Member Avatar for howiet

Good evening guys...

I just purchased a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop with the UXGA screen, which runs at 1920 x 1200 screen resolution. The screen brilliance and text resolution is awesome!!!, BUT every picture displayed on Internet Explorer is quite blurry. This includes regular images (like pictures) as well as banners (like the "<DANIWEB>" icon above. Is there any way I can fix this, or is this a trade-off with having such a high-resolution screen? Are the images on websites not of sufficient resolution to be displayed on my screen? HELP!! (if there is any hope!) THANKS IN ADVANCE!!! :?:

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Cujo

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Short summary and likely cause (grounded in the replies above): reported IE showing soft, blocky web images on a 17" UXGA (1920×1200) Inspiron; and others saw the same. This is a well-known side-effect of Windows display scaling on high‑DPI laptop panels: when the OS or an application is not DPI‑aware, Windows often bitmap‑stretches the app UI or images and that interpolation makes pictures look blurry. See the Windows developer discussion of how DPI-unaware programs get bitmap‑stretched. (Windows developer blog). (blogs.windows.com)

Quick, practical diagnostics (do these first):

  • Verify the laptop is running at its native 1920×1200 — non‑native resolutions introduce blur.
  • Open a high‑resolution photo locally (Windows Photo Viewer / Paint) and compare. If local files are sharp but IE is soft, the problem is browser/app specific.
  • Try the same pages in another browser (Firefox/Chrome). Several Dell users reported Firefox rendering the same pages without the soft look.
  • Temporarily set Windows DPI back to Normal (≈96 DPI / 100%) and log off/on to test whether images sharpen. (dell.com)

What to try next (safe → advanced):

  • If DPI=96 fixes it but text/UI become too small, use a browser that handles high‑DPI scaling better or increase font sizes only in Windows/browser rather than global DPI.
  • Update graphics drivers and check GPU control‑panel scaling/sharpening options — modern drivers can improve upscaling quality.
  • If only IE is affected, note that IE/GDI image resizing uses smoothing/interpolation that can soften small graphics; different renderers (Chrome/Firefox) may resample differently. For advanced users there are per‑app DPI overrides (compatibility flags) or registry tweaks that target only IE — these work but require care and backups. (photosauce.net)

Closing note: the trade‑off is real on dense 17" UXGA panels — either accept larger UI (DPI scaling) with some bitmap softness in legacy apps, or keep DPI at 96 for the sharpest raster images and live with smaller UI. The tests above will show which compromise fits the use case. (blogs.windows.com)

Recommended Answers

All 6 Replies

Member Avatar for bgensprint

Hi,

I've been having the same problems to with it. Does the icons on your windows toolbar also appear fuzzy? Please contact me <email snipped>

Member Avatar for bgensprint

howjet

contact me regarding this manner at ,<email snipped>. I think there's something to solve here.

Member Avatar for nizzy1115

why dont we speak of this mannor on the forums? isnt that what this place is for?

Member Avatar for bgensprint

why dont we speak of this mannor on the forums? isnt that what this place is for?

*dusts cobwebs off the forums and looks around for people to post something*

Yay! At least we got a response though :)

Member Avatar for bgensprint

why dont we speak of this mannor on the forums? isnt that what this place is for?

Any idea of what could be wrong?

Member Avatar for Cujo

It has to do with the default font DPI. If you can handle the eyestrain, which it to "normal" or 96dpi. Dell upsizes the widescreen resolution to 120dpi, which causes the distortion.

http://www.notebookforums.com/showpost.php?p=564703&postcount=6

The link shows you how to make the change using regedit for just IE and not your desktop fonts.

I was looking for this solution and found my way to this site and decided to come back and post the fix I found. :)

- Cujo

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