jagged system fonts

After having all sorts of problems with Vista I decided to go back to XP.

However I have noticed that my system font seems to be very jagged and sort of faded like when you write with a pen thats running out of ink.
I notice it the most in the address bar and menus in IE7 but also in any dialogue boxes I may open etc.

I have the performance settings set to best appearance but it doesnt make a difference. I have a 19" wide screen monitor, but had no problems with the font display when I had Vista or when I previously had Xp installed.

Any suggestions as to what the problem could be??

Got cleartype on?

Odd as it may seem, the "Best Appearance" settings don't affect your font smoothing settings. XP disables font smoothing by default. To change this, go to your display properties, click the Appearance tab, then click Effects, and turn on Font Smoothing. You get a choice of methods, and Clear Type is the best. It makes a big difference on an LCD display, but even on a CRT I think it provides better quality than the alternatives.

Ah yes that did the trick. I thought I had clear type on already.

Thanks heaps..