Resolved Tiny font size in applications after Windows reinstall

This is a very annoying problem. Since I reinstalled Windows and my applications, some of them (e.g., Google Talk, TeamViewer and Picasa) have been displaying some of their data in extremely tiny type, not in normal size as before the reinstall. Here is a composite of screenshots I've taken: http://gyazo.com/8bb4789d3c07964d3b99b07358d88782 .

Any ideas as to what's causing this and how to fix it? Thanks!

Frank D

 

Steve, thanks for your reply.

I did not. I did a piecemeal copy and replace of all my files, documents, music, pictures, videos, etc., but I really did not want to replace anything relating to Windows itself for fear of overwriting new, good files with old, bad ones. (Experience being a good teacher in this regard.)

No I haven't, but as you can see from the images I posted, some of the text on the apps is normal size and others are tiny. I believe that if I had played with the resolution or DPI, all the text, not just some of it, would have changed.

Frank

 

PeteC,

Thanks for your reply. I Googled Gyazo.com (link below) and what I found indicates it's an OK site. Any advice for me regarding other or better ways to post images to this BBS?

gyazo reputation - Google Search
https://www.google.com/search?q=gya...rg.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-beta

Frank

 

Is it possible that the regular Windows font that displays text in the proper size in those applications has been deleted or corrupted? Is it known what font is normally displayed in those places? Is there a way I can download and install a full set of the proper Windows fonts, just in the event that the set that I have is not complete?

I found this website: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1175-fonts-change.html .
I'll give Option 2, Step 2 a try.

Update: I tried it and it made no difference.

Frank D

 

You might want to take a couple of seconds to check and see if that's the Palida Narrow font. If it is, your computer may be infected with the Gauss malware.

CrySyS also has a web-based method to check your system for Palida Narrow.

Here's a link to Kaspersky's Gauss Removal Tool.

 

TonyT,

It's Custom, 110%.

Frank D

 

SpywareDr,

Thanks for your follow-up.

Running the clean boot procedure did not result in any change.

The test results at: https://www.securelist.com/en/blog/724/Online_Detection_of_Gauss , show that my PC is not infected. In addition, I ran a fresh copy of the Microsoft Safety Scanner, the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (MRT), the ESET online scanner and Windows Defender. They all say that no viruses, spyware, or other unwanted or malicious software were detected.

Frank D

 

I don't think it would be a resolution or driver problem if some text was miniscule, while the bulk was normal.

I might investigate Java if most of the problems occur on webpages. Try updating to the latest Java.

 

Just another thought. I see one of the pics you posted was in Picasa, try uninstalling Picasa and test then.

 

Mattman,

I agree with you that it's not a resolution or driver problem. And everything on my PC is up to date and functional (verified with Secunia PSI and Windows Update). I uninstalled and reinstalled Picasa with absolutely no change.

In addition, I've tried reinstalling Windows fonts, uninstalling all non-Windows fonts, using the Window Color and Appearance Dialog Box options, back and forth, and not a bit of a change.

Also, please note that the tiny type font is a serif font, not the sans-serif Segoe font that Windows normally uses.

Frank D

 

Hi Frank. I have a link you may be interested in. I am suggesting that you back up registry or make a restore point and try the reg patch(S) "To Restore Default Dialog Box Text and Buttons Fonts ". Saying that the information provided in here may also help:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1175-fonts-change.html

Please note, there is also a reg patch that will make "Tahoma" font the system default.
, as well as one that restore all win7 fonts, "To Restore the Default Fonts ". These are harmless and easily reversible, an "undo" regpatch is offered here.

Don't forget to reboot between these changes. This may or may not be required but making sure will not hurt.

---------------------------------
Just noticed that you stated you had reinstalled windows but used a copy and paste method for many things. Copy and paste will not add registry settings that many things need in order to function. This makes this problem more difficult to pinpoint.

_____________________________________
Additional information you may find helpful. The link below leads to a filterd google search on restoring win7 default fonts:
http://tinyurl.com/8d67dqx

 

Ann,

Thank you. I followed all the instructions in Options 1 and 2 without any change.

For example, in the part that says "To Change the Dialog Box Text and Buttons Fonts

A) Open the Start Menu, type regedit in the search box, and press Enter.
B) If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.
C) In regedit, navigate to the location below (See screenshots below)
NOTE: The default fonts are the ones displayed below.

Code: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

Fonts - Change-reg.jpg

D) In the right pane, right click on MS Shell Dlg and click on Modify. (See screenshot above)
E) Type in the name of the font you want to use and click on OK.

I did that and typed in Segoe UI. However, it made no change after rebooting.

I then did the registry downloads to change my fonts to Segoe UI and to change my fonts to the Windows defaults. Result: no change.

Finally, to respond to you and Arie -- yes, I did "copy and paste" to restore my non-Windows files, documents, music, photos, videos, etc., but I did that after had reinstalled Windows (obviously). I don't recall seeing that that is "illegal" or not recommended in any instructions I have been able to find regarding restoring the OS to a PC after a crash. It's relatively easy to say, "You shouldn't have done that" after a certain negative result has been experienced, but try to find someone to tell you (officially) that you should NOT do that before the fact -- it won't happen. My apologies for being negative, but it's been a long haul trying to get back to where I was, and at least in this regard, unsuccessfully.

Frank

 

A good read and food for thought and experimentation.

http://www.kynosarges.de/WindowsDpi.html

 

Ann, I went through the whole article, testing each recommendation along the way. None worked. However, the author had an on-target comment in the following:
High DPI Settings in Windows
(http://www.kynosarges.de/WindowsDpi.html)
Applications with no DPI awareness at all.

Here seems to be a possible cause for my small-font text problem:
Fixing Windows Programming « Kynosarges Weblog
http://kynosarges.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/fixing-windows-programming/

"Today I found yet another commercial Windows application – Postbox, an e-mail client from the original Thunderbird team – that’s completely oblivious to high DPI mode. Random GUI elements are hardcoded to 96 DPI font sizes, resulting in mismatched text and labels that are too small to read comfortably on my 120 DPI monitor. In this Postbox screenshot, all text should be the size of the labels outlined in red: (screenshot)" -- but the text in the red box is much smaller than the rest. (Mine is much, much smaller.)

If you take a look at the screenshot, you'll see a variant of my problem! Now I don't say that this is it, but it's the closest I've come to someone on the Web who is knowledgeable about the effect.

I finished the whole article and followed all the instructions that I felt confident were applicable, but the net result is still: no change.

Thank you again for researching this.

Frank