Windows 10: Windows 10 Context Menus not the Same - 2 Computers

Hi,

I am quite interested if anyone has any feedback on this. I have 2 different Windows 10 machines...

1. A clean install of Windows 10.
2. An upgrade from Windows 7.

The right-click context menus are very different on each. I have imported the same themes and tried to match as many of the tweaks on the 2 machines.

For starters I have disabled Segoe UI completely, and replaced it with Arial. Also, Font Smoothing and Cleartype are completely disabled.

For the clean 10 machine, I get clean white context menus, both on the desktop and taskbar... no blurring.
For the 10 machine upgraded from 7, I get a gray blurry context menu, and a dark gray one on the taskbar.

See the compare pick below. Click on it to view full size to see the true compare.





Anyone have any thoughts on this? I am one of those that cannot stand cleartype, especially on desktop monitors.

Thanks,

Steve

:)

 

Two computers, two Windows 10 start menus. Same setting, different appearance

This is completely unacceptable. I'm likely to just adopt APPLE or something. Win 8.1 had the beneficial feature of allowing my menu layout on the start menu screen to duplicate on any pc I logged in upon. Why can't this feature resume functionality? I
just had the update completely evaporate not only my start screen but all of my programs. That is **** Microsoft.

 

Two computers, two Windows 10 start menus. Same setting, different appearance

The Anniversary update to Windows 10 included the new start menu you see. You cannot change it back again

 

Hi Steve,

I suspect you have two different versions and one has not yet updated to the latest version 1511. Try the winver command in a Command Prompt window.

Phil

 

Hi Phil,

Yes, you are correct! One system did not upgrade.

But the bad news is that now BOTH systems have the blurry context menus, with the dark gray one from the taskbar.

Other areas area affected also. Cleartype settings and font smoothing in advanced settings are ignored. So if you look a the pick, now both systems have the ugly context menus.

Why can't Microsoft simply allow folks who do not want any cleartype to stick with no cleartype! It is quite maddening!

 

I understand that it is down to personal preference and for me I prefer to have cleartype ON. It is odd that your text is blurry and I wonder if this is down to some graphics setting. It would be worth checking that your display is set to the correct resolution for your monitor, normally it all defaults to the correct setting but it might be worth checking as monitors will quickly show blurred text if they are not at their native resolution.

 

Hi Phil,

It is a personal thing. Lets call us a pretty large "subgroup" of users that just cannot take cleartype. Who knows what it is! Microsoft does seem to ignore us outcasts but I am sure we are in the millions.

Whether it is Windows 7, or 10, or 8.1, I have to have cleartype turned off. The only exception may possibly be if I used a very high DPI monitor. One with very tight pixel density... such as what I see on my smartphone. Then the smoothing is OK.

It is quite interesting... almost like that "is the dress blue or gold" question that came up several months ago on the Internet. Some just cannot be comfortable with Cleartype, and it just seems like Microsoft has abandoned this group altogether. It takes hacks to make using the computer comfortable.

Steve

 

Hi,

For those interested, it appears we will have to live with the blurry context menus for a short time as you cannot turn Cleartype off of these menus. Hopefully Microsoft will address this in a future build.

Here is my post over at Microsoft... with a reply.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...0-1e67e66c47ec

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the update and I hope they fix it soon for you! However, I just came across another post that suggested adjusting the "set a custom scaling level" in Control Panel can make a difference to the blurry text. See screen shot below for where to find this option. Try adjusting up and down, some people seem to prefer 125%.






Cheers,
Phil

 

Hi Phil,

I used standard 96 dpi settings, or that is unscaled at 100%. I think I did mess with it a little. Everything else is fine, it is pretty much just the context menus and I believe some message boxes in 1511 that were changed, and the cleartype turned off settings (according to the Microsoft tech) are not applied to these windows. Hopefully Microsoft changes this in a future build.

Thanks,

Steve

 

Have you tried updating the video drivers? Generally, blurry text is indicative of scaling above 100%, and/or cleartype turned off. Once you change the scaling, reboot, and the new value should be applied. If you've already done that, I would try changing the scaling to a higher value, reboot, then change it back to 100, and reboot again.

What this is not is an issue/bug/problem with Windows 10; the issue resides with the end user's settings. It would be wonderful if users stopped jumping to the conclusion that every problem they have is the fault of the OS... majority of issues thus far experienced by users with Windows 10 can be attributed to either user error, or the user's environment, and not Windows 10 itself.

