virtualbox.org

A few months back, I switched my main desktop OS to openSUSE Linux. As I am an unemployed IT guy who has used Windows since 1994, I need to have a Windows virtual machine that works well, and so far everything has worked well... until a couple of weeks ago.

I don't know what I have done, but my virtual Windows Vista machine seems to be scaling down the resolution of everything just a little bit. I only notice it when I try to read text that is being display graphically (i.e. things look fine in NotePad but not in WordPad). The best explanation is probably the picture below. This box had been working fine for a few months. I've apparently done something to it, but I don't know what. I've never used scaled mode, which was my first suspicion. I have uninstalled and re-installed guest additions on the box. I run it at 1280x960x32, although I have verified that the problem happens at any resolution. I updated to the new VirtualBox release this week, but nothing changed.

I also have a Windows XP box which does not have this problem, but I need to have a Windows OS that hasn't already reached the end of its support life. I hesitate to make a new Vista machine as I had to call Microsoft to activate the OS when I originally made this machine.

I would appreciate any and all ideas as to the nature of my problem. Thank you!

I tried your link in Firefox and IE on Windows 7 guest and the text is fine. I wonder if you have a font issue??

You should post the guests log file so we can see if there may be an issue, but I suspect the problem is with the guest OS.

@dabo man… maybe this is too obvious but you do know Firefox has a zoom function? go to the FF View menu>Zoom>Reset. Also check the Context tab in Firefox preferences to make sure you haven't accidentally changed anything there.

This happens in more than just Firefox. Wordpad is another application where text displays badly. I think that the entire virtual machine is scaled down, but I only notice it when I am trying to read something. Look how blocky the latitude and longitude are in this picture. I play Flight Simulator all the time. Those numbers were smooth until a couple of weeks ago.

Oh, and yes I have reset my zoom in Firefox.

I'll install Vista as a guest later and see what settings there are. I'm not really a Windows person.

I'm not sure what the problem is (obviously), but I am convinced that my problem isn't with Windows itself but with a VirtualBox setting for that particular machine. I just don't know which one. My first thought was the scaling feature, but that isn't enabled.

Is ClearType enabled?

Did you try running sfc /scannow in an elevated Command Prompt? It has fixed some other issues in Windows guests.

ClearType is enabled.

I had not tried that command, but it "did not find any integrity violations."

not sure what the problem is. here is notepad and wordpad on newly installed Vista guest.

Yes. they also looked fine on my Vista guest for a few months. Then something happened just a couple of weeks ago.

Some weeks ago the Windows update KB3013455 changed something for Cleartype on Vista, which produced this effect.
see also https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1046251

Martin wrote:Some weeks ago the Windows update KB3013455 changed something for Cleartype on Vista, which produced this effect.
see also https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1046251

Nice find Martin.
See this link for the fix… https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3037639

Martin wrote:Some weeks ago the Windows update KB3013455 changed something for Cleartype on Vista, which produced this effect.
see also https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1046251


Nice find Martin.
See this link for the fix… https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3037639

Stellar find, Martin. This fixed my problem. Thank you to all of you!!