What you do when everything in Windows is the wrong size (or place)

A number of my users have contacted me with a surprising complaint about Windows: “suddenly everything's too [big][small]!” They may have icons that are the wrong size, fonts that are the wrong size, even an entire screen. I'll share a few of my suggestions; those who read this blog may add others.

If the fonts are too large, on a Windows 7 Desktop that's otherwise normal, most technicians will zero in on Display Properties (which can be quickly accessed by rightclicking the Desktop and selecting Personalize from the drop-down menu). That's absolutely the right place to start; when the Personalize window comes up, look for the Display link near the bottom. That gives you the window with the radio buttons for different font sizes. But if that does not give an immediate satisfactory result, know this: fonts are also very sensitive to screen resolution. You will want to try a couple of different screen resolutions. The Personalize window also has an option to set a custom text size / DPI.

For icons, there a very quick fix that you should try if the user has a mouse with a scroll wheel: leftclick a blank part of the Desktop and hold the left mouse button down; then, (presumably with your other hand) hold down the Ctrl key, and use your middle or ring finger to move the scroll wheel. In Windows 7, that should make the icons larger or smaller.

Icons, like fonts, don't handle it well when the screen resolution changes. And screen resolution can change for a number of counterintuitive reasons; e.g., when the user goes to a particularly-uncooperative website that their browser cannot display automatically, or when a new monitor is introduced. So adjusting screen resolution is a good first step for icon-size complaints.

Then there's the user who says something like, “EVERYTHING's too big! I can only see part of the screen!” Odds are, that person has accidentally launched Windows Magnifier. Rightclick a blank part of the Desktop, select Personalize, then click the Display link (when you find it after crawling down through the enormous Desktop). There's a link to Magnifier on that window. When you click that link, an animated magnifying glass icon will come up (sometimes VERY slowly). It will have a “-” button to zoom out (what your user probably needs), and a “+” button to zoom in.

Here's one more situation you might hear about, which isn't a size issue, but is another Altered State of Windows Consciousness users sometimes experience: “Windows is upside- down!” (or rotated 90° left or right). The key combination is Ctrl+Alt+[arrow key for the direction you want]. So, if the Desktop is upside-down, it's Ctrl+Alt+^ [up arrow]. The screen will go black momentarily, then come up flipped rightside-up. That Ctrl+Alt+ sounds familiar, right? That's my theory on how it happens: a user is trying to use Ctrl+Alt+Del and one of their fingers accidentally hits an arrow key. So that's how you fix that.

Build 7601 Error when configuring Windows for Nigeria, Kenya

IT professionals who use an enterprise-wide license for Windows 7 will probably recognize the Build 7601 Error. It often presents itself to your users accompanied by a very intimidating black Desktop screen and a message (down in the corner near the Sys Tray) warning that the copy of Windows is not genuine. I felt bad for the end users who innocently logged in to their workstations and encountered this error; they invariably asked me whether Windows was going to lock their accounts – or possibly even self-destruct – because of it!

I encountered Build 7601 multiple times when I was configuring the Windows 7 computers for the Nigerian and Kenyan schools (see photograph). I had more than 10 computers to fully configure before each trip (nearly 20 for the Nigerian school), and I didn't boot up all 10-20 as soon as we took delivery in Georgia. Some of them were 30 days out of the warehouse before I booted them up, and when I got around to logging in to them, the Build 7601 error showed up. It's a consequence of waiting too long to use your OS license.

I've seen 3 to 4 different proposals for how to make Build 7601 go away, and this Blog entry today is my personal 2 cents' worth on that topic.

I've seen the proposal to uncheck “Read Only” in the Properties of C:\Windows\System 32, followed by rebooting and running the MGADiag.exe tool. My own experience: I had no luck with this, either in my work for the African schools or in my work for Unisys. It might be effective in some corporate environment other than the company I was working in, but I think any technician who is thinking of doing this will want to run the Command Line gpupdate command first, to overcome any permissions obstacles built into your company's image.

In my corporate environment, once I was given a valid corporate Product Key, I did have success once or twice with the Command Line commands slmgr -upk / slmgr -ipk. But of course, if you have a Product Key you can activate it by telephone.

For the schools, I had the advantage of a vendor-certified Product Key for each computer. Using a wi-fi connection from my cellphone, I could activate each item online. I used the Activate Online link in Control Panel > System > Windows Activation.