 

I differ in this opinion that it is not the fault of the OS. I never use scaled fonts other than default 96dpi (or now in Windows 10 it is 100%). As you say you mention blurry fonts with Cleartype turned off. And this is correct! Some fonts look terrible with Cleartype off. However, I am one of those folks that cannot use Cleartype. It bothers my eyes. There are others this happens too, in fairly large numbers actually. So, I need to do several things to make my all day in front of the computer more comfortable. This means remove Segoe UI and switch it out with Arial via a few registry tweaks. It also means turning off Cleartype. With this I get most of the font look I am comfortable with. But in the latest 1511 build of Windows 10, Microsoft did change some things and left Cleartype turned on in several areas. The tech from Microsoft acknowledged this via the link I posted above that Cleartype settings are ignored in the areas I was talking about (there are actually other areas of Windows 10 where Cleartype is kept ON and the user does not have a choice). If you look at the pic below, the popup menu on the left is what Windows now has, and you see how I like it on the right with the post and the browser popup. I do turn Cleartype on at times as part of the software development process, but 99% of the time I need to keep it off.

Important: Make sure you click the image to see it unscaled.

 

Did you try updating the video drivers? If blurry context menus are not the result of a dpi higher than 96 or cleartype turned off, the only other cause could be the video drivers [that I know of].

I did click the image but it doesn't show blurry context menus on my end. However, I think there may be some miscommunication about "blurry", so I need you to clarify which one of the following you're referring to:

• Are the context menus blurry, as in slightly out of focus? This indicates a higher dpi than 96 or drivers needing to be updated.
• Or do the context menus look like chicken scratches or like a bad OCR scan when scanning a document with text/using a PDF program to recognize OCR?

If it's the latter, it's due to cleartype being turned off. I had never heard of individuals being sensitive to cleartype before, do you know why it occurs with you or other individuals? (I'm assuming it may be similar to how a very minute subset of individuals are not able to watch 3D movies due to not being able to neurologically process stereoscopic 3D images in film).

If you have a video card [not integrated graphics via the CPU], I would recommend playing with the the quality settings in the video card settings program, as that may be able to offset what's occurring due to cleartype being turned off. You may have already done so previously, but have you tried adjusting the output of cleartype? There should be 1 set of 2 boxes and 2 sets of 6 boxes that pop up asking you to select which looks best to you. Depending on the boxes selected, the look of the text will vary greatly, which may be able to help you if you haven't tried that before.

• When you say cleartype bothers your eyes, is it causing eyestrain? If so, adjusting the size of text in the control panel should alleviate that (not increasing dpi, but the actual size of the text). This is generally recommended when using a monitor with a high resolution capability, as you'll end up with what I refer to as the TV monitor effect: connecting a 1080p laptop to a TV results in being unable to read text because it shows up so small if left at the default resolution on the laptop.

 

Hi,

I have 2 different machines, one with the latest drivers for an Nvidia 960 card.

So to clarify, I do see some fonts look like chicken scratches. These are fonts that do not render well without cleartype. In that case, the font is not blurry, but as you say, just not rendered well because it is designed to use cleartype. You see this a lot on some web pages.

Blurry may not be the term, and I can still likely use the PC, and would even get used to it, but it is a step backwards is usability for me. Here is a decent thread that came about when Microsoft added cleartype to Internet Explorer back with Windows 7.

Internet Explorer 9 Clear Type Disable?

And another thread on the topic...

cleartype hurts my eyes please make an exact windows XP - Microsoft Community

So it is not blurry I guess, but more like the edges of fonts are not clear, but muddied. Even when the monitor is calibrated with an optical calibration tool it is the same. On my mobile device, font smoothing is fine because of the very tight pixel density. I do not think desktop monitors will have the same density as your cell phone. So that is why this is an issue. It will primarily affect desktop users only.

 

Hi Steve,
You may want to visit this page if this is the problem you're facing. I have the same issue after windows update. I must tell you that this is not a permanent solution to the problem. It's up to Microsoft to remove this build.


[Tip] Get Rid of Dark Context Menu in Windows 10 Taskbar - AskVG
Attachment 49468

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I am one of those that cannot stand cleartype, especially on desktop monitors.

Thanks,

Steve[/QUOTE]