Windows 8 Applications open with HUGE ribbon and menus. . .

[Sheri625]

Suddenly every application I open has huge menus, ribbons and title bars.

Yes, I've checked my display settings. Yes, I've rebooted. Yes, I've checked my control panel display settings for any changes (I didn't make any and nobody else uses this laptop). No, I haven't installed anything recently (several weeks). The only thing that happens has been window's updates. Was there a problem with one I don't know about?

What the bleeep happened and how do I fix this?

Hopefully these are dropbox photos of my screen.

Okay, so for some reason, dropbox links are not working. Or at least I'm seeing a big red x on them.

 

[davehc]

If your instinct says updates, perhaps a rollback of your display driver might do it?

 

[Jimbo22]

In your picture attachment; do you see the up arrow to the far right, click it and the tool bar will disappear.

 

[Sheri625]

Thanks Dave. After a tortured 2.5 hours chatting and working with Microsoft, it is fixed. It appears that an update somehow changed the size of my title bars and menus. Microsoft denies this and insists that I somehow inadvertently changed these settings myself.

Not so. I was last on my computer 2 days ago and everything was fine. Yesterday I checked my email only. As I was reading, I got one of those "Microsoft needs to install updates. Do not shut down your computer." messages. I delayed it until I was through with emails and then told it to go ahead and update. I left it running and went back to work. When I came home, it was finished so I closed the lid (laptop) and didn't think anything else about it. Hubby has his own laptop and has no reason to use mine. Says he hasn't touched it and I believe him.

This morning. I pick up my laptop, open the cover, log in, open a browser window and everything is huge! Title bars and menus are about 24 point font. I can't even see my whole screen when I fire up any of my MS Office applications. I try all of the easy stuff but nothing helps. I know I haven't changed anything so I get MS Support involved. They try a restore on my machine (which I didn't want) before I can tell the "expert tech" that I have anti-virus software running. Restore fails. Before I go back to my online chat I go into a window the tech went into "advanced settings" and sure enough there is a setting for Title Bars and Menus set to 18 point font and 20 point font respectively. I reset both of those to 8 point and guess what?!? It's a miracle! It's fixed. This was a setting area I've never been in and hubby wouldn't know how to find if his life depended on it. This HAD to come from the update.

Buyer beware.

 

[davehc]

Great. believe it or not, that was my first thought, but I was under the impression that you had covered it in
"
, I've checked my display settings.; I've checked my control panel display settings"

Anyway, you know where to go next time. Have you, like myself, got any cats that walk on your keyboard--LOL? To defend, I don't think MS would, or could, change that setting.

 

[Sheri625]

And I did check everything that I've ever had any reason or desire to change. Never have I ever changed these settings in all my years of working with computers. And yes, I am old enough to remember when computers weren't a part of business.

Yes, I do have cats (2) and they do indeed walk across my keyboard when they determine I've spent too much time ignoring them. LOL. I never thought about that possibility. I don't leave it up or open when I'm not here and on it, but who knows. I just figured that something in the update clashed with something I already had set and the result was my problem.

Thanks for your help Dave. And thanks for helping me keep my humor while working through it.