Same problem as first post.  I made a new installation on Win 7 x64 a couple of days ago.  No violations found running sfc.  No problems with display of system fonts in other applications.  I opened the tile editor on the default skin and found the font size in the various dialogs to be set to various negative numbers.  Clearly a problem.  However, changing them all to a reasonable value (12) and restarting the app did not fix the problem.  Also, the skin background disappears after a few clicks of use, leaving only some non-functional icons floating on top of the original desktop.  The app remains running in the background and does not report a crash, but can't be accessed as far as I can tell. 

Perhaps some recent changes have a typo or other easily fixable bug?  Hope you can get this worked out as the app looks useful. 

Would you mind posting a screenshot of what you're seeing?

Any updates on this?

-Ash

Maybe you're running other customization software or another app that's interfering? Maybe an installation issue? Have you tried un-installing reg cleaning and re-installing?

If I would get that I would do a system restore, but you say it´s happening on a Fresh/new 7 install.... Doesen´t make sense.

-New install you say...What programs do you have running simultainiously as Tiles ?? Background programs included.

Ok, I just worked it out.

In stardocks efforts to make money they have put in some hooks to make multi monitor support a "feature".

In doing so, if you have more than one monitor attached, even if only one monitor is "switched on", then the extra monitor shows no text.

In my instance, I have a 14" laptop.

Attached is a 24" monitor.

The laptop lid is closed.

Only the attached 24" display is active, and ON. The laptop display is OFF.

Tiles still interprets this as being in "multi monitor mode" and does things that purposely disable the text rendering on the 24" monitor, but renders fine on the 14" monitor.

This is kinda sneaky, and this kind of DRM is a bit over the top.

Definitely not buying this software.

-Ash

@ Ash: Snowman goes MULTI and he doesent seem to have ANY problems with it.

For me the multi monitor menu is grayed out, and there is an option in the purchase section to "purchase multimonitor support".

Not sure what version you are using.

Either way, it should work on a fresh install out of the box without issue, especially when it is a virgin install. It does not, thus I'm not going to buy it.

-Ash

Ask

In any case, thanks for posting what you think is the issue.  we'll follow up.

If you shut the lid on your laptop, it turns off that monitor, but it does not disable it. So technically, you'd still be running in multi monitor mode.

Try this. Right click on monitor 2, display, set it to only use monitor two, thus "disabling" monitor one.

Now you should be running in single monitor mode. Tiles should work correctly.

I think you have made an incorrect assumption here.

The text drawing code is in no way linked to how many monitors you have, however it may be altering how your graphics card is handling things.  For one thing Tiles would have no way of knowing you had done that as you would only have a single monitor enabled. 

My best guess is your graphics card system with the optimus graphics is causing the problem here and preventing the DirectWrite text from drawing on screen.  I wouldn't be shocked to discover that it is trying to use the wrong GPU and so fails at an unexpected point.

Buying or not buying the Multiple monitor option will have no impact on your ability to have rendered text in Tiles.