I would like to completely disable all font smoothing, anti-aliasing, etc... on Windows 7. I find it difficult to read and it gives me a headache. Here's what I've tried so far: Switched to Windows 7 Basic theme. (No Aero.) Run the ClearType tuner. (It didn't help. I want to remove font smoothing, not tweak it.) Disabled ClearType altogether. (Taskbar, menus, etc... remain smoothed/anti-aliased). Unchecked "Smooth edges of screens fonts" from Performance -> Visual Effects. (Taskbar fonts, help, control panel, etc... remain smoothed). Changed all my fonts to Tahoma under Personalize -> Windows Color Using regedit, added "Tahoma" as the first option under HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows NT->Current Version->FontSubstitutes Deleted all Segoe fonts from /Windows/Fonts (Had to take ownership to do so) Deleted nearly all extraneous fonts from /Windows/Fonts (I was getting frustrated...) Tried playing with HKCU->Control Panel->Desktop-> FontSmoothingType (both 1 and 0) and FontSmoothing (both 1 and 0). Tried running my laptop at a non-native resolution (Makes it even worse) The above steps removed most font smoothing, though the taskbar, dialogue boxes, control panel, etc... remain smoothed/anti-aliased. So far, the only way I've found to completely disable any smoothing is to switch to Classic mode, which has the unfortunate effect of removing any visual styles whatsoever. In short, I want Win7 fonts to render in a binary/completely pixelated fashion, with no gray fuzziness or subpixel rendering. Please help!

Also a solution for IE9: http://www.softwareninjas.ca/dwrite-dll-wrapper#TOC-Downloads

Search in windows start for Regedit.exe to open registry editor I disable cleartype officially first, it didn't care much. Then I did this through registry, you can search Control Panel for Visual Effects, it's in System|Adjust the appearance and performance of windows: Disable font smoothing by unchecking "Smooth edges of screen fonts" in “Control Panel->System->Advanced system settings -> Performance Settings->Visual Effects. Alternatively you can change the value of the following registry key from 2 to 1: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] "FontSmoothing"="1" I changed UI font from segoe to tahome officially through control panel: Change window elements fonts. To do this, open “Control Panel->Personalize->Window Color->Advanced appearance settings” and change all fonts from Segoe UI 9 to any other font (Windows XP uses Tahoma 8 for all elements by default). Search Control panel for Window Color to find this dialog This alone works, and I didn't do anything else pas this: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes] "Segoe UI"="Tahoma" 2. Just type in yourself in regedit.exe I liked Font Substitution so much that I got rid of unreadable Colibri font I didn't do this and it still worked, so no font "deleting" for me!: Now you need to make the system believe that it has no Segoe UI fonts and that it must replace it with for example Таhoma. Please note that there is no need to delete any fonts!!! Run regedit.exe and make the following changes in the registry: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts] "Segoe UI (TrueType)"="" "Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"="" "Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"="" "Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""

I'm kinda 5 years late but I just upgraded to W7 (and wouldn't do it if XP would keep having security updates). A big thanks for everyone who gave these instructions to bring back the XP look. I just have one problem. I use English, Greek and Russian. When I set Segoe UI=Tahoma or to nothing (no string for Segoe UI) everything is fine. If I set Segoe UI=MS Sans Serif (in FontSubstitute), Greek or Russian fonts (the one which is not selected in the non-Unicode system locale) appear smaller on the taskbar and filenames in windows explorer. I tried messing with the registry but I had no luck. Any ideas?

Here's my way around this: Right-Click My Computer, go to Properties, Advanced System Settings, Advanced Tab, Performance Settings, and disable Desktop composition. If you do this, you'll lose transparency and if you have a custom Windows 7 theme the buttons may come out mashed, and you'll have to adjust caption button settings until they look right. I do this as my new Sony Display has 90° pixel orientation, and Windows' Implemetation of cleartype is so terrible (orange and blue) that neither BGR or RGB work: R G B I also use MS Sans Serif Rather than Tahoma, but this still doesn't stop the titlebars from subpixel-rendering unless I stop desktop composition.

Disable all font smoothing in Windows 7 (ie: including taskbar, menus, control panel, etc...)

Anonymous

I would like to completely disable all font smoothing, anti-aliasing, etc... on Windows 7. I find it difficult to read and it gives me a headache.

