Text size in XP

This morning some changes were made to my display that I have been unable to undo. In all programs the text size is very large even overlapping some other text and pictures on some web sites. It also affects non web site (Quickbooks and other programs) displays. The moniter has been reset to factory defaults. The display in the control panel has been set to my preferences (800X600), color quality - highest, in the advanced tab, the dpi is normal, the toolbars have the normal looking font size but the display screen has a huge font even though in the view drop down menu the smallest font size is selected. In outlook express the displayed font size in messages is not affected but if I open a web page link the font size is huge. I tried system restore but I guess I have a problem there also because it tells me no changes can be made even though I tried dates as far back as two weeks ago. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jack

 

Jack57--Click IE View|Text Size. If it is at Largest, click a smaller size.
The problem with System Restore could be that you have turned it off. Right click My Computer|Properties|System Restore tab. Make sure the "Turn off..." box is not checked.

 

Thanks for the reply Jim. I have the smallest text size selected and it's still huge. System restore is on also. One more thing I just noticed is that my cursor is about 10 times wider than normal.

 

Sounds like something got changed accidently in the Accessibility Wizard. Check to see if any options were set.

Set Options for People Who Are Blind or Have Difficulty Seeing Things on the Screen

Make Windows XP More Accessible for Everyone

 

Tried them both. No help. Thanks for trying, Jack

 

Is Internet Explorer fully updated? Have you tried to repair IE?

 

In IE click tools>internet options and then on the accessibility button. Make sure the line that says ignore font sizes specified on web pages is not checked. Can't say for sure but it wouldn't surprise me if this setting would have an effect in some other apps also.

 

Just check the Font Size in Appearance tab of Display Properties (right click on empty space on desktop). if its not Normal then you have found the problem.

 

Normal is selected. I also noticed that the appearance of web sites is different. No color backgrounds. All have a white background. Could a display feature somewhere in windows have been changed? Still have a very wide cursor also.

 

Same place as I mentioned before. Uncheck ignore colors specified on web pages.

 

All items in accessability are unchecked. While troubleshooting, I tried each one checked and unchecked and in various combinations. No change to the problem.

 

?

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Accessibilty > Magnifier. Is it active and if so what is the magnification level at the top?

 

If Whiskeyman's suggestion isn't it, I don't know what to tell you. It's kind of odd because both of your problems (text and white web pages) can be re-created by checking those lines I mentioned in IE's options. Have you tried checking them, and then close and re-open IE, then go back and uncheck them? Otherwise, I don't know what to say. It certainly sounds like a magnifier thing except for the white web pages.

 

Magnifier set to 1. Another thing I just noticed, very rarely, some pages open in very small text but when opening a link the font is much larger than normal. There seems to be no way to tell if a page will display either large text or small text. Most pages including home page always open in large text. E-mail in outlook express displays normally but when links are clicked the larger text displays and the background color is always white. On message boards such as this one that usually have a background color there is no background color only white.

 

Are you using any third party themes programs?

 

No third party programs. It all started when my wife had her new laptop near the desktop and thought she would surprise me by making the desktop look as bright as the laptop. She adjusted the monitor and when that didn't work she went into the control panel to adjust a few things. That's where I am today. She doesn't remember what she did but did play with things trying to get the brightness to match the laptop. I reset the monitor to factory default and have been trying to get the rest back to normal for two days now with no luck.

 

What VGA card are you using? Bet that the problems you are facing were caused and could be solved by going into the VGA utility and playing around.

 

Set to normal (96DPI). After messing with things yesterday the pages no longer have a huge font but pages still have no background color. For example the weather page I use displays fine with clouds in color and snow and rain displayed in color but the background is usually brown and now it's white. Same on all pages.Also if I fill in a log in box the font is huge, maybe three times the size of the font displayed on the page and the cursor is always much wider than normal even in outlook express. This page displays the icons in color and the identifying BBS stuff at the top in color but the rest is all white. The submit reply and post preview box fonts are three times the size of the post icons or additional options font.

 

Have you tried changing themes? Maybe set it back to the original XP theme if you aren't using it already. If you change the theme the fonts that come with the theme should be applied also. If this worked for the fonts, at least you'd be back to the defaults.