horrible pixelated text and icons on high res display

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

As per the issue description you are facing issue with the resolution. All icons and text are huge, blurry and pixelated.

Wrong screen resolution is an issue in the most cases. Some updates may disrupt your screen resolution, and changing it back to normal, should fix things up. Try the steps provided below and see if it helps.

1. Right click on Desktop and choose Personalization
2. In the down left corner, click on Display
3. Click on Adjust Resolution
4. Choose your resolution and click OK

If resolution changing doesn’t help, first thing you want to do next is to check if your video drivers are compatible with Windows 10, if they’re not, uninstall them and install the compatible ones. Here’s how to do that:

1. Click on the Start button, and type “Device Manager” on the search bar.
2. Open Device Manager, expand "Display Adapters”.
3. Find and double-click Display Adapters from the left panel.
4. Right-click the device, and click Uninstall.
5. Windows will prompt you to confirm the device’s removal. Click OK to remove the driver.
6. After the uninstallation is complete, reboot your computer.
7. After you have successfully uninstalled the driver, please go to the computer manufacturer’s website, download the Windows 10 Display driver for your computer and check.
8. Follow Step 1 till 3. Then go to the driver and click on it.
9. Click on the driver tab and update the driver and restart your computer.

Hope this would help. If issue still persists, post back with current status of your computer and result of proposed suggestions, we will be happy to assist you.

Regards,

Did you fixed the problem?

I have a resolution of 1920x1080 on my 23" monitor and I think everything looks pixelated, I can't stand it really much. The objects of the modern UI look big and pixelated as well. This happened to you when you were on your other monitor?

I have this same problem, and I've been trying to solve it for about six months. I have tried updating, disabling, uninstalling and reinstalling all drivers. I've triple-checked that I have all updates, including the Bios, chipset, etc. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the monitors. I have replaced all the cables multiple times. I have reset the computer to the factory settings and done a clean installation of Windows. (I can't remember all the things I've tried.)

I have two identical HD monitors that worked wonderfully with Windows 8.1, but I started getting the Blue Screen of Death and having other issues, so I bought a new and very expensive system that I was hoping would be more reliable. It's been a disaster. This is not an issue with scaling or fonts or custom settings or differing resolutions – I'm using the default recommended settings.

For comparison, I connected one monitor to the new computer (Windows 10) and the other to the old computer (Windows 8.1), and the display looks so much better on the old computer. The display on the new computer is very hard on the eyes, with blurry desktop icons, fuzzy text, and an overall "dirty" look.

I would have bought Windows 7, since I already returned another Dell computer (same model) because of this issue, but it was more expensive than Windows 10, and I couldn't bring myself to pay more for a system that I've never used and that is supposed to be obsolete in a few years.

Here is my system info:

Dell Precision 7710, Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, SSD, Intel(r) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1505M v5, 32GB RAM, 32GB Physical Memory, 40GB Virtual Memory, NVIDIA M3000M, Intel HD Graphics P530.

Hi,

We appreciate all the information you've provided. As a best advice, we suggest that you go to the graphics option, then enable anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

Where is the "graphics option" located? (Nothing comes up in Cortana, or when right-clicking on the desktop.)

Note that neither Intel nor NVIDIA recognize that I have multiple displays connected. (Not sure that matters in terms of the solution you've suggested.)

I'm sorry, but the linked article doesn't seem relevant. I'm able to open the Intel Graphics settings, but that doesn't tell me where to look for anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering...

I do have an update... after working on this for months, in desperation, I bought a normal (non-HD) monitor to try. I plugged it in, and it looked REALLY bad (very pixelated, despite the fact that the resolution is 1920 x 1080, just like my workstation).

However, after I disconnected it and reconnected my HD monitors, they finally started looking like HD monitors. They now look the way they should, and the issue seems to be (mostly) fixed.

Neither the Intel nor NVIDIA manager recognizes the second external monitor, but I was able to set them up using the Windows Display Settings. Intel recognizes only a single television monitor (which is weird, because these are not television monitors – they are Dell S2740L monitors).

The next Microsoft Update will likely break everything again, but for now – miraculously – I finally have my HD monitors back.

I'm having the same problem, extremely frustrating and migraine causing.

I don't have a second monitor...

Do you have any work-around ideas on what might be/caused the fix? Right now this system is expensive trash.

Hi,

Have you done any troubleshooting yet? If you haven't, please try the resolution posted by Ramesh Kumar. You will find it on top of this thread.

Let us know what happened after doing the above mentioned troubleshooting steps.

The problem is back. This is infuriating. I paid so much money exactly so I could use two external monitors, and I can't even stand to look at them.

Dell has been trying to offer "support" for this issue for nine months now, and that's also been a nightmare. So very unhappy with Dell. (This is a very long story, with all of the IT help desk cliches - "Is it plugged in?" "Are you using the right cables?" and, about a week ago, "What was the problem again?" They've replaced the motherboard and the graphics card, and even had me replace the SSD. (I should NOT have to open my computer and mess with the internal hardware – that is NOT support.) They sent me an entirely new system (monitors, docking station, computer), and it had the exact same issue. (This is the THIRD setup with the exact same issue.) 

And as for the inane question, "Have you done any troubleshooting yet?"

Hahahaha. Did you even bother to read the previous post?!?

"I have tried updating, disabling, uninstalling and reinstalling all drivers. I've triple-checked that I have all updates, including the Bios, chipset, etc. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the monitors. I have replaced all the cables multiple times. I have reset the computer to the factory settings and done a clean installation of Windows. (I can't remember all the things I've tried.)"