I really should know the answer to this, but I can't find it.
One of our apps is not displaying properly on a user's PC due to their default system font. Our app is DPI-aware, and looks fine on our machines (and others) with both small and large fonts, but as you can see in the image below, it's corrupted on this one person's PC due to their choice of font.
Where is the default system font changed, so we can replicate and fix this issue? Thank you.
It depends in the windows release - in modern windows the fonts are individually configurable in control panel in display, which can be reached from the personalisation applet also.
Thanks for the replies so far. What I mean by DPI-aware, is that if the user selects Small, Medium or Large fonts, the window resizes to fix automatically, and also for if they have Aero or Basic theme applied. This works fine and is not the problem.
The problem shown in the screenshot is that a totally different default font is being used on that PC, which I can't find where to set. I've looked at every Control Panel and also every Display and Personalization setting to do with fonts, but can't find it. I can easily change the title bar font/size, but not the TextBox size as shown in my shots above.
If I change that value to "Courier New" (from the default of "MS Sans Serif"), then yes, I get the broken text lines shown in my initial post. Just need to find out where the corresponding font size is stored, and I'll be set!
BTW, it's weird that this setting isn't found anywhere in the Control Panel or Personalization.
Try going to the control panel display applet, check the Let me use one scaling level
Then select Custom sizing options and where it says 100% you can try 150% or 250% and see what the box looks like.
If you're aware of it, fine, but it's not a common setting for people to fiddle with IMO but your customer may have done so. It does nasty things, like what you see.
foxidrive, you're talking about font size though, as opposed to changing the font itself. That's the problem I'm dealing with. Changing the "MS Shell Dlg" registry entry to "Courier New" will corrupt the text displays of everything, even if "Custom sizing options" is 100%, 150% of 250%. It's a separate setting and issue.
For example, it will change all ListIcons to Courier, and MessageBoxes to Courier; everything. And as you know, Courier is monospaced so it means Buttons will have their text cropped, and so on. In fact, changing this entry really ruins everything for most Windows apps I tried. I guess most developers don't check for it.
I wasn't very clear - but what I'm saying is that if the "MS Shell Dlg" registry entry is not changed then even the default setting, when using a high DPI setting, will still corrupt dialog boxes, truncate and wrap text, and at times other things like making selection buttons inaccessible.
I didn't comment because I am not certain, but that font in both of your boxes looks the same to me, it's just that one is a larger DPI screen setting.
I may be on the wrong track, as I don't have access to the machine to check, but it seems you aren't quite certain what I was driving at.
I checked again, but there's no problem with DPI scaling -- the GUI adjusts correctly with a larger DPI screen setting.
The only way I can replicate the corrupt screenshot in my first post, is if I change the "MS Shell Dlg" font to something else; not if I just change the system DPI.
As for the fonts being the same in the first post, are you sure? They look different to me... but maybe my eyesight is going. The bottom font is definitely taller than the other, especially noticable in the (c) character.
Most certainly, but the proportions of the characters and spacing and look of the font seems to me to be the same - just larger - and that's what the very large percentage settings do.
The copyright character looks very different, true. I only continued to refer to the high percentage figures because it wasn't clear that you had tried it, and as I've used very high figures on several versions of Windows over the years it was something that I've seen often and needed to be checked - if you can't get 100% confirmation from the customer.
I did. Here's the settings I changed, to 125% and 150%, and the app resized correctly. So that's never been the problem; it was the first thing I checked. It's only when the "MS Shell Dlg" font is changed, that the problem occurs. It's never been a DPI percentage issue.
It is a common fault with no guaranteed fix when a user selects a monospace font for system default instead of a proportional font
I have no idea why any user would ever select a monospace font on modern windows systems as default, because it causes no end of problems on all sorts of programs including Microsoft programs etc
Monospace are fine in word docs or other text files like notebook, but even there get tiring and difficult to read after a while
I'm sorry for the confusion, but the windows release wasn't clear and your last message describes 100 to 150 and makes no mention at all to the custom DPI option listed to the left in your screenshot - and it's very unclear if you actually tried very high DPI settings. You can continue the thread on topic - I won't say anything further
This is the skype configuration window with standard fonts on my system with 250% DPI and it illustrates an example of what I was referring to - you can see that the option below "Set program language" is corrupted.
Hi again. It's not a DPI issue at all; it's only when the default system font is changed that the issue occurs. Different DPI sizes, like in my screenshot and your 250% Skype screenshot, are fine. Try changing the Registry "MS Shell Dlg" font to Courier, then run some apps, and you'll see the problem.
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