Recently we have purchased a new HP laptop and connected it to an extended Acer monitor. The display in the main HP laptop was good while the extended display was blurred. The text in Outlook emails and other applications are distorted and not clearly readable. After running through the settings page in Windows 10, it was an easy setting change to fix the blurred display in Windows 10 computers.
Windows 10 Blurring Issue
As far as we have checked, Windows 7 scales the applications and fonts proportionately on all monitors. However, Windows 10 scales the fonts and apps based on individual monitor display. This may bring many problems like below:
- Unclear fonts leading to blurred text
- Blurred display on monitor display
- Display problems with specific apps like scaling is too large or too small.
With the experience of fixing the blurred display issue, here are the settings we have tried.
How to Fix Blurred Display in Windows 10?
Remember the blurring and distorted font problems can happen with main display or extended display or on both monitors. Windows 10 allows you to customize settings for each of the monitor connected with your PC or laptop.
Press “Win Logo + I” keys to open Windows Settings app. Alternatively, you can click on the Start button and select the gear settings icon to open Settings app. Click on the “System” settings from the list of available options.
On the system settings page, make sure you are on the “Display” section. This section has many options that you can change to fix the blurred display of your monitor.
Related: How to fix monitor issues in Windows 10?
#1. Select Your Display
When you are on the “Display” section, first step is to select the monitor. If you have multiple monitors make sure to select the monitor that has display problem. For example, the below screenshot shows two monitors are available – main HP laptop’s monitor and extended Acer monitor in our case.
If you have blurring issue with extended monitor then select 2 before proceeding further. You can also click on the “Detect” button to show which is number 1 and which is number 2 monitor.
#2 – Change the Scaling
After choosing the correct monitor, scroll down on the page and locate “Scale and layout” section.
Scaling percentage helps you to change font size and apps. Windows by default apply the recommended scaling for your monitor display. In our case, 150% (Recommended) setting was working fine on the main display. However, scaling on extended display was set as 100% (Recommended) which was causing the blurred display of text. We have to change the scaling to 150% on the extended monitor to fix the blurring problem.
Depending upon your problem, try different % of scaling and check whether it could help you fix the problem.
#3 – Advanced Scaling Options
If changing scaling percentage does not help then click on the “Advanced scaling settings” link.
The advanced settings page has two options:
- Fix scaling for apps – enable this to fix the blurred display of apps. Windows will automatically help you to fix the display of blurry apps when you open the app next time. However, this setting will only work on main monitor display and will not work on all cases.
- Custom scaling – if setting up scaling for individual displays as explained in above step does not work then you can use this option. You can enter any % between 100 to 500 as your custom scaling. Windows will adjust all the displays as per your custom scale setting. In our case, we have tested with 150% as a custom scaling that helped to fix the blurring issues. Since, we have 150% scaling on main and extended displays, custom scaling of 150% would have worked well. Test your display readability after changing the scaling and make sure it works for you. Otherwise, you can remove the custom scaling and use individual scaling for each connected display.
After changing scaling, the emails and other fonts are clearly readable on both of our monitors.
Related: How to fix slow Windows computer?
#4 – Change Resolution
If changing scaling does not work for you, try to change the resolution. Most monitors come with native supported resolution and you have to choose that option for the hardware to work well. If you change resolution to different option other than the natively supported one, Windows will send you a warning notification.
However, you can try changing the resolution to different options and test whether it helps to fix blurring problem for you.
Note: Many people get confused with scaling and resolution. There is good Q&A available on Superuser that could help you to understand it better.
#5 – Other Options
Other than changing scaling and resolution, Windows also offer few other display settings. Though these settings may not directly relate to blurring, it may help you to optimize the display for your preference. For example, changing brightness, night light HD color can help you to optimize the display.
#6 ClearType Text Tuner
Microsoft uses a technology called ClearType to render fonts with different display settings. Be default, ClearType Text Tuner is enabled in Windows 10 computers. However, you can confirm this and try to follow the instructions to sharpen the font display.
- Type “cleartype” in Windows Search box and open “Adjust ClearType text” option from Control Panel.
- It will open ClearType Text Tuner app and make sure “Turn on ClearType” option is checked.
- Click on the “Next” button and select which monitor you want to tune.
- Windows will set the selected monitor to its native resolution.
- Click “Next” button and choose the text samples in the following screens that is sharper for your display.
- You will see a message indicating the completion of text tuning. Click on “Finish” to close the app.
Now, check your display has sharp and clear font display.
Related: 600+ keyboard shortcuts to insert symbols in Windows.
#7 – Change DPI Settings for Specific App
If you notice blurry display problem for specific app, changing DPI (Dots per inch) settings may help to fix the issue.
- Type the name of the executable file in search box and choose “Open file location” option.
- When you are in the File Explorer, right click on the executable file and select “Properties”.
- Go to “Compatibility” tab and click on “Change high DPI settings” button.
- On the next window, enable “Use this setting to fix scaling problems for this program instead of the one in Settings” option.
- Select, “Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by:” checkbox and select “Application” from the dropdown.
- Click “OK” and then “Apply” buttons to apply the changes.
#8 – Update Display Adapter Drivers
The final option is to update the driver for your display adapters so that graphics works well on your computer.
- Search Device Manager and open the app.
- Click on “Display adapters” and then double click on the adapter for your display.
- Go to “Driver” tab on the adapter’s properties window and click on the “Update Driver” button.
- You can either search the driver from the web or update manually from your purchased version.
- You may also need to update drivers for monitors.
After updating the drivers, test whether the blurred display issue is fixed.
Final Words
In most cases, changing the scaling and resolution settings will help you fixing the blurred display of font and apps. If that does not help, you can try all other options mentioned above.
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