Text and menus are scrambled for Paint Snipping Tool Photoviewer

Question

Text and menus are scrambled for Paint Snipping Tool Photoviewer

Kris Sathia - Consultant 0

For the past one week, the text in the menus and dialogs for Microsoft Paint, Snipping Tool, Photo Viewer, etc are scrambled if the program is open on an external monitor that I use with my laptop. They are displayed correctly on my laptop screen. Is this due to a defect in a recent Windows Update?

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Kris Sathia - Consultant 0

Your suggestion to make the display only on the external monitor (Windows-P-Second screen only) makes it work perfectly on the second monitor. BTW, it also works fine when I use the Windows-P-Duplicate option. The moment I change it to Extend, its gets messed up.

The monitor is directly connected to the laptop's HDMI port. I do have an HP docking station but that is only for power supply to the laptop (A cable runs from the wall outlet to the docking station, and another from the docking station to the computer's power inlet).

Regarding disconnecting and re-connecting using a different cable, I will need some time as I have only one HDMI cable (I work from home).

But considering that your ingenious suggestion to try making the external monitor as the sole display worked, I suspect the HDMI cable is not the source of the issue.

Finally, the issue does not occur on Windows Settings or File explorer. By the way, a colleague in the US reported encountering the same issue on Notepad on the same day that I did (October 30)

Chance Maurice Niyonzima 825 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-11-02T15:15:39.97+00:00
Hello Kris,

Thank you for the detailed update and for performing those additional tests. The results are extremely helpful.

The most important finding is that:

Second screen only → Works correctly Duplicate displays → Works correctly Extended desktop → Text becomes scrambled

This is significant because it largely rules out:

The HDMI cable The HP EliteDisplay E243 itself Paint, Snipping Tool, or Photos specifically A simple NVIDIA driver version issue

The fact that the issue only appears when Windows is operating in:

Extend mode

points more strongly toward a problem in the multi-monitor rendering path, display composition, or a recent Windows component used by modern applications when drawing UI elements across displays with different display contexts.

Another important observation is that you mentioned:

A colleague experienced a similar issue in Notepad around October 30

If both systems began exhibiting similar behavior at approximately the same time, that makes an application-specific problem less likely and raises the possibility of a recent Windows, graphics, or app-platform update affecting modern UI rendering.

Before suggesting additional troubleshooting, I'm interested in whether you've noticed any difference when:

Paint is opened on the laptop display first and then moved to the external monitor

versus:

Paint is launched directly on the external monitor

Also, when the issue occurs in Extend mode, does changing:

Settings → System → Display → Rearrange your displays

so that the HP monitor becomes the main display change the behavior in any way?

The results of those tests would help determine whether the issue is tied to the application's rendering context at launch or to the display role assigned by Windows.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation, Kris. Your testing has already helped narrow this down substantially, and the latest findings suggest we're looking at a display-composition issue rather than a monitor or application defect.
Kris Sathia - Consultant 0 Reputation points

2026-11-02T16:01:52.5033333+00:00

Hello Chance,

You question:

whether you've noticed any difference when:

(a) Paint is opened on the laptop display first and then moved to the external monitor

versus

(b) Paint is launched directly on the external monitor

Answer: If the external monitor is in the "Extend" mode, the text is scrambled regardless of the sequence. In other words, for (a), the text is clear and legible when it is opened on the laptop screen, and becomes scrambled when I drag the window to the external monitor. For (b), it is scrambled as soon as it opens directly on the second screen. I tried this with Paint, Notepad and Photo Viewer and all of them exhibit the same behavior.

Regarding your question on setting the external HP monitor as the main display when in the Extend mode:

This time, the display gets scrambled on the laptop screen. It looks fine on the external monitor. I noticed this on Notepad and on Paint.

Looks you have narrowed down the cause of the issue considerably. My heartfelt appreciation for your efforts and patience.

As it is late evening here, I am logging off and will check back tomorrow.

Have a good day.

Regards
Shawn Walker 0 Reputation points

2026-11-02T17:59:39.57+00:00

I hope my input can help narrow down the problem.

I am also having the same issue with Paint, Notepad and the photo viewer. It displays correctly when I set my external monitor to second screen only and when I duplicate screen. When I switch it back to extend desktop, the pull down menus become garbled again.

I will add that when I have an image file open in Photos, I can zoom in and out, and switch between files using the left and right with no issues when displaying on my laptop, but when I bring it over to my external monitor, the zoom jumps in and out randomly and I am not always able to switch back and forth between photos.

I've tried switching HDMI cables, but that did not fix the issue.

I've tried opening the apps on my laptop and the pull down menus look correct and the apps work as they should, I then drag them to the monitor while open and the pull down menus appear garbled.

