How to Fix: Windows 10 Display Shifted; Screen Fuzzy

Infopackets Reader Mike T. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I just installed Windows 10 over this past weekend, but my LCD monitor's display seems to be shifted to the right, and the fonts are fuzzy. The left side of the screen has a small black border around it. In fact, the clock appears to be missing the 'AM' or 'PM', and the date shows only the month and day, but not the year. Any ideas what is going on? Should I upgrade my video driver or do I need to whack my monitor? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me, and many, many thanks for all you have taught me over the years. "

My response:

The reason your display is shifted is most likely because Windows 10 installed a new display driver, or changed the display frequency settings to something other than what you had set in your previous operating system. I had the exact same problem with one of my PC's that I upgraded to Windows 10; after the upgrade, the display driver was using 59Hz instead of the regular 60Hz, which I had previously set. This caused the entire screen to shift because the monitor wasn't configured for 59Hz in its hardware settings.

Use the Auto Button to Calibrate your Display Automatically

Fortunately, the fix for this is very simple. Your monitor should have an "Auto" button on it somewhere that is used to calibrate and center the display - press the button and watch the magic happen before your eyes. If you don't see an Auto button, you may need to go into the monitor's menu (which should be a button marked "Menu") and find the "Auto" or "Calibrate" feature, which will automatically correct the display.

Adjust your Display Frequency Until the Display is Centered

If you can't find the Auto button or calibration feature, then you can also manually adjust the frequency and resolution settings through Windows 10 until you find the proper setting that has your display centered properly. This is a little more difficult compared to the above option, as you will need to try and figure out which setting works best.

To do so:

1. Click Start and type in "adjust screen resolution" (no quotes); click on the "Adjust screen resolution" link when it appears in the list.
    
2. The "Screen resolution" window will appear; click the "Advanced settings" link.
    
3. A new window will appear with the name of your graphics card as part of the title. Click on the "List all modes" button near the bottom.
    
4. You will now see a list of screen resolutions available to you. By default your current screen resolution will be highlighted, and it will most likely say 59hz or such. Scroll down to the next option available to you and highlight it - it will likely be the same resolution, but 60hz, for example.
    
5. Click the OK button, then click Apply. Your screen should go blank for a brief second and come back - and hopefully, it will be centered. If the display does not come back, wait a few more seconds and it should revert to the previous setting.
    
6. If the resolution still isn't centered, keep going down the list until you find a setting that works best for you.

When that is completed, I suggest you also update your video card driver, described next.

Update your Video Card Driver to help with Stability

Since Windows 10 was just launched, there are many folks having issues with either the screen locking up for going blank; as such, your video card manufacturer likely has released updates which include important fixes, including improved system stability. Therefore, I suggest you visit your video card manufacturer's website (usually either ATI or Nvidia) and do a check for an update - and do so on a regular basis.

Windows 10 Black Border, Shrinking Screen

Update 20150811: I've written another article that is plaguing users with ATI Radeon video cards, where the screen appears to "shrink" and is surrounded by a great big huge black border. This may be a problem especially for digital flat panel displays; for example: if you use a monitor with 1920x1080 resolution, and then change to 1280x720, the latter resolution presents a black border and a tiny screen where it was previously a full screen in Windows 7 or 8. In previous versions of Windows, ATI included an option called "scaling options" which allowed users to stretch out their displays so that the black border would disappear; however, this feature has simply disappeared in Windows 10 for older ATI video cards such as the ATI Radeon 4250. If this sounds like a problem related to you, please refer to my article Windows 10 Black Border, Shrinking Screen.

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About the author: Dennis Faas is the owner and operator of Infopackets.com. With over 30 years of computing experience, Dennis' areas of expertise are a broad range and include PC hardware, Microsoft Windows, Linux, network administration, and virtualization. Dennis holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science (1999) and has authored 6 books on the topics of MS Windows and PC Security. If you like the advice you received on this page, please up-vote / Like this page and share it with friends. For technical support inquiries, Dennis can be reached via Live chat online this site using the Zopim Chat service (currently located at the bottom left of the screen); optionally, you can contact Dennis through the website contact form.