Say No to Segoe (and ClearType) on Vista

Have you changed all your desktop, user interface, and dialog fonts to Tahoma or some other font only to find Segoe UI still appearing in places? Are you not happy with the way these many dialogs and screens still look in Windows Vista? Well, here is the problem… Microsoft installs Vista with a Shell Font that can’t easily be changed, and it is called Segoe UI. If you use an older CRT, you may find the setup of Segoe UI and ClearType especially bothersome. You may also get similar results on modern LCD monitors. Segoe UI looks best with ClearType (which is a font smoothing system built into Windows), so you then turn on ClearType, but then things do not look right, especially in fonts such as Arial and Tahoma which without ClearType can have very clear edges.

So you go into your Appearance/Advanced tab and change everything to Tahoma 8. You then think you have Segoe UI replaced. But many dialogs do not have it replaced and you still have Segoe UI appearing! Some of these areas include:

• Your Start Menu
• Windows Help
• File action dialogs such as the delete file dialog.
• 3rd party applictions that use Segoe UI for their menus.
• And more…

So, with a lot of trial and error, I was able to come up with a solution, that seems to work. And truly, it is No Segoe on my system (I have 2 different systems using it, one on an LCD and the other on a CRT)! Here are my before and after results…

Start/Run dialog with Segoe UI:

Start/Run dialog after running NoSegoe, selecting Arial:

Internet Explorer 7 Error Screen with Segoe:

Internet Explorer 7 Error Screen with Arial:

Overall, I feel forcing a font that does not render well unless ClearType is selected is a terrible ommision by Microsoft. First, on CRT’s,  for me at least, using ClearType is a very poor option. The fonts are blurry, and they strain my eyes. Using Segoe UI and ClearType are even undesireable on my 22 inch LCD system! There should be an option in Vista to change the Shell Font completely, not partially.

So, the file below will hopefully help. It has been tested on my 2 Vista Ultimate machines. It should be safe to run, as only some registry entries are modified. You can undo any changes, and .REG files are included that show what the tool does (just open the .REG files in Notpad). You could even use the .REG files instead of using the tool if you want.

Users have reported that this fix also works in Office 2007.

Please note that even though I believe the settings made with this tool or .REG files are safe, the author can’t take any responsibility out of any event that occurs from your use of the program or included files. Use at your own risk!

Added important note (thanks to user feedback): If you use PhotoShop CS3 by Adobe, then note that Adobe REQUIRES Segoe UI. The poster below (thanks Reine) came up with a fix which is to right click Photoshop, select Properties, and set the Compatibility Mode to Windows XP SP2. This workaround tricks Photoshop into using Tahoma. You may want to contact Adobe and tell them your reasons to not want to use Segoe UI. See their Knowlege Base article at http://www.adobe.com/go/kb402311.

Download: http://www.fsxtreme.com/files/NoSegoe.zip (36KB)