I am running two external Dell monitors (one using HDMI and one using USB-C display port). I've tried rearranging the displays, but that did not fix the issue. I've also tried disconnecting and only running one monitor at a time and the issue continued to occur.

I check the update history and the last entry was on October 14, 2026 - just over 2 weeks ago, which may coincide with when I first noticed the issues. I also checked my driver details and there has been no update in the last 2 months

I will add is that the laptop I am running is an MSI.

I also checked my partners laptop and monitor setup. She is not having the same issue and her system is the opposite of mine - she is running a Dell laptop with an MSI external monitor using an HDMI cable.
Kris Sathia - Consultant 0 Reputation points

2026-11-03T03:33:36.9533333+00:00

Thanks for posting Shawn. Considering that there seem to be other users too affected by this (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/6054098/how-to-fix-this-microsoft-paint-bug), all occurring around the last week of October 2026, will Microsoft issue a fix or a workaround for this? Thru a Windows update perhaps? How soon?
Chance Maurice Niyonzima 825 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-11-03T08:10:32.8133333+00:00
Hello Kris,

Thank you for the detailed update, and thank you as well to the additional community member for sharing comparable results. Both sets of findings are extremely useful.

The most important finding is that the issue appears to follow the primary display in Extended mode, rather than a specific monitor, application, cable, or graphics driver.

Based on your testing:

Extended Mode: Primary display → Renders correctly Secondary display → Menus become scrambled Making the HP monitor primary: HP monitor → Renders correctly Laptop display → Menus become scrambled Second Screen Only: Works correctly Duplicate: Works correctly

This is significant because it largely rules out:

Paint, Notepad, Photos, or Snipping Tool individually HDMI cable issues External monitor hardware defects A simple NVIDIA driver rollback issue

Additionally, the report from another user shows:

Different laptop vendor (MSI) Different monitor vendor (Dell) Different display connections (HDMI and USB-C/DisplayPort) Similar timing of occurrence (late October)

That makes a monitor-specific or cable-specific explanation appear less likely and strengthens the possibility that a recent Windows or application-platform change may be affecting modern application UI rendering in Extended display configurations.

Before suggesting additional configuration changes, I'm interested in whether either of you have had an opportunity to test:

Settings → System → Display → Graphics

and temporarily switch one affected application (for example, Paint or Notepad) between:

Let Windows decide Power saving High performance

If the behavior changes after altering the graphics preference for a specific application, that would help determine whether the issue is related to the rendering path used by modern Windows applications in multi-monitor configurations.

Thank you again, Kris, for the thorough testing. Your findings have helped narrow this down considerably. At this point, the evidence appears to point more toward a display-composition or rendering-path issue associated with Extended mode rather than a problem with any individual application, monitor, or cabling component.

Any update from the graphics preference test would be greatly appreciated.
Kris Sathia - Consultant 0 Reputation points

2026-11-03T16:50:47.9966667+00:00

Hi Chance,

Regarding your following suggestion:

Settings - System - Display - Graphics and temporarily switch one affected application between

Power Saving

High Performance

My response :

I did this for Photos, and it seems to have solved the issue for all the Apps. This is what I did:

For Photos, the setting was Let Windows Decide(Power Saving). I changed it to High Performance and noticed that I was no longer experiencing the scrambled text and menus in Photos. I then went back to the above mentioned page and clicked on the Reset button against Reset to default settings. Then, when I opened Paint, Notepad, etc on the External monitor (which is set to Extend), I am no longer seeing the scrambled text and menus. In other words, doing the switch for Photos, and then Resetting it to its default seems to have solved the problem for all the affected programs. It have tried several times with Paint, Photos and Notepad on both screens, and the results have been good so far. I have also tried running these programs after restarting the computer, and everything still works well.

I am pleasantly surprised and hopeful that this has permanently fixed the issue. A heartfelt thanks.

Answer 2

Chance Maurice Niyonzima 825 Independent Advisor

Hello Kris,

Thank you for posting your question on the Microsoft Windows Forum!

The most important finding is that the issue appears only when the applications are displayed on the external monitor, while the menus and text render correctly on the laptop's built-in display.

This suggests the problem is more likely related to:

Display scaling
DPI awareness
Graphics driver rendering
Multi-monitor display handling

rather than corruption of the applications themselves.

What this means

Because the issue is affecting multiple Windows applications:

Paint
Snipping Tool
Photo Viewer / Photos

at the same time, a recent application update is less likely than a common factor such as:

A Windows update
A graphics driver update
A change in display scaling
An issue specific to the external monitor

Highest-value next step

I would first check whether the external monitor is configured with a different scaling setting than the laptop display.

Navigate to:

Settings
→ System
→ Display

and compare:

Scale
Resolution
Refresh Rate

between the laptop screen and the external monitor.

As a quick test, temporarily set both displays to:

100% scaling

and verify whether the menu text continues to appear scrambled.

