My screen suddenly has large icons and a much bigger font!

[Guest]

All my icons are now large on the desktop, and the font has gotten bigger
which makes it difficult to read IE, Outlook, and other apps. Seems to go
back to my loading a promo multimedia CD-Rom for the Perfect Storm. I didn't
play it, but everything changed after that initial load.
I've tried Control Panel > Display > Appearance - font size is Normal
Control Panel > Setting > Advanced > Shows Normal sz 96 DPI
I have MS Windows XP, Media Center Edition, Version 2002 w/ SP2

Any help very much appreciated!

 

[Alec S.]

All my icons are now large on the desktop, and the font has gotten bigger
which makes it difficult to read IE, Outlook, and other apps. Seems to go
back to my loading a promo multimedia CD-Rom for the Perfect Storm. I didn't
play it, but everything changed after that initial load.
I've tried Control Panel > Display > Appearance - font size is Normal
Control Panel > Setting > Advanced > Shows Normal sz 96 DPI
I have MS Windows XP, Media Center Edition, Version 2002 w/ SP2

Hmmm, you've already tried the first and second suggestions. Did you try setting the theme to a normal one? There are font size
controls in the Appearance->Advanced (part of themes). Try setting it to Luna or Windows classic. Check the Themes tab in Display
Properties. Does it show "(Modified)" beside the theme name? Try setting it back to that theme.

It seems odd that the promo would cause it because apps should change things like that without asking permission. On the other
hand, doing things like this ("hijacking") is far too common these days.

 

[Guest]

Dear Alec,
Nope - didn't work I'm afraid. A real brain frazzler, this one. Restarted
several times to see if anything would take hold, after the following:
Yes - the theme showed modified, so I switched from Windows XP to Windows
Classic.
I changed Appearance from Windows XP style to Windows Classic. Under this
setting, in Advanced, if I choose ICON, settings are: Size 32, font Tahoma 8.
Can you tell me if that's 'standard' for this style? I'd rather not start
setting things out of default mode if possible.
I also reviewed the Accessibility control panel. Nothing is checked to make
anything larger that I could see.
Maddening! Maybe it wasn't the Perfect Storm after all... any other ideas
gratefully received!

 

[Alec S.]

Dear Alec,
Nope - didn't work I'm afraid. A real brain frazzler, this one. Restarted
several times to see if anything would take hold, after the following:
Yes - the theme showed modified, so I switched from Windows XP to Windows
Classic.
I changed Appearance from Windows XP style to Windows Classic. Under this
setting, in Advanced, if I choose ICON, settings are: Size 32, font Tahoma 8.
Can you tell me if that's 'standard' for this style? I'd rather not start
setting things out of default mode if possible.
I also reviewed the Accessibility control panel. Nothing is checked to make
anything larger that I could see.
Maddening! Maybe it wasn't the Perfect Storm after all... any other ideas
gratefully received!

It is odd. Actually I just tried changing the DPI on my system and it said that I don't have permission to do that even though I'm
the admin. ?! This is strange; the only thing I can think of is that some Windows Update has changed something somewhere. Did you
make any changes after using that CD? Did you install any Windows Updates? Do you have autoupdate enabled?

What exactly happens when you change those settings you already tried? Do they give an error or do they apply but not change
anything? Did you try rebooting after making the change?

Take a screenshot to show what it looks like.