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In Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Live Mail the text in the application window (I'm using the Verdana font) is blurry, like this:

live mail compose screen - blurry

That is, until I resize the window, even by just a pixel, and then it looks normal:

live mail compose screen - not so blurry

Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for the text to become blurry again. Same thing happens in Internet Explorer 9. These are the only two apps that show this behaviour. I can't stand the fuzzy look and prefer the crisp look.

I've got the latest graphics drivers installed (Intel HD graphics) and all Windows Updates installed. I haven't experienced this issue in any other apps. I have ClearType turned off and have tried cttune.exe before and it didn't work.

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I have seen a similar bug with a different program (and a different OS) where the incremental rendering of the program was slightly buggy, but the onPaint function was fine, so it just had to be called (by resizing, minimizing or maximizing it, etc). – soandos Jan 6 at 3:41
@PattyRick: Actually the first picture looks normal to me and is down to font smoothing which has been turned on by default since Windows Vista. Unless you have turned off this feature then the second screenshot is actually the one showing an issue. If you really hate the look of the smoothed text then you may be able improve it by adjusting ClearType settings. Go Start->Run->cttune.exe and follow the instructions. If you really want pixelated text with no smoothing it's possible to disable all smoothing both in Windows and IE, but I wouldn't recommend it. Please clarify your requirements. – James Jan 6 at 10:13
@James, thanks for the response. I actually have ClearType turned off. Also, what's weird is that these two apps are the only apps I have this problem in -- and it's very weird that as soon as I resize their windows just a tad, the font goes back to looking "normal" (i.e., how fonts look in all other apps on my system), at least until I continue using them a bit more. I'd prefer the fonts to always look how they do in the second picture -- I can't stand the fuzzy look and prefer the crisp look. I have tried cttune.exe before and it didn't work. This almost seems like a bug in WLM/IE9 to me... – PattyRick Jan 6 at 16:01
As far as I understand, IE9 and programs that use it will render text with smoothing regardless of Windows settings. You could try the procedures mentioned here: stackoverflow.com/questions/5427315/…. First thing to try is the patch that the post links to: support.microsoft.com/kb/2545698 – James Jan 6 at 17:37
@PattyRick: Did you have any luck getting it to work? – James Jan 10 at 13:41
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