Vista - WLM system fonts keep changing

HI there

I've just fomrtatted and reinstalled everything on my copmuter, but
now everytime I close WLM and then restart, the fonts on all the menus
and folders - in fact everything - changes to Arial instead of the
default font. WHen I go to add/remove programs and repair it, the
fonts are back to normal, but the same thing happens again. I've tried
uninstalling and reinstaling WLM but the same thing happens

Hi there

It's not the actual message fonts, but the menu fonts, the folder
fonts, the button fonts. They all change to arial, but change back to
the default WLM font whe i do a repair.

Best
Paul

On Jun 30, 5:57*pm, "Colin Brown WLMVP" <Hackerso...@xxxxxx>
wrote:

Those bits of the UI are supposed to use SegoeUI, which is installed
on XP by the WL installer if it's not there to start with. If the
program can't find SegoeUI, it switches to the default system UI
font - Arial. So, if you're using XP (there's something more serious
wrong if you're on Vista), it sounds like there's something funny
about the font (four variants). You could try (with WLMail closed)
moving them out of your Fonts folder and then doing a Repair of
WLMail to see if they come back uncorrupted.
--
Noel
[It's always a good idea to state what your OS is when asking a
question here - the answer may well be different.]

"Paul" <p.crilley@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7cdfaa47-cd7b-4032-8508-73147e57c1c3@xxxxxx

I seem to have the opposite problem. I installed WLM on WinXP a few times
and I believe I've always seen the Arial font for the UI. Now for some
reason when I opened WLM, it appears to have changed to the SegoeUI font.
This is strange because I was never used to that font, nor have I ever seen
it before. Why would it change and be the opposite of what you describe?
Repairing WLM didn't revert the font back to Arial. I haven't yet tried
reinstalling it to see if Arial returns. What's going on?

"Ildhund" wrote:

I has assumed from your post that my original font was Arial. But I took a
second look and realized it is actually Tahoma! This must be the default WLM
font and not SegoeUI, as look at a sample screenshot of the program from
Wikipedia:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Live_Mail.PNG

This is what I remember having. Look at the 'J' especially. Now I have
SegoeUI unfortunately. What's wrong?

"Skippybox" wrote:

You are a nuisance! I've now spent hours fiddling with display
settings without doing what I should have done first, which is
re-read what Stacey Doerr, the development lead on WLMail, wrote
more than a year ago. The question was how to alter the UI fonts, to
which the answer was

"> There is no supported way to do this (short of setting certain
"> accessibility settings, which is a global setting for the entire
OS). If
"> you managed it, I suspect you did it by deleting Segoe UI font
from the
"> system. We fall back to Arial at that point. If Arial can't be
found
"> either (which I think would be hard, since lots of things use
Arial), then
"> I _think_ we fall back to whatever the system font is.
">
"> I've put more customization of our UI fonts on the list to
consider for
"> the next version, but it won't make it into this version.

It didn't make it into the next version, either. But the interesting
thing that I hadn't remembered was the remark about accessibility -
if you select a High Contrast display option, you can change the
fonts to whatever you like. Without High Contrast, the app should
use SegoeUI. It depends on the order you apply display settings as
to which ones stick; some take effect immediately (changing the Icon
font takes effect straight away in the Message List), some need a
restart of WLMail (like the Menu font, which is applied to most
other things in the WLMail UI), while others don't take effect until
after a reboot, when you get all sorts of surprises. It's a pity
that there's hardly a website that works properly with High Contrast
switched on.

Your installation now seems to be working properly, unlike the OP's.
--
Noel

"Skippybox" <Skippybox@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:AD18EE9F-B90E-4760-9AC4-CDA85684C9DA@xxxxxx

Nuisance?! Aren't you the one who made the choice of spending hours and
didn't remember? Anyhow, I do immensly appreciate your devotion. Still, I
am lost.
I can't see how, if I haven't changed anything. I installed WLM a couple of
times and it hasn't used Segoe UI any of those times. I've never changed or
erased the fonts and I never heard of Segoe UI until you mentioned it. My
current installation has been running fine for months until recently when it
started using Segoe UI all of a sudden.

