I use Firefox almost exclusively but sometimes i use Internet Explorer. Perhaps a website simply won’t work with Firefox, maybe my Firefox add-ons are preventing a portion of the page to load (every now and then i actually want to see the ads on a page), or maybe i’m checking on a website’s compatibility with IE. Whatever the reason, ever since installing IE7 on a Dell Inspiron 9400 the images in Internet Explorer have been pixelated. The text renders smoothly but not the images. Here’s the fix.
1. Close Internet Explorer and click “Start”.
2. Select “Run” and type in “regedit” without the quotes.
3. In the left hand column click on the plus sign next to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER”.
4. Do the same for Software, Microsoft, and Internet Explorer.
5. Click on “Main” and scroll down on the right side of the window to “UseHR”.
6. Right click on “UseHR” and select “Modify” then change the “value data” to a zero instead of a one.
7. Restart IE and enjoy the non-jagged, newly smoothed web!
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After:
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January 17th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
i just wrote this sweet comment but forgot to input my email address so i lost the comment [sigh]… all i can remember is i wrote something about somthing being “the next best thing since the 2400-bit/s modem”.
January 30th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Thanks for the fix! Lord knows why Microsoft would make such a horrible-looking setting the default without allowing for an easy switch…
February 1st, 2007 at 2:18 pm
I,ve just tried the solution above but get stuck as i don’t appear to have the “UseHR” line.
Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks
February 10th, 2007 at 11:33 am
I’m sorry but i don’t see any other options that might fix it for you.
March 6th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Zieak, this fixed my problem. I wonder if you could point me towards more information … what is this setting, why is it broken on some computers and not others … even tell me what the right thing is to google so I can look it up myself
Thanks very much for the fix, anyway.
March 6th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Emel: It turns out you can add the UseHR line to your registry. Drop another comment here if you need help doing that.
Derrill: Microsoft has a pretty good writeup about it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/highdpi.asp
Essentially, the computers that are effected by this have such a good resolution that the images are sometimes too small for customers.
March 22nd, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Thank you!
I had this problem on my IE6 from start.
Apparently it is linked with a screen resolution too high.
May 15th, 2007 at 11:41 am
That fix worked like a hot damn - thanks a million.
June 4th, 2007 at 10:14 am
FYI.. http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R98539&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=127677
June 14th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Thank you so much for this fix. I’ve been going crazy trying to get my site to look right in IE because I’m building it in Mozilla, but I figure plenty of prospects will be browsing in IE. My worry now is that potential customers won’t be savvy enough to google up this fix and will think I’ve just got a shoddy site.
June 24th, 2007 at 4:06 am
For all you web developers out there, I wrote a ‘partial fix’ for this issue in JavaScript, so you don’t need to change your registry settings. Unfortunately JavaScript won’t resize background images, so it might not be the miracle you we’re looking for, but I hope it helps…
http://www.leadingedgescripts.co.uk/highdpiinternetexplorer.php
June 29th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Thank you SO MUCH. All my stuff looked great in Firefox but crappy in IE and the pixelation was driving me crazy!! It finally looks good again.
July 4th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Thanks for the help, guys. But still, my computer is lacking “UseHR” line. I need to some help locating it–this pixelating it driving me insane!
Thanks!
July 5th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Karla,
Get through to where “UseHR” should be. Right click in the right pane of the regedit window. It should say “New” mouse over that and then click on “DWORD value” and then name it UseHR. Then follow the rest of the steps. It should work.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I tried your fix and like some of the others I had to type in the USEHR into the window
but it still didn’t fix my pixelized images. Any other ideas?
September 1st, 2007 at 8:37 am
thanks for the tips. this had bugged me for months.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Oh man, thank you a ton.
November 7th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Hello…unfortunately I have tried everything from here, but my images are still the same…I even downloaded Firefox, no difference…I am getting mad…what to do???
