Too large dialog boxes

Go under Plus! settings in display properties and make sure "use large icons is unchecked. Also what is your resolution set at?

Also make sure under accessiblity option in control panel doesn't have the vision impared options set.

Re-install your display (video) drivers.
Let me know if you need help with it.
Regards,
Ralph

 Under display properties/appearance, you 'should' be able to make all your desktop/windows as small or as large as you would like.

It is my understanding that you cannot manipulate the dialog boxes in windows. You can change the resolution of the screen. You can change the font size in display\properties\appearance. But I was always lead to beleive the dialog boxes and their buttons were unchangable.Can you change the font in a dialog box????  

It is my understanding that you cannot manipulate the dialog boxes in windows. You can change the resolution of the screen. You can change the font size in display\properties\appearance. But I was always lead to beleive the dialog boxes and their buttons were unchangable.Can you change the font in a dialog box????  

Try going to display the display properties in control panel, go to the appearance tab, and select the Windows Default scheme.  This will set your setings back to the "factory" settings.  If that doesn't work, make sure your resolution is better than 640x480, as the others have suggested.

The resolution I use is 800x600 and if I try a lower resolution (640x480) some dialog boxes run out of the screen and I can't even see the bottom of them where the usual OK or Cancel buttons are. Reinstalling the display drivers had no effect. I believe is a registry problem but I have no idea which.

Edited text of question

What does the display look like when you boot to safe mode?
(Press F8 key for menu when you see "Starting Windows95" message at boot-up)
Are the dialog boxes normal-size then?
Ralph

Did you try tedoff's sugestion?

You _can_ change all font sizings and so forth.

Go into 'display properties' (right click on desktop or whatever)

Select the 'appearence' tab

And then click on the windows and so forth.
Change the fonts to something sensible, and a smaller size.
That _should_ fix it in most things.

Go to display Properties

Under the appearance tab = go to item - default settings should be as follows (item is a pull down menu)

3d Objects             -     no setting
Active Title Bar       -     18
Active Window Border   -     1
Application Background -     no setting
Caption Buttons        -     18
Desktop                -     no setting
Icon                   -     32
Icon Spacing (horz)    -     43
Icon Spacing (vert)    -     43
Inactive Title Bar     -     18
Inactive Window Border -     1
Menu                   -     18
Message Box            -     no setting
Palette Title          -     15
Scrollbar              -     16
Selected Items         -     18
ToolTip                -     no setting
Window                 -     no setting

The method of snowolfe did not solve my problem. While entering the display properties I foun another one, linked maybe with the first: I cannot change Large Fonts to Small Fonts.
The Safe Mode has the same problem.

The option to change Large Fonts to Small Fonts is not in the Appearance tab, it's in the Settings tab of the Display Properties.  Try using that.  Also, please try my previous suggestion of going back to the Appearance tab and selecting the Windows Standard under the Scheme pull down menu.

I tried to use the Windows Standard but it didn't solve the problem. Thanks anyway.

can you email me your win.ini, and system.ini - there's somthing i'd like to look at

Are you using and Desktop themes such as Nature or 60's USA?
If so try this:
1. In Control Panel, double-click the Display icon.
 
2. Click the Appearance tab.
 
3. In the Item box, click ToolTip.
 
4. Select a different font or smaller font size in the Font and Size
   boxes.
 
5. Click OK.
 
6. If the problem persists, repeat these steps and try a smaller font.

I cannot find your e-mail, snowolfe. Mine is csaveanu@umfcluj.ro. Thank you for being interested in this problem. I'll e-mail those files if something useful can be found out of them.

I'm not using Desktop Themes but I used the Active Desktop that comes with IE4.

When I asked:
"What does the display look like when you boot to safe mode?"

You later replied in a comment:
"The Safe Mode has the same problem."

I don't know if by that, you meant to say the display was still too large, or that you were unable to change font sizes.

Are your dialog boxes correctly sized in safe mode?
(With ability to get to the OK & Cancel buttons)
Ralph

When I asked:
"What does the display look like when you boot to safe mode?"

You later replied in a comment:
"The Safe Mode has the same problem."

I don't know if by that, you meant to say your display was still too large, or that you were unable to change font sizes.

Are your dialog boxes correctly sized in safe mode?
(With ability to get to the OK & Cancel buttons)
Ralph

The dialog boxes are correctly sized in safe mode. I was confuse in my comment because the dimensions of dialog boxes in Safe Mode (which has a resolution of 640x480 that cannot be changed) look of exactly the same dimensions as in Normal Mode with a resolution of 800x600, but now I reevaluated the situation. If in Normal Mode I turn to 640x480 I get huge dialog boxes and sometimes the OK and Cancel buttons are out of the screen.

If the video driver is poorly written, or somehow corrupt, many unexplainable problems can occur.
Find the latest driver available for your video card and re-install.
Let me know if you need help with it.
Regards,
Ralph

No positive change if I change the drivers.

Did you change the driver, or simply re-install the same one?
Ralph

I have changed the driver with different compatible others.

Perhaps the wrong monitor is installed in Device Manager and causes this problem.
How is your monitor listed there?
Have you tried changing it?
Ralph

I tried to change the monitor and since it was not correctly configured I searched the Net for the corrct .inf file. Nothing really happened.

Do you know what display adapter card is in your system?
Watch the screen carefully at power-on for a message on-screen  indicating the video type.
How is it listed in Device Manager?
Can you tell us which drivers you have tried?
Ralph

You've probably already checked this but since I don't see it mentioned I thought I would ask. In the Settings tab of Display Properties, are the desktop size and screen size the same? If the screen area is set to less than the desktop it would cause the problem you describe.

This may be an extreme sollution, but if nothing else works, give it a try.

I've made this a comment so the question won't be locked and others can submit solutions that may be easier to implement.  Though this is about as easy as it gets.

http://www.scitechsoft.com

It's a program called Scitech Display Doctor.  It detects your exact hardware(monitor, video card, xcelerator card, and video memory as well as the exact chipset and revision.)

Here is a direct link to the program.

ftp://ftp.scitechsoft.com/sdd/sdd653.exe



Let me know how it works for you.

Evrika!
With a little chance and stimulated by the suggestion of  FutureX to modify everything I can, I solved the problem. In Regedit I imported a large (4 Mb) file called regpack.reg that is located in the Windows directory. After this kind of restoring (?), I was very surprised, while rebooting, to find that everything was all right. The monitor was reset to general S-VGA monitor but the video driver was correct.

I don't know what is the use of REGPACK, but whatever it may be it certainly helped me. So it was a registry problem after all.

Thanks to everyone who sent me suggestions.
Cosmin.