Office - Office 2007 User Interface

Asked By rick.bridge

05-Dec-07 12:34 PM

I've noted a strange and frustrating problem with Office 2007. I installed
the application suite on a Windows XP workstation with SP2. When I open any
of the Office applications the user interface is grayscale, meaning there's
no color. Even the Office button is black and gray. The menu icons seem large
and pixelated. It's almost as if Office is opening in a classic NT window.
It's hard to describe, so here's a link to some screen captures I took
earlier today: http://www.bridgesonline.net/O2k7_UI/.

Has anyone seen this problem before? Thus far I've tried changing my display
settings, changing the appearance of Windows from the Display Properties
window, changing the start menu from Classic to the default, updating video
drivers, logging on with different user accounts, and even reinstalling
Office 2007. All to no avail.

Also, I installed Office 2007 on another workstation that has the same image
on it (we use SMS to deploy workstations), but that instance does not have
the same problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Rick

05-Dec-07 01:57 PM

Hi Rick,


I'm assuming from the list of things you've tried that you have tried enabling then disabling the 'high contrast' settings for the
Windows Accessibility choices in the Windows control panel and that you've switched the desktop display settings to 16 bit color
applied then back to 32 bit color and checked the display optimization setting for different frequency (Hz) settings?

If you change the Office 2007 theme set through Word's options to Silver, then restart the PC do you get the same result?

Does this also occur when logged in as Administrator?

If you start the Office apps in Safe mode (hold control key when starting Word) do you get the same result?

What version of Acrobat are you running with the plug ins appearing in each app and do you get the same result without it?

What make/model graphics card driver do you have and how much video memory?  Does that graphics card have its own 'controls' utility
for settings?

What else do you have running on the machine when starting the Office apps?

========
I've noted a strange and frustrating problem with Office 2007. I installed
the application suite on a Windows XP workstation with SP2. When I open any
of the Office applications the user interface is grayscale, meaning there's
no color. Even the Office button is black and gray. The menu icons seem large
and pixelated. It's almost as if Office is opening in a classic NT window.
It's hard to describe, so here's a link to some screen captures I took
earlier today: http://www.bridgesonline.net/O2k7_UI/.

Has anyone seen this problem before? Thus far I've tried changing my display
settings, changing the appearance of Windows from the Display Properties
window, changing the start menu from Classic to the default, updating video
drivers, logging on with different user accounts, and even reinstalling
Office 2007. All to no avail.

Also, I installed Office 2007 on another workstation that has the same image
on it (we use SMS to deploy workstations), but that instance does not have
the same problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Rick>>
--

Bob  Buckland  ?:-)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

05-Dec-07 02:59 PM

Bob,

You mentioned a couple of things that I hadn't tried (contrast settings,
Safe  mode, changing the color scheme and then rebooting). I tried each of
them, but haven't seen any improvement. I have tried administrative accounts.
I changed the refresh rate from 60 to 75 Hz and back. Nothing seems to be
working.

I should provide some additional information, though. I have a number of
applications installed that include add-ins for Office. I'm running Adobe
Acrobat 8.0 Standard, which adds menu items for all the Office applicatons. I
also have McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5i, Enterprise Vault 5 SP6 User
Extensions, and ActivCard (smartcare middleware) extensions installed; but
these are add-ins for Outlook only. Enterprise Vault (EV) is a Symantec
product used for mail archival. After I initially installed Office 2007, I
noticed the user interface problems in Outlook right away. One thing I found
was the icons for EV and McAfee did not have a transparent background. I
installed an MS hotfix (938534), and it worked as advertised
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938534/en-us). It didn't change anything in
regards to the 'classic window' or the grayscale menus, however.

I have dual monitors, Dell 1905FP. Resolution is set to 1280 by 1024 on
each. 32-bit color, 60 Hz refresh rate, normal DPI (96). My video card is a
256MB ATI Radeon X1300PRO.

Thanks again.

05-Dec-07 03:15 PM

I am going to remove and reinstall all of the add-ins I mentioned below....

05-Dec-07 05:00 PM

Hi Rick,

If you disable all the monitors but your primary one and restart the PC with that configuration do the colors come back?

===========
Bob,

You mentioned a couple of things that I hadn't tried (contrast settings,
Safe  mode, changing the color scheme and then rebooting). I tried each of
them, but haven't seen any improvement. I have tried administrative accounts.
I changed the refresh rate from 60 to 75 Hz and back. Nothing seems to be
working.

I should provide some additional information, though. I have a number of
applications installed that include add-ins for Office. I'm running Adobe
Acrobat 8.0 Standard, which adds menu items for all the Office applicatons. I
also have McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5i, Enterprise Vault 5 SP6 User
Extensions, and ActivCard (smartcare middleware) extensions installed; but
these are add-ins for Outlook only. Enterprise Vault (EV) is a Symantec
product used for mail archival. After I initially installed Office 2007, I
noticed the user interface problems in Outlook right away. One thing I found
was the icons for EV and McAfee did not have a transparent background. I
installed an MS hotfix (938534), and it worked as advertised
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938534/en-us). It didn't change anything in
regards to the 'classic window' or the grayscale menus, however.

I have dual monitors, Dell 1905FP. Resolution is set to 1280 by 1024 on
each. 32-bit color, 60 Hz refresh rate, normal DPI (96). My video card is a
256MB ATI Radeon X1300PRO.