January 21st, 2008 at 5:17 am
as common as this problem has been lately im surprised that it took me as long as it did to find a help topic that was actually related. this is awesome. thanks.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
holy god you don;t know how long it’s been that i’ve been wanting a fix for this! and it actually worked to! probably one of the most helpful things i’ve ever seen. Thank god i no longer have to use mozilla! it’s ok but it slows my computer down SOOOO much!! and I’m on facebook and myspace and look at picture alot!! thanks! this worked so good!!!!
January 26th, 2008 at 10:23 am
You’re welcome Mark. With Firefox if you close the program down every few hours it will stop that runaway bloat. You might need to stop the process with control-alt-delete. Perhaps i should see if there is a good solution for that problem too!
January 27th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Thanks so much for the fix, you’ve saved my sanity!
February 6th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Microsoft — why must you make us suffer?! Make this the default for god’s sake.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:31 am
hi, Ryan… thanks for sharing this info! I was hoping it would help me with the pixlated images on our browser, but when I clicked on the plus sign near Hikey-Current- User , there was no “Main” to click on.
Any more advice ?? thanks !!!
February 21st, 2008 at 11:13 am
Thank you so much. This problem bothered me a lot with my new laptop. Thanks!!!
February 25th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Thanx. Now my laptop works!
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
help please! i tried adding the usehr thing because i didnt have it but it didnt make a difference, i dont get it…my laptop was fine before. im also having problems uploading to myspace but help with the pixelating please
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Dianna,
Your laptop was fine before what? It is possible you may have an entirely different problem.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:44 am
[…] blurry image syndrome is back with IE 8 beta. The previous fix was to add a registry key UseHR or get this fix from dell but right now neither seem to be working. More on this […]
March 6th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
the images on my internet service (ie) were fine before i installed ie7 im not sure when it was that the images became pixelated. i tried adding the UseHR thing and my computer crashed, i would get messages saying i had a corrupt profile because of the registry but i had it fixed already. still pixelated images, only on ie7 and mozilla. images on the actual computer are fine. i dont get it but its frstrating. help
March 15th, 2008 at 8:25 am
I still need help! I have done what you told me but on mozilla and ie the pictures are still blurred and pixelated! its driving me mad! All pics look fine on programmes not online like windows media etc. but online they are blurry etc! CAN ANYONE HELP?!?! Sarah
March 25th, 2008 at 3:54 am
I’m having the same pixelated image issues. Mine just started yesterday out of the blue. I’ve done all of the fixes, including this one, that i have found online. dpi was already at 96… screen res is fine.. change usehr and no change……… about to lose my mind. This must be some type of virus…… has to be, why else would it just instantly begin to happen with no forwarning… but then again, why can i view previously loaded pictures with no problem, but newly downloaded pix and pix/graphics on websites are horrible.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I am having this problem for few days. It struck without warning.
It must be a virus attack which kaspersky or spyware doctor cannot find. Anybody can help?
PROBLEM :Images are blurred( pixelated) in browser not harddisk images.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Interesting problem that people are picking up. The problem isn’t taking place after an automatic windows update is it?
April 8th, 2008 at 6:18 am
Similar problem with my laptop since last 3 days. It was fine before that. It seems that Ryan may have a point there, it may be one of the automatic updates after which all hell is breaking loose. i am using IE7 and Vista .
April 11th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Same problem, fix worked for IE, but I still need a fix for Firefox.
BR
April 11th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Checked again, fix did NOT work for IE, and still nothing for Mozilla.
April 16th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Hey This is brilliant. Thanks a bunch. It worked beautifully for my new Dell Latitude. I thought something was wrong w/ my Dell. I am still battling w/ pixelated icons all over the place. Would you happen to know if there is a solution for that? I am kind of annoyed that Dell sells these computer not optimally configured for usage and you have to waste your time trying to find a fix.
Thanks again,
Amir
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:28 am
Thank You VERY much, I have been looking for this for a long time.
I do not understand why it is not set as default like that!!
April 26th, 2008 at 8:59 am
encountered the same problem - images on my IE7 are blurred( pixelated) and it happen a couple of days back… guess it might be due to the window updates =(
April 28th, 2008 at 11:10 am
same problem, i don’t even have usehr tab under main (as you suggested above