File Explorer Font

Webweaver · Sep 19, 2025

Hey this is going to be a dumb post, I just reinstalled Windows 11 to try and get Smart App Control working, and I've noticed other things working correctly now like startup time impact in Task Manager.

However looking at File Explorer I'm wondering if it's eyes playing tricks on me or does the font for the tab look a little messed up. I know, I know really dumb question to make a forum post about, but my OCD is bugging me and I just got done reinstalling the OS.

again my eyes could just be tired but I dunno, thoughts?

dacrone · Sep 19, 2025

font looks fine, but the tab looks canted (left top corner looks higher/closer to top of FE window than the right top corner). odd

Webweaver · Sep 19, 2025

dacrone said:
font looks fine, but the tab looks canted (left top corner looks higher/closer to top of FE window than the right top corner). odd

I think that might be the desktop wallpaper creating an optical illusion

dacrone · Sep 19, 2025

yeah could be. but font on the tab itself looks fine... unless i misunderstood your question...

Webweaver · Sep 19, 2025

Yeah no it was just the font I wasn't sure about. Mind playing tricks on me after dealing with windows acting strange for the past month before the reinstall.

I'm starting to think the dark theme is not great for my eyes haha. When you said it looked canted I thought so too at first. If it turned out it was I was gonna lose it because come on really how does THAT get messed up.

mta3006 · Sep 19, 2025

In Explorer, look under Folder options > View and check item "Decrease space between items (compact view)". That setting might be making the font look different.

Webweaver · Sep 20, 2025

Ok so I'm not crazy. What is going on here. I knew something was off. What causes this?

I couldn't put my finger on it so I grabbed 2 screenshots. Notice the P, C, and T

Windows is gaslighting me lol

dacrone · Sep 20, 2025

Looks like a scaling issue/crammed horizontally (granted you haven’t made any tweaks regarding title bar or font on this new install)

mta3006 · Sep 20, 2025

I think you are right - the font in the tab of your original post image is slightly different than that in the path line below it. And the new and old screen caps you posted are different too. My Explorer window looks that way too. But I have no idea why...

Webweaver · Sep 20, 2025

dacrone said:
Looks like a scaling issue/crammed horizontally (granted you haven’t made any tweaks regarding title bar or font on this new install)

I thought so too when I was first trying to fix it. But I tried changing the scaling size and all that the first go around/reinstalling gpu drivers.

mta3006 said:
I think you are right - the font in the tab of your original post image is slightly different than that in the path line below it. And the new and old screen caps you posted are different too. My Explorer window looks that way too. But I have no idea why...

I have gone into a stupid level of testing this. I setup a linux machine and tested 2 window VMs thinking that maybe my OS was corrupt. One had optional data on and one had it off. I could not recreate the issue on the VMs. I also noticed on this new update on my main machine that the resume process for crossdevice was missing from task manager. On the VMs it was still there, however on the VM with optional data enabled I got access to the new widget's UI. I have optional data on for my main machine and I still don't have that.

Anyway I ended up having to reinstall 2 more times to my main machine to fix the issue. The usb media was created in the windows VM on linux. So I'm 99% sure it was fine and intact. My only guess to this whole situation is it's some A/B testing with a gradual rollout for the Sept 9th update. Which honestly makes me kinda mad. I want an OS that I can reinstall as many times as I need and get the same result each time.

Getting ready to pull my hair out

dacrone · Sep 20, 2025

So you fixed it via reinstall already? If you can/want to replicate it, I’d be curious if you try these 2 things to test it:

run this .bat file to restore the ribboned explorer:

Code:

@echo off
echo Creating registry entries...

