Windows 10: Windows 10 Home desktop showing unwanted rulers on top and left side

Yesterday I noticed there were rulers on my desktop, one at the top and another on the left which I did not install. The rulers are light gray, about 1/8-inch wide and immovable (see attached image). They appear to have something to do with the position of any open window because you can see the markings on the ruler move when I reposition a window. If I stop moving windows they fade away in about 5 seconds. I have multiple monitors but the rulers only exist on the primary monitor. I selected another monitor as my primary and the rulers moved to the newly selected primary monitor. I've racked my brain but cannot think of anything I did that would have added these rulers. I've done a cold reboot, and changed my background theme but to no avail. I've searched and cannot find anything related to this issue. I would like to remove these, so I would appreciate any suggestions. I apologize if I should have put this in another category, I just wasn't sure where.

:)

 

"align to Grid" grid Size: What is the grids size and how can I draw it!

Open Regedit (Press Windows + R keys and type regedit, then hit enter)

Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

The two settings you are looking for are IconSpacing and IconVerticalSpacing

A much easier way is to take a screen capture of your Desktop ans save it

Open the file in Paint, choose show rulers and show gridlines

Draw your grid on top of the screen capture

Remove the screen capture and you will be left with the grid

 

show tab bar across screen

Somehow, I lost the tab bar at the top of the screen, and the ruler on the left side. I can't figure out how to get them back (I tried reducing the screen size b/c I also 'lost' the time stamp, date, function buttons, etc., but that didn't work.

 

You have a third party program installed that is doing it. I would look in Programs and Features and see if there is something you don't recognize.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I did this before and I just did it again and I find nothing unusual. My newly built computer is only a couple months old so there isn't a lot of programs/apps to go through. You may still be right but I'm not seeing anything. I even went through my startup files but still nothing.

 

Even though you say the ruler is interactive.....could it actually be part of your desktop wallpaper?

Are you using Windows Ink Workspace?

 

I use a theme background with slideshow and I've changed the theme a couple of times but the rulers are still there.

No, I do not use Windows Ink Workspace. I had never heard of it before you mentioned it.

 

I'm starting to wonder if the rulers aren't some kind of developer tool. For example, if I have a window open the top ruler has a numbered white section that represents the width of the window and the left ruler has a numbered white section that represents the height of the window. When you move the window the white sections are what moves along the ruler. And if I right click on either of the rulers the scale changes like a ruler that measures inches, centimeters, 1/2" scale etc. There are three different sets of scales on each ruler. I looked in Windows settings and there is a "for developers" section under "Update and Security" but none of the selections seem to relate to any rulers. I hope this is understandable, it's difficult to explain in writing.

 

created this message by mistake

 

After doing a clean boot and through the process of elimination I determined that it was my Fullshot program which is an image capture program. One small checkmark next to "Capture Ruler" fixed the issue. I've used Fullshot for close to two decades and I've never seen this issue before. I do not recall putting that checkmark there but I do use the program quite often so it was probably done inadvertantly. Thank you all for your contributions.