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[SOLVED] Pop up windows not displaying correctly

Tekno Venus

Senior Administrator, Developer
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Hello,

I am having a small issue with my PC, only minor but it is annoying. Not sure how to describe it, but here goes.

Received a nice new USB3 1TB external HDD for Christmas, and decided to replace my current backup solution with something better. I started off with the drive's built in software but it wasn't flexible. Long story short, I tried pretty much every free piece of backup software until I found one that was good.

Along the way, something odd has happened. Pop up windows (such as file properties) are not displaying correctly. The best way to show you is via screenshots:

Normal window:
Normal Windows.PNG

Properties Window (what I mean by a pop-up window)
Properties.PNG

Look at the border around the window, it is too thin.

Some kind of software install will have done this. System restore is not really the best option, since I've done lots of program installs and settings changes that I don't really want to do again.

SFC comes up OK.


Anyone got any ideas?
Stephen
 
Yeah, I know I can do that. :)

The issue is that this has only just started, and it doesn't affect everything. You can see in my second image that the borders are too tight against the main window when compared to the first image.
 
Another example when the issue is visible is when copying files (ignore the not responding!). You can see that the border around the window contents is too small.

file copy.png


Not all windows are affected by this though. You can see how thick the borders should be with this screenshot I just took of the SysnativeBSODApps:

BSOD Apps example.png
 
Have you changed any personalization settings like DPI?

Run dxdiag - save as text file; attach file.
 
In the Control Panel Personalization applet, under Window Color and Appearance > Advance appearance settings... > Item > Border Padding, what is the value? Note 4 is the default.
 
THANKS BILL!

I knew there was a setting there but I thought I'd already checked. Anyway, setting it to a value of 1 made the borders go back to normal. It had got set to 0 by something.

Thanks again,
Stephen
 
I agree it is a tad spooky. I think it was caused by a software install/uninstall, but a malware/virus scan never hurt anyone.

Stephen.
 
Last edited:
Oh, sorry Ace!

I did read the post, but was thinking you we're talking about a different thing. Not sure what I was thinking of though! :confused2:

Anyway, that was the setting that solved it.

Bill - MBAM and ESET online came back clean. I think some software install mucked something up.
 
You just confused me that's all. I thought after you posted that you meant that you tried it once before and it didn't work, but trying it again, setting it to 0, and then 1 fixed it or something strange like that lol... :lol:
 
Glad to know that others here besides me get confused at times! :lol:

You can add me to that list!

My sister said her task manager had gone strange, so I had a look at it and it was like this:

Capture.PNG


It completely threw me, I'd never seen anything like it before.

Before I reveal it, are there any guesses for the solution? No Googling :p

Solution:

 
Solution - double click the edges to bring it out of maximise mode. :-)
It's actually a very old trick - at least back to XP days. And it is the first thing I tried when trying to duplicate your properties' border problem. But of course, it does not work there. Nice of MS to make things operate in a consistent manner, huh?
 
Solution - double click the edges to bring it out of maximise mode. :-)

I actually knew this solution off the top of my head also!

Why...?

Took me ages to figure it out when I first saw it! Was like huh??
It took me ages to work out what happened when it first happened to me. Amazing what happens when you start clicking randomly to see what happens! :lol:
 

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