[Windows 8.1 Bug] Icons Look Distorted in Delete Confirmation Dialog Box and Send To Menu

To be honest I never noticed this bug until an AskVG reader “Ayan C.” reported it via email. Its a small GUI bug present in Windows 8.1. The strange thing about this bug is that it was not present in Windows 8. This bug can be reproduced in Windows 8.1 RTM (final version) as well as its preview version.

This bug doesn’t affect Windows 8.1 functionality but causes some icons to look ugly, distorted, fuzzy or whatever you would like to say.

This bug can be seen in “Delete confirmation dialog box“. Its the dialog box which appears on screen when you want to delete an item in Windows. Since Microsoft disabled this confirmation dialog box in Windows 8 and 8.1, you’ll need to first enable it with the help of following tutorial:

Advertisement

How to Enable Delete Confirmation Dialog Box in Windows 8?

If you don’t want to enable this dialog box, you can use “Shift+Delete” keyboard shortcut which is used to permanently delete an item thus bypassing Recycle Bin. The delete confirmation dialog box is always shown when you use “Shift+Delete” keyboard shortcut irrespective of whether the delete confirmation dialog box is enabled or disabled in Recycle Bin properties.

OK, back to the topic. To reproduce this bug, you’ll need to delete a folder or file. You’ll notice this bug clearly while deleting a folder. So first create a new folder by right-click on an empty area in Windows Explorer and select “New -> Folder” from context menu. You can also use direct keyboard shortcut “Ctrl+Shift+N” to create a new folder.

Once you create the folder, try to delete it and you’ll see delete confirmation dialog box. Get ready to see the bug!

The folder icon in delete confirmation dialog box will look distorted and ugly. Black edges will appear around the icon and the icon will not look correct.

Following image will show this bug in action:

Windows_8_1_Icon_Bug.png

Advertisement

You can see the difference between Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 delete confirmation dialog boxes. In Windows 8 dialog box, the folder icon looks perfect but in Windows 8.1 dialog box, it looks ugly.

Let me clear one thing! This bug is not related to graphics card driver or any other thing as I tested this bug in approx. 10 computers and I was successful in reproducing the bug in all of them. All those computers were having different hardware.

The reader also reported that the same thing also happens in “Send To” menu but this time things were a little bit different. In my personal and work computer systems, icons in “Send To” menu were looking fine but I found some other computer systems having ugly icons in “Send To” menu.

May be this bug was not fixed by Microsoft because they overlooked it as the delete confirmation dialog box doesn’t show by default. It may be also poss

We request you to try this thing in your Windows 8.1 computer and share your feedback with us…

Also Check: [Did You Know] Ultimate List of Windows 8 Bugs and Goof-ups

Published in: Windows 8

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Thanks for looking into this. This issue isn’t anything serious but certainly of the standards of a Microsoft Operating System in its public release phase. Not trying to sound cynical here but I haven’t ever seen anything like this in any Microsoft OS.

  2. I saw this bug several times, but I didn’t pay much attention until now, because I have Delete Confirmation dialogs disabled.

  3. Talking about bug icons, i remember in windows 8 sometimes make corrupted icons. Never heard about that problem in windows 7 though :-/

  4. I do not see the bug in Windows 8.1 on my machine. The icon in the delete confirmation dialog is not distorted

  5. really careful observation. I tried to delete a folder in the recycle bin and the bug reproduced. have never noticed that before.

  6. To be honest I never noticed this bug until an AskVG reader “Ayan C.” reported it via email.

    Is “dishonesty” otherwise to be presumed?
    Perhaps better to begin with “Umm. like I…” etc.

  7. I’m having the same issue on a far worser scale…
    superuser.com/questions/661907/windows-8-1-folder-content-thumbnail-glitch

  8. Yes, I have wondered if it is happening only on my Ultrabook…, but it’s a bug of Windows 8.1.
    Thanks you VG!!!
    Hope Microsoft fixes it soon!

  9. I was unable to reproduce this BUG

    i wanted to include Screen shot when i try to delete the folder but couldn’t find an option here

  10. I’m thinking…VG, can’t we fix this by a shell fix? I mean replacing Windows 8.1 File Operation Dialogs scripts with those of Windows 8.

  11. Started happening with me too 😐

    Any solution to this guys?! Microsoft really needs to pay attention to this.

  12. Right click the desktop>Personalization>Display

    Make sure “Let me choose” Is checked, and select Medium… Experiment with different sized and check your icons each time.

  13. Just follow this step to fix it

    1. Go to Desktop
    2. right click anywhere and bring the context menu.
    3. go to personalize
    4. go to display(see bottom of the left pane).
    5. there tick and enable ‘Let me chose one scaling level for all my display’, it is by deafult set to medium option(if it’s not chose medium), click apply, click sign out now and then sign in again.
    6. ur icons and screen will be magnified.
    7. again go to display and this time chose smaller( from smaller and medium options), click apply, click sign out now and then sign in again.
    8. ur screen and icons will be back to normal but the bug is still present.
    9. again go to display, and this time just disable or untick the ‘Let me chose one scaling level for all my display’, click apply, click sign out now and then sign in again.
    10. now again enable or tick ‘Let me chose one scaling level for all my display’, click apply, click sign out now and then sign in again.
    11. last step, disable or untick the ‘Let me chose one scaling level for all my display’, click apply, click sign out now and then sign in again.

  14. Hello Guys i have this problem 2 after upgrading to 8.1 fro 8 this problem happened to all of my folder icons at first i thought it was a graphics thing but after updating my graphics driver still didnt fix it

  15. Yes i am having this same issue. Also the colum header separator not that much visible as windows 7. It usage too much white colour….

  16. Actually, Task has the right answer. I got rid of my black borders, thanx Task! I was very annoyed by them, for some reason ( OCD ?! ) 🙂

  17. I’ve just installed Windows 8.1 AIO 24in1 with Update x64 en-US Jul2014.
    Installed all available updates via Windows Update. Bug still exist.

    Any fix for this?

  18. I also am having this kind of bug. Super annoying. All latest updates are installed. Hopefully they will fix this.
    Does anybody know where I can report a bug to Microsoft? Google only gave me the atuomatic problem notification thing that windows offers.
    Thanks!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

NOTE: Your comment may not appear immediately. It'll become visible once we approve it.