can not control message box font

[MetaEd]

I want to customize the font used in tab labels, buttons, and message
text in native Windows XP dialog boxes. Currently the font used
appears to be Tahoma 8. I am trying for something larger.

To be clear about the text I am trying to customize, you can look at
the Display Properties control panel of XP. The font I am trying to
customize is used to render:
- the labels of the five tabs
- the explanatory message at the top of the Themes tab
- the text in the Theme selection widget
- the Save As, OK, Cancel, and Apply buttons
The same font is used for similar purposes all over Windows XP.

Here are my current display settings that affect fonts.
Display Properties> Settings>
Advanced> General>
DPI setting: 105% normal size (101 dpi)
Appearance>
Windows and buttons: Windows Classic style
Font size: Normal
Advanced>
Active Title Bar Font: Tahoma 14
Icon Font: Tahoma 12
Inactive Title Bar Font: Tahoma 14
Menu Font: Tahoma 12
Message Box Font: Tahoma 13
Palette Title Font: Tahoma 10
Selected Items Font: Tahoma 12
ToolTip Font: Tahoma 10

When I adjust the Message Box Font, the example message text and OK
button in the Advanced Appearance dialog change to the new size. This
would lead one to expect that actual buttons and message text would
use the selected font after applying the change. But this is not the
case.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Al Falfa]

I want to customize the font used in tab labels, buttons, and message
text in native Windows XP dialog boxes. Currently the font used appears
to be Tahoma 8. I am trying for something larger.
...
When I adjust the Message Box Font, the example message text and OK
button in the Advanced Appearance dialog change to the new size. This
would lead one to expect that actual buttons and message text would use
the selected font after applying the change. But this is not the case.

What am I doing wrong?

MetaEd,
You are not editing the font(s) specified in the resource(s) of the
..dll(s) used to display those dialog boxes. However, it would be a waste
of time if you did edit those system files.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Also, I'd like to ad that XP is not very good at updating changes made on it
at times. Quite often you have to wait till several instances of explorer
have been opened and closed before your changes become apparent.

 

[MetaEd]

 You are not editing the font(s) specified in the resource(s) of the
.dll(s) used to display those dialog boxes.

The Display Properties control panel does not honor the font
customizations made using itself, but instead relies on hard wired
fonts specified in its DLLs---is that what you are saying?

It hardly seems possible that the display customization tool itself
would override the GUI defaults with hard wired fonts. Surely not. I
know from personal experience that it does not use hard wired colors.
It honors my color customizations. Isn't it possible that the real
problem is failure to apply changes properly, as proposed by Tim
Meddick?

 

[Al Falfa]

The Display Properties control panel does not honor the font
customizations made using itself, but instead relies on hard wired fonts
specified in its DLLs---is that what you are saying?

It hardly seems possible that the display customization tool itself
would override the GUI defaults with hard wired fonts. Surely not. I
know from personal experience that it does not use hard wired colors. It
honors my color customizations. Isn't it possible that the real problem
is failure to apply changes properly, as proposed by Tim Meddick?

"MS Shell Dlg" and its font-size are *soft-coded* in the resource of
the only dlg box in desk.cpl.

151 DIALOGEX 0, 0, 252, 218
CAPTION "Background"
FONT 8, "MS Shell Dlg"

But for the rest of the desk.cpl applet, "MS Shell Dlg" and its
font-size are *hard-coded* in shell32.dll (separately for each tab).

If you set wider fonts in
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes
MS Shell Dlg and MS Shell Dlg 2
you will see clipping of text strings. But you will not be able to
enlarge those fonts anyway.

 

[MetaEd]

 "MS Shell Dlg" and its font-size are *soft-coded* in the resource of
the only dlg box in desk.cpl.

151 DIALOGEX 0, 0, 252, 218
CAPTION "Background"
FONT 8, "MS Shell Dlg"

 But for the rest of the desk.cpl applet, "MS Shell Dlg" and its
font-size are *hard-coded* in shell32.dll (separately for each tab).

 If you set wider fonts in
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes
 MS Shell Dlg  and  MS Shell Dlg 2
you will see clipping of text strings. But you will not be able to
enlarge those fonts anyway.

Thank you for the information.

 

[Al Falfa]

Thank you for the information.

You are welcome!

 

[Al Falfa]

Ok, this is slightly off topic of this thread but is very similar
because it involves dll files pertaining to visual data within windows
xp. So anyhow, I was going into Display Properties to make some changes
to a few colors used in my desktop environment.

I wanted to use the same color for both the menu box and highlight so
the only thing that shows a difference between cursor on an object and
off is a difference in text color,... Obviously one would use the RGB
boxes in the Color dialog box that comes up when in the Advanced
Appearance dialog box to input the exact intensities of each to make an
exact match. Herein lies the problem.

The RGB boxes are supposed to be large enough to contain 3 digits,
0 to 255, but here on this particular machine, I get 2 digits and half
of the third digit at the right side of the box.

I cannot change the third digit either as this leaves me with
only two digits. For example, if I clear the box and type in 255, only
25 shows. I cannot copy a three digit number in there either.

This is odd and perplexing since I have been able to do this in the past. For
starters, I reinstalled xp on this machine not more than six months ago.
The text of the digits here has not been altered (Arial 8 I think it
is), I have not altered the resolution other than maximize at the
reinstall (1600x1200 on a Dell 19" monitor) and changing resolution does
not make any difference.

I know that this particular dialog box is contained in some dll file
in system32 but none of the ones I have checked so far contains it or
even the Advanced Appearance dialog from which the Color dialog can
be accessed. The ones I have checked out are:

rundll32.exe
shell32.dll (this one should contain but doesn't) explorer.exe
themeui.dll
desk.cpl

here is an image of what I am talking about for further clarification:
[image: http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa19/leh1966/Computer images/colorpallet.jpg]

This is the only forum I have seen so far that talks about something
very similar to what I am trying to find out. Any experts here that
know what file might contain the dialog in question? I sure hope so,
this is driving me crazy.

M861G w/ AMD64 3200+ cpu
1.5 GB PC3200
60GB Maxtor C:
250GB WD D:
Pioneer DVR 111D
Windows XP Pro SP3

Modify COMDLG32.DLL - posted by 'ju.c' - Jul 5 2008, 7:48 am in:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...rosoft.public.windowsxp.customize+author:ju.c