Why does scaling of controls differ between PC's?

Question

I try to give the user a \'clean and simple\' interface by hiding some elements. Only a small arrow denotes that he can expand some part of the main menu bar. When all is closed

Answer 1

If your problem is what I believe, you just stated the answer. Windows 7 plays with scaling certain fonts. When you install Win7 on a PC it checks the size of your monitor and makes the "default" scale setting either 100% or 125% depending on your monitor size. The problem is that at this same time it installs font files onto the computer. It uses a different font file for the different "default" for some of the fonts.

My guess is your app is using MS Sans Serif... this is one of the fonts that gets different font file installs depending on what scale Win7 is using as the (default).

To verify this have your users tell you want scale is set as the default, you can view this by right clicking the desktop and selecting "personalize" then "Display" at the bottom left.

The following link shows you how to change the in-use-font file back to the original http://www.rlvision.com/misc/windows_7_font_bug.asp

However, I would make an attempt to get off of this font and update the layout elements to work as desired on Win7 as well as past OSes

This is what I think you are dealing with given the limited amount of information you have provided...

Update Since you reminded me when you mentioned the different looks between 125% v 150%. I just wanted to make sure you were aware that the two different MS Sans Serif files looks better at different scales. One of the font files looks great at 100% and 150% but horrible at 125%. The other font file looks great at 125%, but horrible at 100 and 150%.

I don't quite remember which font file is which, but I know the 2 culprits are 1) SSERIFF.FON 2) SSERIFE.FON