How to Fix Start Menu Text or Icon Cut-off Problem in Windows XP 3rd Party Themes?

If you like this article, please share it with your friends and contacts on Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter using following buttons so that they can also enjoy the article:

After getting numerous mails and comments regarding this particular problem, today I decided to post this topic.

Many Windows XP users who use 3rd party themes like "VistaVG", "SevenVG", face a strange problem. The icon or text of right-side pane entries in start menu is not displayed properly. Sometimes you see half icons and sometimes you see a few starting characters missing as shown in following screenshots:

Case 1:

Case 2:

SOLUTION:

Actually its not a problem. You face this problem because you are using wrong color scheme of the theme.

Most of the XP themes like my "VistaVG" theme contain more than one style, one for default icon size and other for large icon size.

There is an option in Desktop settings "Use large icons" which increase the icon size and you face this problem.

So there are 2 solutions of this problem:

Solution 1:

Open Desktop Properties, go to "Appearance" tab and select the correct "Color Scheme" from the drop-down menu:

If you are using "Use large icons" option, then you need to apply the color scheme having "48" in its name cause it has been made for large icon size option.

So if you are using wrong color scheme, change it and your problem will be solved.

Solution 2:

You can also disable "Use large icons" option to fix this problem. Open Desktop Properties, go to "Appearance" tab and click on "Effects" button.

Now uncheck "Use large icons" option and Click on "OK" button and then apply it.

Other similar articles that may interest you:

This article was posted by VG in following section: Troubleshooting, Windows XP, Windows XP Themes.

If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe to our RSS feed or free newsletter to get all new articles directly in your Inbox. Also check out our most popular articles and archive to read other interesting articles. If you have some news or tip to share, please send us.

Have You Checked Out Following Popular Articles?

rabbi hossain

i have done in but nothing heppens
VG

^^ What problem are you facing?
Jeet Chowdhury

15" Monitor Still Face That Problem Bro.
VG

^^ It doesnt have anything to do with monitor size. It happens when you use wrong color style of theme. So try to interchange between styles from "Appearance" tab.
Viraj Kansara

Thanks.
kingzoul

i use to face the same problem until i got it corrected. but the recent problem i face is whenever i insert CD, i always get Inter-Explorer icon blocking the folders in the CD, it displays whenever i change to colour-scheme "32" without the large icons. pls how can i make those internet exlorer icons disappear coz i like using the colour scheme 48.

thanx
NG

im using 32 areo and the large icons is not checked but i still cant see the icons on the start menu
balaji

hi vg,
i'm using your sevenvg theme. prior to that i'd used vistavg black. in both the cases i used/am using icon size 24. so that's automatically 'no large icons' as the default icon size is 32. in effect, i've reduced the icon size. for the moment, i'm using the aero48 color scheme in the 7vg theme. according to you the start menu items display 'cut off' because the icon size is large and the color scheme is of a lower icon size. isn't it? but in my case there should be no clipping because i'm using a larger icon size color for my lower icon size. but my start menu still shows clipped text. that is the case 1 type. although the y in My is displayed. i've tried all combinations of the color scheme with all icon sizes upto size 16. but the items still show clipping.

my idea of workaround to this problem is to modify the msstyles file of yours. the reason is that both the 32 and the 48 types STARTPANELPLACESBACKGROUND are of dimensions 144x215. as per me, the 48 size should be proportionately (1/2) greater. and that comes to 216x322. shouldn't it be so? guide me on this please. thanx in advance.
VG

^^ The large icon size means 48. If you'll use any customized icon size like 24 in your case, it'll not fit in any sub-style because one is for 32 icon size and the other is for 48 icon size. So either use the standard 32 icon size or use 48.
Askray from Malaysia

Hey VG,

nice theme the SevenVG Refresh and i finally know how to correct it but one thing for sure..why there is a fade white line along the task bar if when you on log in screen??? that's sound weird but i faced it when i use your theme. then regarding the task bar also..can you make the iconized taskbar but the icon is much bigger like Windows 7 have. It so cool when the iconized taskbar was bigger than normal plus what is the possibility to put a background image in My Computer because only the sub directories of My Computer can be done with it. Please.!!

By the way..im running Windows XP (SP2)

thank you