Office 2003 icons appear fuzzy or have poor contrast after you change the DPI setting in Windows to "Large size (120 DPI)" (922328)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Students and Teachers Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Access 2003
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2003
  • Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003
  • Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
  • Microsoft Office Word 2003
Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure to back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows registry

SYMPTOMS

You change the DPI setting in Microsoft Windows to Large Size (120 DPI). After you restart the computer, you may experience the following symptoms:
  • The Microsoft Office 2003 icons appear fuzzy.
  • The Office 2003 icons have poor contrast.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, apply this hotfix. After you enable the hotfix, the scaling range of 97 DPI to 120 DPI is disabled for Office icons. The Office icons will be clear. However, they will be visibly smaller when they are compared to menus.

How to obtain the hotfix

This issue is fixed in the Microsoft Office 2003 post-Service Pack 2 Hotfix Package that is dated July 3, 2006. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

922326 Description of the Office 2003 post-Service Pack 2 hotfix package: July 3, 2006

How to enable the hotfix

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

To enable this hotfix, follow these steps:
  1. Exit all Office 2003 programs.
  2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
  3. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common

  4. After you click the subkey that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
  5. Type DisableScalingUpForHighDPI, and then press ENTER.
  6. Right-click DisableScalingUpForHighDPI, and then click Modify.
  7. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
  8. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

MORE INFORMATION

To change the DPI setting in Windows, follow these steps.

Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.
  1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display.
  2. Click the Settings tab, and then click Advanced.
  3. On the General tab, click Large size (120 DPI) in the DPI setting box, and then click OK.
  4. Click OK to close the Display Properties dialog box.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:9/22/2006
Keywords:kbsettings kbdisplay kbExpertiseInter kbOffice2003preSP3fix kbQFE kbbug kbfix kbhotfixserver kbpubtypekc KB922328 kbAudITPRO
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.