Windows Taskbar icons are distorted?

Die-hard Infopackets Reader Brandon L. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

Do you have any idea why my taskbar icons have suddenly become so large and 'clunky' looking? The graphics which represent each running program have become very poor quality and I can't seem to figure out why this has happened. Do you know of any solution? Take care, and thanks for the great newsletters!"

My response:

Oddly enough, I found myself in the same predicament only a few weeks ago when I was visiting my mother using her computer. I noticed that her taskbar icons were oddly shaped and also noticed that some of her fonts were larger since the last time I visited.

This is the solution that I found:

• Click Start -> Control Panel -> Display
   
• Choose the Advanced Tab
   
• Go to the Active Title Bar option, and ensure that the font size is no larger than 8 point (Tahoma recommended).

For some reason, the Active Title Bar option also changes the Taskbar Clock font, which is also related to the icon size in the Taskbar. From what I understand, any icon size other than 8 (default) appears to distort the size of the icons in the Taskbar.

Side note: I had to reboot my mom's computer for the settings to "take". Once the computer restarted, the Taskbar icons were back to normal size without any distortion.