Here's what I've tried so far:

Switched to Windows 7 Basic theme. (No Aero.)
Run the ClearType tuner. (It didn't help. I want to remove font smoothing, not tweak it.)
Disabled ClearType altogether. (Taskbar, menus, etc... remain smoothed/anti-aliased).
Unchecked "Smooth edges of screens fonts" from Performance -> Visual Effects. (Taskbar fonts, help, control panel, etc... remain smoothed).
Changed all my fonts to Tahoma under Personalize -> Windows Color
Using regedit, added "Tahoma" as the first option under HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows NT->Current Version->FontSubstitutes
Deleted all Segoe fonts from /Windows/Fonts (Had to take ownership to do so)
Deleted nearly all extraneous fonts from /Windows/Fonts (I was getting frustrated...)
Tried playing with HKCU->Control Panel->Desktop-> FontSmoothingType (both 1 and 0) and FontSmoothing (both 1 and 0).
Tried running my laptop at a non-native resolution (Makes it even worse)

The above steps removed most font smoothing, though the taskbar, dialogue boxes, control panel, etc... remain smoothed/anti-aliased. So far, the only way I've found to completely disable any smoothing is to switch to Classic mode, which has the unfortunate effect of removing any visual styles whatsoever. In short, I want Win7 fonts to render in a binary/completely pixelated fashion, with no gray fuzziness or subpixel rendering.

Please help!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Hi Ken,

Hopefully the Win 7 typography team will make this "feature" optional by SP1. I'm holding out until then. But if you insist on using 7 before the font smoothing is fixed, here's how to deal with registry font substitutes and UAC/system protection.

Edit the registry settings under FontSubstitutes so that "Tahoma" appears before Segoe in any FontSubstitute settings. Then, take ownership of the Windows directory (I took ownership of all subdirectories and files, which might be excessive, but made other tweaking easier to deal with) to delete Segoe. To take ownership, right click on the Windows system folder, select "Properties", click on Security, Advanced, then clik on Owner in Advanced security settings... Click on the edit button and change owner to your own account . Make certain "Replace owner on subcontainer..." is checked.

It's overkill, but will get it done.

R5N

P.S. If anyone does figure out how to remove font smoothing from the Win 7 taskbar, I will praise you for all of time.

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44 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-06-23T19:07:25+00:00

Also a solution for IE9: http://www.softwareninjas.ca/dwrite-dll-wrapper#TOC-Downloads
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Anonymous

2012-08-07T13:13:04+00:00
Search in windows start for Regedit.exe to open registry editor

I disable cleartype officially first, it didn't care much.

Then

I did this through registry, you can search Control Panel for Visual Effects, it's in System|Adjust the appearance and performance of windows:
- Disable font smoothing by unchecking "Smooth edges of screen fonts" in “Control Panel->System->Advanced system settings -> Performance Settings->Visual Effects.
Alternatively you can change the value of the following registry key from 2 to 1:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]

"FontSmoothing"="1"

I changed UI font from segoe to tahome officially through control panel:
1. Change window elements fonts. To do this, open “Control Panel->Personalize->Window Color->Advanced appearance settings” and change all fonts from Segoe UI 9 to any other font (Windows XP uses Tahoma 8 for all elements by default).
2. Search Control panel for Window Color to find this dialog
This alone works, and I didn't do anything else pas this:
1. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Segoe UI"="Tahoma" 2. Just type in yourself in regedit.exe

I liked Font Substitution so much that I got rid of unreadable Colibri font

I didn't do this and it still worked, so no font "deleting" for me!:
1. Now you need to make the system believe that it has no Segoe UI fonts and that it must replace it with for example Таhoma. Please note that there is no need to delete any fonts!!!
Run regedit.exe and make the following changes in the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]

"Segoe UI (TrueType)"=""

"Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"=""

"Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"=""

"Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""
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Anonymous

2014-03-08T22:28:32+00:00

I'm kinda 5 years late but I just upgraded to W7 (and wouldn't do it if XP would keep having security updates). A big thanks for everyone who gave these instructions to bring back the XP look. I just have one problem. I use English, Greek and Russian. When I set Segoe UI=Tahoma or to nothing (no string for Segoe UI) everything is fine. If I set Segoe UI=MS Sans Serif (in FontSubstitute), Greek or Russian fonts (the one which is not selected in the non-Unicode system locale) appear smaller on the taskbar and filenames in windows explorer. I tried messing with the registry but I had no luck. Any ideas?
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Anonymous

2017-04-18T04:10:16+00:00

Here's my way around this:

Right-Click My Computer, go to Properties, Advanced System Settings, Advanced Tab, Performance Settings, and disable Desktop composition.

If you do this, you'll lose transparency and if you have a custom Windows 7 theme the buttons may come out mashed, and you'll have to adjust caption button settings until they look right.

I do this as my new Sony Display has 90° pixel orientation, and Windows' Implemetation of cleartype is so terrible (orange and blue) that neither BGR or RGB work:

R

G

B

I also use MS Sans Serif Rather than Tahoma, but this still doesn't stop the titlebars from subpixel-rendering unless I stop desktop composition.
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