Report Builder does not launch correctly, cannot resize window, access menus, borders, or controls due to window exceeding size of screen.

Question

Report Builder does not launch correctly, cannot resize window, access menus, borders, or controls due to window exceeding size of screen.

Bill Mercer 41

Sometimes when launching Microsoft Report Builder, if the window size exceeds the size of the screen available, the edges of the window including controls used to resize it are unavailable, and it's impossible to resize the window. The window does not respond to resizing options such as cascade, tile, etc, may not respond to keyboard shortcuts.

A previous report of this problem was found here, but the solution was not useful.

If this happens, how can you address the problem without having to uninstall and reinstall the program, rebuild the user profile, or other more drastic means?

Vijay 1 Reputation point

2022-09-28T08:47:17.373+00:00

thanks that worked.
Vijay 1 Reputation point

2022-09-28T08:47:33.583+00:00

thanks that worked.

2 answers

Your answer

Vijay 1 Reputation point

2022-09-28T08:47:17.373+00:00

thanks that worked.
Vijay 1 Reputation point

2022-09-28T08:47:33.583+00:00

thanks that worked.

Answer 1

Bill Mercer 41

I found the location of the window size configuration for Report Builder 15.
It's located in this config file...

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Report Builder\15.0.0.0\user.config

I was able to fix the issue by by exiting Report Builder, editing this config file with a text editor, and changing the values in the MainWindowSize setting to make them smaller than the current screen size.
Launching Report Builder with the edited configuration allowed me to resize the window again normally.

Deleting or renaming the config file would also work, as a new default config file would be created, but this would also lose other customized settings and any recent history.

Guy, Warren 6 Reputation points

2022-09-07T21:15:03.127+00:00

Logged in just to say thanks, this worked. It's been low-key bugging me for ages.
Fred Martinez 5 Reputation points

2023-01-11T16:51:16.3933333+00:00

unlike the answer given by @Joyzhao-MSFT and actual employee from MSFT your answer was 100% what solve the issue, thanks for putting it out here for other to see.
Ashley Hoff 0 Reputation points

2023-03-16T22:49:35.44+00:00

Thanks for your fix Bill, But I will add something else

I had the same issue today, when I ran SSRS in my home setup for the first time. The issue came down to 3 screens with 2 different resolutions. (1920x1080 and 2560 x 1440). The main screen in my home setup is my laptop, which has the 2560x1440 resolution. When I tried to drag it to my 1920x1080 screen, is when it wouldn't resize. I tried the config file fix and each time I re-opened, it defaulted back to the 2560X1440 resolution.

The fix? Setting one of the 1920x1080 screens as the main screen (which is the same in my work office).

What I don't understand is that Microsoft have been making applications for Windows for over 35 years. This seems like basic default Windows functionality.
Mike Van Deusen 0 Reputation points

2025-04-29T20:09:14.1166667+00:00

Thanks for the solution.

Answer 2

Joyzhao-MSFT 15,621

Hi @Bill Mercer ,
Thanks for your feedback.
What version of Report Builder do you have installed? What version of Report Builder do you have installed? Usually, when we meet the installation requirements required by the version (such as supported operating systems, minimum hardware requirements, and .NET Framework version requirements), the Report Builder after installation does not need to configure additional property files, and will adapt to the screen size. Please check if the version installation requirements are met.

For me, reinstalling Report Builder will take less time than modifying the default configuration of the user.config file.

Best Regards,
Joy

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RichardB 6 Reputation points

2022-08-19T22:35:48.887+00:00

Perhaps the reason this happens is a scenario where Report Builder is displaying on a large screen when it is exited (for example, an external monitor on a docked laptop) and therefore this large window size is saved in the config file. Later, it is launched while the only available display is smaller than the window size that was saved in the config, and the bug occurs because it opens to the saved size regardless of the available screen size. (This is just a guess, I've done zero testing.)

Edit: I was actually able to do some testing on my machine with the latest build (15.019914.0). I set the value in the config for MainWindowSize to "3000, 1850" (larger than my monitor resolution of 1920 x 1080), and upon launching the window was bigger than the display and I had no way to resize or close the window by interacting with it. However, on my install of Windows 11 at least (21H2 22000.856), the taskbar was still accessible, so I could right-click on the "hover pop-up" of the Report Builder window and I could either use "Maximize" to allow the program to be usable (but still no way to resize it as "restore" makes it go back to being too big), or click "Close" to just quit the program (the "move" and "resize" options were disabled). The only way I found to fix it was to re-edit the config file again to something smaller than the display, and on the next launch of the program the window was a manageable size again.

So as long as an uninstall/reinstall deletes the config file, then it is technically a viable option.
Fred Martinez 5 Reputation points

2023-01-11T16:48:24.3333333+00:00

I tried this many times and it never solved my issue because it defaults to what the user.config file has, so saying that reinstalling it is easier as a MS employee is wrong if that doesn't fix the issue, the answer Bill Mercer gave 100% fixed it. If the developer did not set a default on the user.config to be smaller than the screen they used when they developed the app, that could be why it always defaults to that size because that file gets generated on install with most values pre-set already.

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Report Builder does not launch correctly, cannot resize window, access menus, borders, or controls due to window exceeding size of screen.

2 answers

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