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I am using 125% DPI scaling. Windows scales icons on the taskbar differently when they are pinned to it, and, in some cases just by being on another monitor. By difference I mean grainy.

Unpinned icons:

Unpinned

Pinned icons:

Pinned

I've tried every icon size from 45x45 to 55x55 (48x48 default with enlarged taskbar icons (StartIsBack++)) using Resource Hacker, to get it to match. No luck so far. Windows10 DPI Fix won't work either.

Certain icons, such as Logitech Gaming Software looks fine until I pin and unpin it again.

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  • Can you clarify whether it is the pinned or unpinned ones that appear worse on your screen? Capturing the screen like this actually captures what is being written to the screen, not how the screen looks to you. It would be helpful if you could use a camera to capture how the screen actually looks.
    – fixer1234
    Sep 14, 2016 at 5:36

2 Answers 2

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make sure you are using native resolution

it's not worse after I copy..pasted ...enlarged

enter image description here

Is ClearText enabled and calibrated? Does monitor or TV have sharpness above 0?

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  • I couldn't see a difference until I studied your enlargements. On all except the 2nd icon, the pinned version has smoother edges and lines.
    – fixer1234
    Sep 14, 2016 at 2:26
  • So what's the answer?
    – Ramhound
    Sep 14, 2016 at 3:32
  • The prtscrn does not agree with his eye that Pinned Icons look more grainy on one monitor. Is it VGA? Are pixels in sync ? Is it native resolution? If not then it may look worse than this screen shot photo Sep 14, 2016 at 4:54
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I'm aware the photo quality isn't superb. The difference is a bit more noticeable on my screen. Shell icons aren't affected by this, which is why I had Explorer pinned on both screens.

Anyways, someone said on another site that the thumbnail gets loaded and enlarged when running a higher DPI. This makes sense, so I tried setting the default thumbnail size to 48x48 in the registry but had no luck. I have a theory about it loading the 100% DPI version of the icon and scaling it up, since my Firefox only has 48x48, 32x32 and 16x16 versions; the two latter ones being way too small to apply here.

Scrolling with my mousewheel on the desktop until I got a matching shortcut makes it slightly more grainy than its pinned counterpart, but still less grainy than its unpinned one. 48x48 and pinned. 48x48 and unpinned.

I'm running native res., ClearText is calibrated and sharpness has no influence. Clearing icon cache and thumbnail cache has no effect.

I noticed that on all three variations of icon sizes (small, normal and enlarged by StartIsBack++, aka W7 style) the icons got pixellated when not pinned. Changing back to 100% DPI resolves my issue.

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  • It isn't clear whether you're saying that you solved the problem, or this is supplemental information that should be edited into the question.
    – fixer1234
    Sep 15, 2016 at 6:46
  • I have under 10 rep, so made do with a new one due to link limits. I guess I'll have to live with this minor issue for now, until MS decides to cater to us with Hugh Mungus screens. It predominantly affects me on my second monitor anyways.
    – J. Doe
    Sep 15, 2016 at 8:30
  • It still isn't clear whether this is part of the question or a solution. If it's part of the question, it needs to go in the question. You can always stick additional links in a comment, or leave off the http portion in the question and someone here can embed proper links or images for you. You may discourage answers if people think this has already been answered. Also, it still isn't clear exactly what you're referring to and how to replicate it. Your description is ambiguous and convoluted, and without photos of the screen, nobody can see what you are actually looking at.
    – fixer1234
    Sep 15, 2016 at 16:17

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