Member Avatar for Tekmaven

I just recieved a brand new XP SP1 laptop. Its a Dell Latitude D800.. and its really sexy ;-)

I'm connected to a WiFi network, and I'm having the weirdest problem. It seems that all the images that I see are severly pixelated. Like, the quality is very low, that I'm noticing artificats in the images. For example, the techtalkforums.com logo is very rough around the edges.

I'm going to connect this to a wired connection and see if thats the problem, but any suggestions until then?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jenspen
Paladine commented: Always helpful! +36

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If images in Internet Explorer look heavily pixelated only on that machine (as reported for a 15.4" 1920x1200 laptop with 120 DPI scaling), this is a DPI-scaling interaction specific to IE on older Windows/XP builds rather than a network or monitor defect. identified a registry-based workaround and confirmed it fixed the symptom for them.

Safe, practical steps to apply the workaround without losing the ability to revert:

  • Create a System Restore point and export the registry branch for Internet Explorer (so you can restore it if needed).
  • Run regedit, open the Internet Explorer branch in your HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive, and apply the change described earlier in the thread (search here for the UseHR entry posted by ).
  • Close regedit, sign out and back in (or restart) to make the change take effect.
  • If anything looks wrong, restore the exported .reg or undo the change.

Alternatives and additional checks:

  • Reduce DPI to Normal (96 DPI) in Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> DPI to confirm the problem is DPI-related; this fixes scaling but makes UI elements much smaller at very high native resolutions.
  • Update the display/graphics driver from the laptop vendor (Dell) — driver fixes often improve GDI/image-scaling behavior.
  • Try a different browser to confirm the issue is IE-specific; modern browsers handle high-DPI scaling far better.

Cautions: always export the registry branch and/or create a restore point before editing the registry. This is a behavior of older IE/XP-era rendering; for long-term relief on high‑DPI panels, use up-to-date browsers or OSes that natively support per-monitor scaling. Credit to for the diagnosis and for verification.

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Member Avatar for TallCool1

It seems that all the images that I see are severly pixelated. Like, the quality is very low, that I'm noticing artificats in the images. For example, the techtalkforums.com logo is very rough around the edges.

Does the display resolution match the LCD? For example, graphics on a desktop set for 800x600 resolution will look really poor on an LC display that's a fixed 1024x768 or 1280x1024 pixels. Text might look OK under XP due to ClearType anti-aliasing, but graphic images would look really bad due to pixel mismatch.

Member Avatar for Tekmaven

Yeah, actually, when you try to change the resolution it warns you about non-native resolution.

This is a 15.4" Widescreen monitor, currently running at 1920x1200.

Member Avatar for Tekmaven

Interesting enough, its ONLY on images in Internet Explorer. Even text inside of images looks pixelated and rough. Text not in images look fine. This is really annoying..!

Member Avatar for Tekmaven

Upon some research, this issue is caused because the laptop is using 120dpi fonts - not the normal size. This is because the screen resolution is so high, that anything smaller, and you would go blind ;-).

The fix is to change a value in the registry. If you are experiencing this issue, just copy/paste the text below into notepad, and then save it as a .reg file. To save it as a .reg file, put the file name as whatever.reg, and change the type to "All Files".

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"UseHR"=dword:00000000
Member Avatar for feigned

I knew I'd seen that problem before, and only on a laptop. :)

Glad to hear it's fixed.

Member Avatar for jenspen

Upon some research, this issue is caused because the laptop is using 120dpi fonts - not the normal size. This is because the screen resolution is so high, that anything smaller, and you would go blind ;-). ..... The fix is to change a value in the registry. -snip--

Yippee! Thanks for the bit of info. This has been driving me crazy with a coworker's laptop for the last hour. Your registry addition took care of it. Thanks for the info! I joined just to post this!

Jen

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