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

Anonymous
2009-07-14T21:44:09+00:00

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:

  1. Switched to Windows 7 Basic theme. (No Aero.)
  2. Run the ClearType tuner. (It didn't help. I want to remove font smoothing, not tweak it.)
  3. Disabled ClearType altogether. (Taskbar, menus, etc... remain smoothed/anti-aliased).
  4. Unchecked "Smooth edges of screens fonts" from Performance -> Visual Effects. (Taskbar fonts, help, control panel, etc... remain smoothed).
  5. Changed all my fonts to Tahoma under Personalize -> Windows Color
  6. Using regedit, added "Tahoma" as the first option under HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows NT->Current Version->FontSubstitutes
  7. Deleted all Segoe fonts from /Windows/Fonts (Had to take ownership to do so)
  8. Deleted nearly all extraneous fonts from /Windows/Fonts (I was getting frustrated...)
  9. Tried playing with HKCU->Control Panel->Desktop->   FontSmoothingType (both 1 and 0) and FontSmoothing (both 1 and 0).
  10. 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!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2009-08-02T09:31:33+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2009-10-06T21:42:09+00:00

    I'm not sure but i think it is caused by wpf. (new taskbar implemented in wpf ?)

    https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=380919&wa=wsignin1.0

    but good news, after all these years and 4 version, ms will fix it in .net framework 4.0 beta 2 (congrats!)

    http://blogs.msdn.com/text/archive/2009/08/24/wpf-4-0-text-stack-improvements.aspx

    -

    Somehow ms uses poorly coded wpf everywhere, in windows 7 and visual studio 2010 WITHOUT fixing it first.  But only microsoft use it hehe.

    So does that mean that after WPF 4, we'll be able to get aliased text on Windows 7? I sure hope so!

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-10-07T00:09:07+00:00

    nope, that mean taskbar smoothing will be fixed then.

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-10-17T05:25:46+00:00
    • Enter Appearance into the start menu search
    • Select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows from the Control Panel
    • The setting that should be changed under the custom option is: Smooth edges of screen fonts, which should be turned off

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  4. Anonymous
    2009-10-27T23:30:55+00:00

    I did the FontSubstitutes trick (had to add an entry for Segoe UI), but replaced it with MS Sans Serif instead of Tahoma.

    MS Sans is a .fon font and not a .ttf font, which means ClearType doesn't even try to mess with it. As such, EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE, including the taskbar, pop up dialogues, etc.. ARE ALIASED! That's right - even the taskbar is clean, crisp, and pixelated.

    However, I wasn't able to delete Segoe UI, even after taking ownership of the /FONTS directory. Something about it still being in use (even after a reboot)? Anyway, this meant that the control panel, etc... still used font smoothing. I, too, suffer from the "ClearType headaches", so letting these survive wasn't an option. I tried booting into Safe Mode with Command Prompt, to delete segoeui.ttf, but still no luck.

    What did, work, however, was downloading a Knoppix Live CD and using that to boot. From there, I mounted my hard drive and was able to access the NTFS Windows 7 drive (it's easier than it sounds - Knoppix is designed for that kind of thing). From there, it was pretty easy to delete Segoe UI and all the Consolas/Callbri/C-Family of fonts. I rebooted and Windows 7 started up without a hitch.

    And now, there's not a single smoothed font anywhere on my system! Hurrah!

    So if I can summarize everything I did... (thanks everyone here)

    1. Disabled ClearType (including in IE)
    2. Unchecked "Smooth edges of screens fonts" from Performance -> Visual Effects. (Taskbar fonts, help, control panel, etc... remain smoothed).
    3. Changed all my fonts to "MS Sans Serif" under Personalize -> Windows Color
    4. Using regedit, added "MS Sans Serif" as the first option under HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows NT->Current Version->FontSubstitutes for Segoe UI and the C-Family of fonts.
    5. Downloaded a Knoppix Live CD and burned it to CD (http://www.knoppix.net/get.php)
    6. Booted from the CD and mounted the Windows 7 hard drive. Then cd'd over to /Windows/Fonts and deleted the offending files.
    7. Rebooted into Win 7, to see nothing but aliased fonts!

    P.S. If someone knows an easier way to delete protect system files in use, you could eliminate steps 5+6. But for know, this works completely.

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