Additional check

If the issue started approximately one week ago, it may also be helpful to review whether a recent graphics driver or Windows update was installed around the same time.

Check:

Settings
→ Windows Update
→ Update History

and:

Device Manager
→ Display Adapters
→ Driver

to see whether the behavior coincides with a recent update.

Microsoft Reference

Fix screen scaling issues in Windows: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5764308/how-do-change-the-size-of-the-display-to-fit-the-m

One clarification

Could you let us know:

The laptop model
The graphics adapter (Intel, NVIDIA, AMD)
The external monitor model
Whether the issue occurs on all external monitors or only one

Those details will help determine whether this is related to Windows display scaling, a graphics driver issue, or a recent update affecting multi-monitor rendering.

I hope this answer has brought you useful information. If so, please click on "Accept Answer" and consider upvoting it. Doing so helps other community members identify useful solutions to similar issues.

Kris Sathia - Consultant 0 Reputation points

2026-11-02T13:23:05.2266667+00:00

Hello Chance Maurice Niyonzima,

Regarding your suggestion on display scaling

Until I read your response, the scaling was set to 100% for the external monitor and 125% for my laptop monitor. As per your suggestion, I change the laptop's scale to 100% so both are the same now at 100%. I then re-started Paint. The problem continues to be as before. The text in the menus show up properly on the laptop and scrambled on the external monitor.

Regarding your suggestion on display adapter

I also went to Device Manager - Display adapters - NVIDIA Quattro - Properties - Driver and rolled it back. Thus, it has been changed from a September 2026 version to a March 15, 2026 version. I restarted the computer after that, but that did not help.

Maybe because I rolled back the NVIDIA adapter, it does not show up in the Windows Update History for the past few weeks. The device manager shows the date of the driver as March 15, 2026

The computer is

HP ZBook Fury 15 G7 Mobile Workstation

Graphics adapter - NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000

External monitor - HP EliteDisplay E243 (I have only one external monitor, so I don't have another one to test
Chance Maurice Niyonzima 825 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-11-02T13:29:50.5+00:00
Hello Kris,

Thank you for the detailed update and for testing both the display scaling and NVIDIA driver rollback.

The most important finding from your latest results is that:

The issue occurs only on the external monitor Matching both displays at 100% scaling did not help Rolling back the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 driver did not help Multiple Windows applications are affected (Paint, Snipping Tool, Photos)

This is significant because it makes a simple DPI-scaling issue or a recent NVIDIA driver regression appear less likely.

Given that the problem is isolated to the external HP EliteDisplay E243 while the same applications render correctly on the laptop panel, I would be interested in whether the issue is related to the monitor path itself (DisplayPort/HDMI, docking station, display configuration, rendering mode, etc.) rather than the applications.

Were you able to test either of the following?

Disconnecting and reconnecting the monitor using a different cable or video port Running the system with only the external monitor active (laptop display disabled)

If so, did the menu text remain scrambled?

Also, since the issue appears across multiple modern Windows applications, I'm interested to know whether the same behavior occurs in:

Microsoft Notepad Windows Settings File Explorer context menus

If you've already performed any of those tests, could you share the results? That should help determine whether we're looking at a monitor-specific rendering issue, a graphics pipeline issue, or something introduced by a recent Windows update affecting modern application UI rendering.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we continue investigating this issue together. Any additional findings would be greatly appreciated.
Chance Maurice Niyonzima 825 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-11-02T13:32:04.74+00:00
Hello Kris,

Thank you for the detailed update and for testing both the display scaling and NVIDIA driver rollback.

The most important finding from your latest results is that:

The issue occurs only on the external monitor Matching both displays at 100% scaling did not help Rolling back the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 driver did not help Multiple Windows applications are affected (Paint, Snipping Tool, Photos)

This is significant because it makes a simple DPI-scaling issue or a recent NVIDIA driver regression appear less likely.

Given that the problem is isolated to the external HP EliteDisplay E243 while the same applications render correctly on the laptop panel, I would be interested in whether the issue is related to the monitor path itself (DisplayPort/HDMI, docking station, display configuration, and rendering mode) rather than the applications.

Were you able to test either of the following?

Disconnecting and reconnecting the monitor using a different cable or video port Running the system with only the external monitor active (laptop display disabled)

If so, did the menu text remain scrambled?

Also, since the issue appears across multiple modern Windows applications, I'm interested to know whether the same behavior occurs in:

Microsoft Notepad Windows Settings File Explorer context menus

If you've already performed any of those tests, could you share the results? That should help determine whether we're looking at a monitor-specific rendering issue, a graphics pipeline issue, or something introduced by a recent Windows update affecting modern application UI rendering.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we continue investigating this issue together. Any additional findings would be greatly appreciated.