Invisible shutdown menu problem

[Bigling]

When I press the button for the shutdown menu, that which displays is clear on clear - the text is invisible. The popup descriptions that appears when the mouse is hovered over these invisible items is black on clear . . . a little imagination provides the answer. Nevertheless it is annoying, and affects Outlook 2007 Enterprise edition also - certain buttons when pressed for pull-down menus also display invisible text. I upgraded from Vista in the hope of remedying this alas to no effect. Hours of internet searching provides no solution other than finding a fellow sufferer who asked the same question in a forum, to which the reply was crickets chirping. Any help?

 

[Gornot]

Hi, and welcome to SevenForums.
Did you install any third-party themes or customization packs for icons or something? That would certainly explain what's happening, though it would be nice to post a screenshot if you can to show us exactly what you mean.

 

[Bigling]

Thank you Gornot for your reply. There is not and has never been any third party software installed to customise the windows experience. It was an out-of-the-box HP Compaq notebook computer for my wife. No icon packs, themes or display mods. Hopefully the screenshot I uploaded will tell more - the shutdown menu is displayed as a transparency with no text. Another shot shows Outlook 2007's send/receive menu in all its nothingness. Any help appreciated.

 

[SIW2]

I haven't seen that before.

When did it start?

You upgraded from Vista by in - place upgrade?

You say it happened on Vista too.

Was that from the moment you got the pc ?

Does it happen in a different user account?

 

[Bigling]

It started in Vista, perhaps around the time of an abortive installation of Everything. This program blue screened the OS and required a restart to "Last Known Good". This is the only instance of difficulty the notebook has had (that I recall). Though I note that Outlook 2007 (with Exchange) causes the computer to run at 100% CPU.

 

[SIW2]

Do you get it in all user accounts?

That is odd - I have been using Everything for a long time - Vista and 7 - no problems.

 

[Britton30]

Hi, you might try and use the non-aero themes and see if your menus come back. I know it's not a solution but would be interesting to see?
Also try going to the desktop, right click>Personalisation>Window color>Adavnced options. Hit the drop-down menu for "menu" and see what color it is set to. You may have to do this with a non-aero theme. you can play around with the text's color as well.
View attachment 154071

 

[Bigling]

Menu is a pale pink and text (font) is Segoe UI in black. A change of theme makes no difference to the font colour of nothing in the pull-up Shut-down menu. Interestingly the pop-up tips such as "this restarts your computer" still appears when hovering.
SIW2 asked "Does it happen in a different user account?" Should I create a different user account to find out? At the mo there is only 'Compaq'.

 

[Britton30]

Yes create another account with admin priveleges.