:: Add registry keys
reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{2aa9162e-c906-4dd9-ad0b-3d24a8eef5a0}" /ve /t REG_SZ /d "CLSID_ItemsViewAdapter" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{2aa9162e-c906-4dd9-ad0b-3d24a8eef5a0}\InProcServer32" /ve /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Windows\System32\Windows.UI.FileExplorer.dll_" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{2aa9162e-c906-4dd9-ad0b-3d24a8eef5a0}\InProcServer32" /v "ThreadingModel" /t REG_SZ /d "Apartment" /f

reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{6480100b-5a83-4d1e-9f69-8ae5a88e9a33}" /ve /t REG_SZ /d "File Explorer Xaml Island View Adapter" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{6480100b-5a83-4d1e-9f69-8ae5a88e9a33}\InProcServer32" /ve /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Windows\System32\Windows.UI.FileExplorer.dll_" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{6480100b-5a83-4d1e-9f69-8ae5a88e9a33}\InProcServer32" /v "ThreadingModel" /t REG_SZ /d "Apartment" /f

echo.
echo Press any key to restart Explorer.exe for changes to take effect...
pause >nul

:: Restart Explorer
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer

echo Done.
exit

then run this one to restore the tabbed explorer:

Code:

@echo off
echo Restoring Windows 11 File Explorer...

:: Remove registry modifications
reg delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{2aa9162e-c906-4dd9-ad0b-3d24a8eef5a0}" /f
reg delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{6480100b-5a83-4d1e-9f69-8ae5a88e9a33}" /f

echo.
echo Press any key to restart Explorer.exe for changes to take effect...
pause >nul

:: Restart Explorer
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer

echo Windows 11 Explorer restored!
exit

if that doesnt work, you could test windhawk (just use it as portable) and use the mod "Classic Explorer navigation bar" and set it to

which puts the address bar below the command bar, like it was pre-moment 4 update a while back

then disable that mod to set it back to normal. just curious if either of those will trigger it to resolve itself without a full reinstall...

Webweaver · Sep 20, 2025

When I work up the willpower to mess with it some more I'll give it a try. My brain is fried from messing with all morning. I don't know what it is but whenever something is off about my PC it puts me on edge.

Webweaver · Sep 20, 2025

You wouldn't happen to have any tips for fixing lag when resizing File Explorer's columns would you?

Edit:
Nevermind I figured it out it was my mouse polling rate.

Which is ODD because it never used to do that at 1000hz....

Webweaver · Sep 21, 2025

This is what I've been dealing with on my file explorer and task manager when resizing columns.

https://imgur.com/9OROSTg

https://imgur.com/Z4DsjBP

I'm not sure if this is just how windows works with a 1000hz polling rate mouse but I'd think I would have noticed it before. I even tried it on this machine with Windows 10 and still had the same thing happen. Don't know if it's the mouse, the hardware, or just windows. It doesn't happen when moving the apps around just when resizing columns.

Setting the polling rate to 500hz helps it, but I like using 1000 and 500 feels off for competitive games.

Anyone have the same thing happen with 1k hz mouse?

Webweaver · Sep 30, 2025

Another update on the font. After I had it fixed windows switched it back automatically after a couple of days. This seems to coincide with the new task manager changes from the sept 9th update.

Spunk · Sep 30, 2025

Winareo tweaker will allow you to change the font in Explorer and not anywhere else.

We always suggest making an Image file of your computer using a 3rd party app like the free Hasleo Backup Suite and saving it to a USB HDD before doing any editing in case things go south.

Webweaver · Sep 30, 2025

I was just more curious if this was normal for windows. The one guy above me also had this happen but I can't find any documentation about changes to the font. Curious if something is up with my system.

XxXxX · Oct 1, 2025

you can change the default font that Windows uses to something that you prefer.
first install your preferred font, i use Ubuntu fonts but Google do some very good fonts as well.

then here is 'Brinks' tutorial with the required registry file to change the default system font.

Change Default System Font in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change the default system font for all users in Windows10 and Windows 11. A font is a graphical representation of text that may include a different typeface, point size, weight, color, or design. Windows 11 uses the Segoe UI font as the default system font...

www.elevenforum.com

play around until you get the fonts the way you would like them.
best of luck, Steve ..

File Explorer Font

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