Changing the Windows fonts assigned to menus etc within applications

A number of my applications, quite unrelated to one another (examples include WordPerfect and Password Safe), use fonts for menus and other control elements which I find fuzzy and clumsy. Other applications, equally unrelated to one another (examples include Chrome and Thunderbird) have crisp, clear pleasant fonts for menus etc.

None of these applications, so far as I can discover, provide any internal means of altering these fonts. I assume that the fonts are drawn by the applications from available Windows fonts, and that if the applications provide no means for altering what is selected, there must be some means for doing so within Windows.

Can anyone suggest how to set about making changes?

Not sure about your question, but you'll want to run the ClearType Text Tuner in case you haven't. Sometimes you need to re-run it even you once did

ClearType Text Tuner

I ran the Clear Type text tuner, but it had no effect. This is probably not surprising, since I have a problem with some components of some applications, but not with those components of other applications. That strongly suggests that it is the way that application settings select fonts from Windows that lies at the heart of my problem.

Welcome to the forum.

I don't believe what you want is possible, at least not in a general way. For good or bad, applications have the ultimate control over their appearance. Most applications simply use the system defaults and this generally works well. Others override the defaults and this does not always end well. Developers have shown great ingenuity with this kind of thing. In some cases the developer has made invalid assumptions about the environment in which the application will be running or may have unusual ideas about what looks good. In some cases the application has some means of customizing appearance, in others not. In such cases there often isn't much that can be done.

I am not aware of any means within Windows of overriding the developers choices and don't believe such exists. If the application was designed for an older OS one of the compatibility settings may help.