Thanks again.  >>
--

Bob  Buckland  ?:-)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

05-Dec-07 07:21 PM

Hopefully, this will save someone a few hours of frustration....

Problem: It was caused by Windows defaulting to the SMS Mirror Driver
instead of the ATI driver for the video card. The SMS Mirror Driver is
installed with the SMS Agent, it handles video acceleration for the SMS
Remote Control Agent.

Resolution: This can be fixed by opening Device Manager and removing or
disabling the SMS Mirror driver. Restarting the system then allows Windows to
load using the correct video card driver.

The SMS Remote Control Agent still worked properly, and the Office 2007  now
looks like it's supposed to look.

05-Dec-07 07:29 PM

Rick, you rock. Thank you! This issue has been troubling a few users here
and there, and I've had no luck coming up with a fix. So thank you thank you
for posting back with this information!

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PowerPoint 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
(New!) The PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/2qzlpl
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/index.html

06-Dec-07 01:53 PM

I was encountering the same problem, thank you for the solution.

19-Mar-08 05:07 AM

Hi there Rick,

I'm suffering from the same Office 2007 colour problem but can't fix it!

I'm an XP user and know where the Device Manager is (right-clicking on My
Computer, Properties, Device Manager) but nowhere does it mention an SMS
Mirror Driver.

I found a page talking about the SMS Mirror Driver:
http://www.yourdolphin.com/knowledgebase.asp?act=display&pg=&ksearch=&id=262
which suggests running a CCMClean.exe from the Advanced Client and
Management Point Cleaner from the Microsoft SMS 2003 Toolkit but this does
not work either.

I found another page which talked about disabling the SMS Mirror Driver in
the Registry in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Idisw2km
and changing the Start value from '3' to '4' however the last folder does
not exist in our registry.

Obviously I'm not running Windows on 256 colours and I don't have High
Contrast enabled.

Another odd thing about my situation is that Office 2007 also runs like it
should on every other user desktop except for mine. I installed Office 2007 a
few weeks ago and it worked perfectly. Nobody (that I'm aware of) has changed
any settings on the computer since then.

This is very important for me being a Uni student and therefore spending
most of my time infront of Office programs - I know there are no changes
use-wise but I did enjoy using it a lot more when it didn't look like a
Windows 95 program :(

Please please help me to fix this problem!
Thanks so much,
Catherine.

19-Mar-08 09:32 AM

Hi Catherine,

Rick's solution has been helpful for this but is only one of several things that folks have identified as causes for the color
issues.
Generally, messing about with registry cleaners can as easily damage things as fix them :)

If you don't have dual montiors and this persists after restarting the PC

A. Try changing the the color choices in
Office File Button=>Word Option=>Popular
then restart Office.

B. Control Panel Display: Color settings should be set higher than '256'.

C. Accessibility: Display High Contrast should be unchecked.

D. Toggle the Windows Theme and color schemes in Windows XP
to XP Blue from a custom/ 'classic' setting.

E.  System: Hardware=>Device Manager:
Display Driver - If SMS Remote Control Agent is present
disable it then restart your PC.
(If this one worked, did you have installed or use any
sort of Remote 'help desk' type of software?)

F.  Check the website for the manufacturer of your
graphics card to look for an updated driver.

Hi there Rick,

I'm suffering from the same Office 2007 colour problem but can't fix it!

I'm an XP user and know where the Device Manager is (right-clicking on My
Computer, Properties, Device Manager) but nowhere does it mention an SMS
Mirror Driver. >>
--

Bob  Buckland  ?:-)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

07-Aug-08 04:10 AM

I suffered from the same problem as Rick and Catherine. After trying most of the options like the ones described below, I ran into this site and tried option C which solved my problem. However, is there some explanation behind this solution? To me it seemed like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.



Regards,



Rik

18-Nov-08 02:34 PM

Rick,
How did you fix this problem? I am experiencing the same thing.

Jessica

18-Nov-08 09:12 PM

Change your display options to a higher resolution and use Windows theme.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.  ALWAYS
post your Outlook version. How to ask a question:
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


After furious head scratching, Jessica Burton asked:

07-Jan-09 04:25 PM

Rick,

Is there a command line method for disabling the SMS Mirror Driver?  I need to do this during an automated build.

Thanks,
Kevin

30-Nov-09 05:32 PM

Rick,

I have the same issue and have tried all that you tried to no avail;

would love to know the fix??

19-Nov-10 02:03 PM

you rock dude. I had the same problem the i unchecked the 'use high contrast' from accessibility in control panel and

things revert to the way they were supposed to be.



i am from india

27-Mar-11 03:28 PM

Had the same problem on Dell Studio 1555 running Windows 7 with Office 2007. All of a sudden from one day to the next the layout had just become b&w. I repair installed office, deleted and reinstalled it, tried some normal.dot delete trick of some forum, tried to locate the SMS driver thing, couldn't find it, reinstalled video drivers, and rolled back video drivers, nothing worked. Also the accesibility high-contrast adjustment didn't work. The only thing that worked was using a different windows theme. Seems like the silliest least likely solution, but it worked. Am going to run  windows theme I downloaded for a couple of days, and personalize it again if nothing happens. If it goes pear shaped again, I will provide an update.