that DPI scaling implemented by Visual Studio is not consistent, so if the app is built for the display scaled at 150%, then running this app on a primary display scaled at 200% will compute all multi-line text boxes, such as those in the Change Master Key form, to grow by 50%, even though the form will not be, so the text in those text boxes will be rendered as if the form is 50% wider and the middle part of it will not be visible.
This means that at the time of this writing, you would need to run KeePass built from this repository on the exact same display scaling as it was when the forms were resized. Hopefully, a better way will be found in the future, but this is how it is at this time.
When testing the application built from this repository, try opening larger forms, such as File > Change Master Key, to check if all of the buttons are visible and also whether the text that wraps on the right contains incomplete sentences.
This repository allows creating 3 patches for scaling values 125%, 150% and 200%. It may be possible to apply these patches without having to go through tedious font update changes described in Steps below.
Note the 3 version-specific scaling tags in this repository, such
as 2-58-150pct. Use these tags to generate scaling patches via
Git as follows:
git diff keepass-2-58-0 2-58-0-150pct -- KeePass/Forms/* > 2-58-0-150pct.patch
The patch generated in this way may be applied using this command:
"%PROGRAMFILES%\Git\usr\bin\patch.exe" -p1 --binary --input 2-58-0-150pct.patch
When applying these patches across versions (e.g. when applying font scaling changes to the source for the new version), apply a specific patch first. If you see any errors, those forms will need to be updated manually, as described in Steps below.
After applying the relevant patch, open all forms, as described in Steps, and verify each form's properties that the font size is 11 points. If there is any form that still has the original 8 point setting, it will need to be updated manually.
Finally, a patch may not apply cleanly, even if there were no errors reported during patching. Make sure to test all forms, whether they were patched or updated manually.
If more than one font size patch is applied, reset forms to the original font size before applying the next patch with this command:
for /F %p in ('dir /B KeePass\Forms\*') do git show keepass-2-59-0:KeePass/Forms/%p > KeePass\Forms\%p
Note that the KeePass version in this command must be the one
being currently updated, even if patches from past versions
are applied, such as in this case font size patches from 2.58.0
are applied against 2.59.0.
Follow the Build steps to make sure Visual Studio can build these changes, so you can check whether font changes work or not.
Font changes need to be applied in two steps. Do not change MainForm_Events.cs
and MainForm_Functions.cs forms in either of these steps.
Make sure the C# editor is set to use 4-space tab indents to make changes more concise and visible.
For the first step, Visual Studio must be switched to 100% scaling mode, as described below.
-
Launch Visual Studio with 100% scaling:
devenv /noscale KeePass.sln -
Select all forms in the solution, under Forms, except
MainForm_Events.csandMainForm_Functions.cs. Right-click on the selection and selectOpen. -
Visual Studio will present a pop-up line at the top asking if you would like to restart Visual Studio without scaling. Dismiss this prompt without accepting.
-
For every form, change the
Fontproperty from8ptto11ptandAutoScaleModeproperty fromFonttoDpi. Font size must be changed first or the form will not be resized proportionally to accommodate resized fields. -
It helps to change the form and close it via keyboard (typically Ctrl-F4) while going through all forms, so only unchanged forms remain visible.
-
Once all forms have been changed, exit Visual Studio.
For the second step, Visual Studio must be running in the default display scaling mode.
-
Launch Visual Studio with the current scaling factor:
devenv KeePass.sln -
Open all forms the same way as described above
-
Dismiss the prompt to switch to 100% display scaling mode without switching.
-
For every form, find a simple
True/Falseproperty, such as Behavior/Enabled and flip it twice to its original value. -
Build the app and run it from Visual Studio to test whether forms are rendered without controls overlapping and there is no truncated text.
These steps make very little sense, but are required for forms to render correctly.
The forms listed below have multi-line fields with long text, which may be truncated at the end for some display scaling values. Check each in Visual Studio, and if the text is truncated, pull the bottom of these fields down a few pixels to show the entire sentences.
- AboutForm.Designer.cs
- DatabaseOperationsForm.Designer.cs
- IOConnectionForm.Designer.cs
- KeyCreationForm.Designer.cs
- PwGeneratorForm.Designer.cs
All forms may be reset to their original versions via this command.
Note that in order to use this command in a batch script, %p should
be changed to %%p.
for /F %p in ('dir /B KeePass\Forms\*.Designer.cs') do (
git show keepass-2-58-0:KeePass/Forms/%p > KeePass\Forms\%p
)
The best form to experiment on is KeyCreationForm.Designer.cs,
and if font changes applied against this form render properly, then
all other forms will likely work just as well.
This repository has nothing to do with KeePass functionality and application issues should be addressed via the application website.
If you experience any issues with application forms display, simply switch back to the original application.
If you find something missing from the build instructions in this file, such as an inappropriate mix of some .Net assemblies between installed and built application, create an issue here.
Similarly, if you find bugs in KDBX_Dump_HTML.xsl, also create an issue here.