Problem with Explorer (system) Font

[mark-ibmtp]

I'm using an old T43 with 1024 X 768. I made a display settings change, which left effects I don't know how to undo.

I tried modifying the "DPI Setting" in Display Settings -> Advanced. Note: It was initially "Normal size (96 DPI)". My changes didn't have the effect I was looking for, so I put the setting back to 96 DPI.

What I call the "Explorer font" (that is, the font affected by system settings -- not all programs respect this) was left distinctly larger than I am used to, with a most displeasing effect. I went back into the Advanced Display Settings, and made a custom setting of "90% normal (86 DPI)", which restored the fonts back to the size I am used to.

But now, in the menu bars of various applications, the menu items have a white background (even though the menu bar itself is colored). Wondering whether this was a function of my custom DPI, I reverted to 96 DPI, and found that the odd appearance of menu items still persists.

Restarting ("for changes to take effect") made no difference to the display behavior.

I would appreciate help from anyone with insight into how this stuff works.
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PS This may seem like a generic XP question (as opposed to Thinkpad-specific), but I suspect that the smaller font size I have been enjoying on this machine might have something to do with the Thinkpad XP install configuration.

[rkawakami]

Sounds like some of the Appearance settings have changed. You can get to this menu by:

- right-click on the Desktop
- click Properties
- click Appearance tab

Check the "Font Size" dropbox. Should be set to Normal. If it is set to Large or Extra Large, by changing it back to Normal, you should be able to revert the DPI back to Normal and it should look like it was before.

As far as the color problem goes (white background in menu items), I'm not sure exactly what this looks like. I would double-check that your Color Scheme is set to Windows Standard or Windows Classic. Control over some other aspects of the user interface can be selected by clicking the Advanced tab and then the Item dropbox.

[mark-ibmtp]

Ray,

Thank you for responding!

The Font Size has been at Normal throughout.

In the standard scheme I use, menu bars are gray (at least, by default). By menu bar, I mean the very wide but short rectangular region near to the top of an application main window, in which words appear to identify drop-down menus that will appear when those words are clicked.

What I've been accustomed to -- before I tried changing the DPI -- was the gray menu bar (in most applications) with the menu text in black against the gray background. Now, I see the same menu text in the same black, but each menu keyword is closely surrounded by a white rectangle. All the rest of each menu bar (that is, any region not adjacent to menu keyword text) is the usual gray.

[mark-ibmtp]

Tonight, I was able to resolve the problem -- thanks to a young friend with much experience of this stuff

Somehow, the 'Theme' got altered along the way. I don't know how -- I certainly didn't take any action that I expected to alter it. But reverting to a standard Theme both restored the menus to their normal appearance, and got the fonts to show normally at the default of 96 DPI.

I always use the default Theme from the IBM XP install, so I don't have any wisdom about messing with Themes... thank goodness reversion was simple.