When it was working fine, obviously I don't know what was on my system, but
now I do have Arial, Segoe UI, and Tahoma fonts installed. If I delete Segoe
UI, WLM does use Arial, and a repair brings Segoe UI back. I really don't
want to do a complete reinstallation just to see what happens.
I don't use a High Contrast display, nor have I ever used this accessibility
option.
How do I tell what my system font is? Is that changeable?
The Menu font in mine seems to be Tahoma, even with Segoe UI being used for
the toolbar, folder pane, message pane, etc. Is this what should happen with
high contrast off?

I made some screenshots for you to compare of my system with yours and the
Wikipedia shot:

http://cid-2a2294c91225103a.skydrive...owse.aspx/WLM1

Does yours match the way mine looks now? Notice the differences in the Js
in 'Junk e-mail' between the different fonts? BTW, this isn't a matter of
the ClearType setting (I actually only enabled it so it would be easier to
compare). Are you saying the Wikipedia shot was taken with possibly
customized fonts and with high contrast on?

Any further ideas would certainly help. If we can't figure it out, I'll
just have to go with Arial until I reinstall in the future. Thanks.

"Ildhund" wrote:

Sorry, I'm in a bit of a hurry and don't have time to snip as I
should.

First, when Stacey referred to 'the system font', I think he means
whatever is selected in Display options for the various bits, but
most of the UI seems to use the Menu selection.

Second, the screenshot of your current UI shows the bog standard
Segoe setup as the designers intended it to be. The Wikipedia one
shows Tahoma, which is what you would get if the installation had
fallen back on 'the system font' in XP with 'XP buttons and windows'
selected for a Windows Classic theme. There was a bit of noise about
the low readability level of Segoe during the beta, and it seems
that any mention of discrimination against the disadvantaged gets
program managers squirming. It seems odd that an app allows for
customization of the UI colours but not its fonts, where the one is
pure window dressing while the other might make a great difference
in usability for someone with poor eyesight.

Let's hope the forthcoming new version does allow for customization
in this respect - and indeed many others that people have been
grumbling about for two years.
--
Noel

"Skippybox" <Skippybox@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2D11515F-018A-45B0-A3AE-94D74AB9E6AF@xxxxxx

Thanks for clarifying. My display settings in XP are: Windows and buttons =
Windows Classic style; Color scheme = Windows Standard; Font size = Normal.
Thus, in Advanced Appearance all of the fonts for the screen elements (Icon,
Inactive Title Bar, Menu, Message Box, Palette Title, Selected Items, and
Tooltip) all use Tahoma. As I said before, I am not using High Contrast in
accessibility options.

Since I have Arial installed though, I guess none of this matters, as with
it, WLM can't revert to my Tahoma system font. I tried taking Arial's fonts
out temporarily, but this didn't change WLM to Tahoma after a restart.
Trying these different settings though did result in some visual changes.
Perhaps the reboot is key, like you said.

One thing though about all of this. It seem you assume I am disadvantaged
and have poor eyesight. This is a completely false assumption. I have
excellent eyesight even better than many other people. This font issue is
purely about style. I overwhelmingly prefer Tahoma and Arial to SegoeUI.
They are much nicer to look at and in that sense they are also more pleasant
to read. This is especially true since I prefer to not use ClearType in WLM.

Thanks for all the help. I'll keep trying to see if I can get anything to
change in my favor in the future and I'll report back. Hopefully the next
generation will be more customizable. It seems silly that you can customize
the font for reading but not the rest of the program.

"Ildhund" wrote:

"Skippybox" <Skippybox@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7289EEEC-717B-453C-A84D-024BB6320552@xxxxxx
No, I hadn't made that assumption at all. I'm one of those who have
difficulty. Segoe is very spindly, which makes it indistinct at
small sizes. Another major irritation is the faintness of the
highlighting of, say, the active folder in the folder pane. I'm much
happier (in WLMail, at least) with High Contrast, even though some
bits disappear. For example, input boxes that have only background
and no frame around them become invisible and I have to guess where
they are. See screenshot*

If you move SegoeUI (four flavours) out of your fonts folder, you
should get Arial on the next restart of WLMail, or possibly Tahoma
if Stacey didn't get it quite right.
--
Noel
* You won't be able to see this at the Communities website - a good
reason to click
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...e.mail.desktop
and subscribe via WLMail ;-)