Fuzzy System Fonts

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sam
  • Start date Start date
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Sam

Ok, here's a strange one...

While looking through control panel I had found Magnifier and turned it on
to see what it did. Ok, that's cute, turned it off.

Then it started comming on everytime I rebooted. Took a while to find the
Control Panel setting to permanetnly turn if off but I finally did it.

I noticed however when magnifier was on the fonts were affected, as if the
screen was being re-scaled to something non-native to my LCD monitor, as in
they weren't as crisp as usual. Another reason to turn it off.

The problem however is after disabling I'm still stuck with the fuzzy fonts.
Filenames to desktop icons, menus, text everywhere is no longer sharp.

I learned I can fix the desktop and most explorer windows by switching from
Aero to Basic and back to Aero. But this doesn't effect everything and most
apps are still affected and on the next reboot I'm back to fuzzy everything.

I can actually see when it switches. After entering my password and I get
the white "Welcome" message right before the desktop, I see that text switch
from nice, sharp, crisp to fuzzy. Then the desktop comes up and everything
is fuzzy.

It's not a resolution thing. I have a widescreen LCD that's 1650x1050
native and run the same resolution in windows. When confirming I notice the
"Display Settings" dialog is badly affected by the fuzzy fonts which is
especially noticeable compared to the desktop that I corrected with the
aero/basic/aero trick.

What's going on here and how do I fix it? I know this sounds picky but it
really is pretty bad.
 
Sam said:
Ok, here's a strange one...

While looking through control panel I had found Magnifier and turned it on
to see what it did. Ok, that's cute, turned it off.

Then it started comming on everytime I rebooted. Took a while to find the
Control Panel setting to permanetnly turn if off but I finally did it.

I noticed however when magnifier was on the fonts were affected, as if the
screen was being re-scaled to something non-native to my LCD monitor, as
in they weren't as crisp as usual. Another reason to turn it off.

The problem however is after disabling I'm still stuck with the fuzzy
fonts. Filenames to desktop icons, menus, text everywhere is no longer
sharp.

I learned I can fix the desktop and most explorer windows by switching
from Aero to Basic and back to Aero. But this doesn't effect everything
and most apps are still affected and on the next reboot I'm back to fuzzy
everything.

I can actually see when it switches. After entering my password and I get
the white "Welcome" message right before the desktop, I see that text
switch from nice, sharp, crisp to fuzzy. Then the desktop comes up and
everything is fuzzy.

It's not a resolution thing. I have a widescreen LCD that's 1650x1050
native and run the same resolution in windows. When confirming I notice
the "Display Settings" dialog is badly affected by the fuzzy fonts which
is especially noticeable compared to the desktop that I corrected with the
aero/basic/aero trick.

What's going on here and how do I fix it? I know this sounds picky but it
really is pretty bad.
Click to expand...

I figured it out. Apparently magnifier turned cleartype off. From the
"Display Settings" I followed the help links and ended up at the cleartype
description, checked it and sure enough it was off. Turned it back on and
after re-opening a couple windows the original sharpness was restored.

It's bad enough having to re-learn how vista changed all the dialog settings
and control panel around but things like this changing without any
notification is very frustrating. Vista is the 1st OS I've used that I'm
actually afraid of playing with and/or changing particiar settings and/or
options for fear of breaking something.
 
I've done it anyway, but what a mess.
It's like a car maker deciding to reverse the gas & brake pedals, putting
the cruise control in the middle of the heater controls & the ignition
switch in the trunk.
It would be harder for a thief to steal it, but it's certainly not
convienant (or well thought out).
 
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