MadCap Software Forums

Since upgrading my work computer to Windows 10 Pro 64bit, Flare 12 has started exhibiting strange behavior. Several things seem to be a few pixels off like this (see the shadow scroll bar):

and

The behavior is inconsistent and more of an annoyance than anything else. It happens on my external monitor at work, my laptop screen, and my external monitor at home. I can't figure out what triggers the behavior. I wondered if anybody has seen anything like this, and if you found a solution.

This problem, as far as I can tell, only happens in Flare.

Hi Paul,

I don't work on Windows 10, but I have a client who does, and he's run into some similar issues that you identify. In my client's case, he switched his screen resolution to 100% (it was at 200%), then rebooted his computer, and the issues were resolved.

Thanks Ferg.

Here is another example. As you can see, it is rather annoying.



I had hoped custom window sizes wasn't the answer because the laptop is has a super hi def screen, so unless I resize everything, it is too tiny to read.

doc_guy wrote:...I had hoped custom window sizes wasn't the answer because the laptop is has a super hi def screen, so unless I resize everything, it is too tiny to read.

Can you change screen resolution so 100% is readable?

i'm experiencing weirdness as well. windows 10 on a high spec lenovo laptop. the resolution is 3820 by 24?? but anyway much more than previous screen. other apps' UIs seem to be scaled to windows' new default 'text' scaling of 250% but flare icons and textboxes, form buttons etc all look a bit teeny. any advice would help, maybe i need to log a bug?
owen

Our org recently upgraded our laptops and after chatting with customer support, the only solution they give you is to change the resolution of your display. Flare 12 has not been designed to work with high resolution displays yet.

yep, after searching the internet i discovered the issue is with windows getting to the HDPI party late and therefore windows only software like Flare has been caught napping. i wish i was aware of this _before_ i switched to this new machine. i mean the display is beautiful at the native resolution of stupidly high, but...

anyway, i mitigated the issue in the following ways:

set native resolution down from 3840x2160 to 2048x1152
tune cleartype (not essential part of fix, but does help the eyes)
disable display scaling for Flare (in windows explorer, rt-click the flare.exe > properties > compatibility tab > disable display scaling..)
sign out of windows and sign in again

hope that helps someone else. it's not displaying perfectly, but at least my XML view of the topics isn't showing the paras all mashed together anymore

Anyone tried Flare 2016 r2 with Win10 on systems where the display defaults to more than 100%? Display scaling helps but not sufficiently with Flare 11 and 12...

Sylverre
tech writer at RF Code

Has anyone had any luck resolving these display issues in Windows 10?
I've been experiencing them since I got a new Windows 10 PC at work, and I don't even had a high-resolution monitor so it doesn't seem like display scaling is the culprit.
I'm at a loss as to what to do and MadCap support haven't been able to work it out either.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Happens in mine, too, but not for everybody using Windows 10 64-bit in the office. Also happens with 2017 versions (all of them released thus far).

No solution aside from resizing the Flare window then maximising it again (repeat every ~3 minutes).

I encounter similar issues with various applications on Win 8.1. It usually happens after I remote into the box using a different resolution. I blame the less than stellar graphics drivers for it (I have onboard Intel graphics). You may want so see if the graphics card vendor has newer drivers. This may not fix it, but it typically does not hurt either. As far as Win 10 goes, I find it has dismal hardware support.

This is happening to me as well, but only when my laptop is plugged in. Works fine when it is unplugged. I checked to see if there are any different display settings for when the laptop is plugged in, but everything is the same except for screen brightness.

Yesterday I discovered that the problem (for me at least) was caused by having a slideshow as the desktop wallpaper and the 'Automatically pick an accent color from my background' setting turned on in Windows.
Changing to a single image and unchecking that setting has immediately fixed the display issues. And in fact, just changing the accent colour triggers the display flicker immediately so you can see that it is directly causing the problem.

Seems like these two things together in conjunction also cause issues with unwanted refreshing in Windows File Explorer, so I'm assuming that it's a related issue on some level.

Anyway, just very glad to have it fixed finally.

Had a similar issue after installing on a high-dpi laptop and a regular extended monitor. The folder icons were very small, but the editor fonts were huge.
I fixed it by setting as follows:

Laptop screen (Main)
- 250% scaling
- 3200 x 1800 (recommended dpi)

Large monitor (Extended)
- 150% scaling
- 1920 x 1080 (recommended dpi)

Exe Properties > Compatibility tab
Select "Override high DPI scaling behaviour".
Set "Scaling Performed by" to System