Scrolling in Visual Studio causes text to become unreadable

Asked 27/12, 2011 at 15:33 Answered 7/7, 2024 at 6:58

Solved visual-studio-2010

Since the past week I'm having a very bothering issue that blocks me from using Visual Studio.

For instance, here's what I normally see:

But as soon as I scroll a bit down (either with the arrow key, mouse wheel or the scroll bar), this is what I get:

As you can see, part of the frame seems to be "locked" in the screen.

The only way to see it right, is to make some other window cover VS's window, then going back to VS I see it right.

This is what I have tried (checking if the issue was solved after each step):

Check for updates
Repair VS2010
Remove R# and any other extension/add-in
Reinstall R# and any other extension/add-in
Remove VS2010 and any related software
Reinstall VS2010 + SP1 and updates
Remove any other unused software
Remove any recently installed/updated software
Run CCleaner

None of these steps solved the issue.
This happens only with VS2010, regardless the project or solution I'm opening.

Sining answered 27/12, 2011 at 15:33 Comment(7)

To be honest, I had not few trouble writing the title of this question and for the same reason, to look for some solution to it, as I can't simply describe the issue with words. For this reason, I'll try to explain it graphically, hoping in some help, at least to find how to look for a solution. I'm not even sure this is the right place where to write, but still... where else I could find the right help? – Sining 27/12, 2011 at 15:33

Best guess is that there's something running on your computer that's essentially breaking your UI. I can't be much more specific than that. – Marqueritemarques 27/12, 2011 at 15:37

Folks, this question is not "off-topic". The faq very clearly states that questions about "software tools commonly used by programmers" are on-topic here. I'm not sure who else uses Visual Studio but programmers. – Sosanna 27/12, 2011 at 15:38

This is likely related to the fact that the UI in VS2010 was rewritten to use WPF (a change I definitely do not agree with). As a result, lots of people have experienced rendering problems. I could swear I've answered a similar question on here already, but I can't find the link no matter how hard I search. The next thing to try is changing the rendering settings the Options dialog. Tools -> Options -> Visual experience – Sosanna 27/12, 2011 at 15:43

this is off topic? no way! voting to re-open. @AndreaSciamanna: looks like this is being box selected. does your aspx and cs pages show the same behavior? – Agglutination 27/12, 2011 at 16:9

@CodyGray, about the rendering settings, I can't find them. There isn't a "Tools->Options->Visual Experience" menu/option. And yes, "Show all settings" is checked. I've checked all items in "Tools->Options" but I can't find this one. – Sining 28/12, 2011 at 7:47

Oh, forget it @CodyGray, I've found it! ...and after having played a bit with these settings, nothing changed. – Sining 28/12, 2011 at 8:0

I think you need to start looking beyond Visual Studio for issues. The next thing I'd look at is your graphics driver. Make sure you have the latest available version.

Metamorphism answered 27/12, 2011 at 15:42 Comment(7)

I thought about that, but really, this happens only with VS2010 and about the graphics driver, besides the fact I've just said, they're updated as far as I can see. – Sining 28/12, 2011 at 7:38

Well, after all was a problem somehow related to a graphics driver, but not the original graphics driver. Looking in Device Manager, under Display Adapters, I've noticed that I had, in addition to the AMD Radeo HD 6700 Series, the LogMeIn Mirror Driver. I've isntalled LogMeIn the past week, in order to work from home (a decision I'm still regretting as the connection is too slow to allow me to work remotely). Disabling this and rebooting, the issue disappeared. Since I don't need LogMeIn anymore, I'm going to uninstall it, but it's good to know that this is the issue. – Sining 28/12, 2011 at 9:43

Thank you! I've had LogMeIn installed for almost 2 years and this problem with VS just started. Not sure what caused it, but uninstalling LogMeIn fixed it. – Scoles 4/10, 2012 at 20:23

Same here but it was dameware mirror driver – Assume 21/1, 2013 at 13:15

BTW I've had this issue with vs2012 and was solved with deactivating thte mirror driver – Assume 21/1, 2013 at 13:36

I have used LogMeIn for years and never had this issue. Yesterday I remotted in from my mobile, and today morning I applied latest updates from Microsoft. No idea which of those to things caused this issue, but I fixed it by disabling the Mirror Driver too and I can still remote in. Thanks Andrea! – Berte 12/4, 2013 at 18:27

Disabling LogMeIn mirror gfx driver worked for me as well. Strange that I had LogMeIn installed for years before with no adverse affects. Great question with a great answer, thanks guys. This was very annoying. – Uxmal 4/2, 2014 at 23:0

I have the same problem with VS 2012. Scrolling up and down, does not refresh sections (rectangles) on my text editor view. (unfortunately I've not enough reputation to post a screenshot.)

I managed to workaround it in VS 2012, by floating the editor. i.e. Right Click on a file tab / Float All.

Otherwise I tried everything posted here, without any luck. Hopefully someone out there knows how to undo this magic.

Jus answered 21/4, 2015 at 17:51 Comment(3)

This worked for me. Running into this issue in VS 2013. It's surely a bug in VS, as all other applications are working fine. Also, I didn't check for any driver conflicts but I'm unable to uninstall any drivers as I need to work remotely. I don't see the need to uninstall anything as only VS is affected. – Married 29/5, 2015 at 17:2

I'm having the same issue in VS 2015 pro. Floating the windows fixes the problem. – Misogyny 21/9, 2016 at 3:48

The issue persists till VS 2019. I get this over a remote desktop when I scroll using mouse, the text gets distorted. It works fine on using the page up/down keys. Floating the window fixes the problem fully. So what is it, a bug in VS or still someone claiming a graphics driver issue ? – Curley 25/3, 2020 at 10:39

I had the same problem and it was due to the DameWare Development Mirror Driver.

I disabled it and the problem went away.

Orme answered 1/6, 2015 at 11:10 Comment(2)

Administrative Tools->Computer Management->System Tools->DeviceManager->Display adapters->DameWare Development Mirror Driver 64bit, Action->Disable, then reboot. And presto, VisualStudio edit window scrolls properly again. – Turbine 10/11, 2015 at 3:35

I saw this today due to the Famatech Radmin Mirror driver (3.5). – Lavoie 17/8, 2016 at 15:41

I'm having the same issue in VS 2015 pro. Setting the editor windows to float fixes the problem which definitely looks like a bug in visual studio. I'm on a Citrix virtual Desktop and the problem appears to be that a "column" of the editor (on the left side) is not redrawing properly after scrolling right, left, or down. For some reason scrolling up is fine.

Misogyny answered 21/9, 2016 at 3:53 Comment(0)

For me, using VS 2013 Pro, the cause was having the JAWS Screen Reader installed, which, ominously, included a video interceptor. Once uninstalled VS started working normally again.

Frowsty answered 11/11, 2016 at 10:25 Comment(0)

I had this same problem and it turns out it wasn't a graphics driver issue. The company I work for uses software that acts like a virtual monitor to remotely log into our PCs to install software and fix problems. It turns out that this extra virtual monitor was the problem. Disabling it fixed the scrolling in Visual Studio.

Morning answered 9/1, 2017 at 13:37 Comment(0)

I had the same problem in Visual Studio 2017. When I changed the color theme to 'dark' the problem seemed to be fixed

Harned answered 3/11, 2017 at 8:19 Comment(0)

I am using Windows 11 and VS 2022. I recently had the same problem when using VS through Remote Desktop, it was solved for me after I have unchecked "Use all my monitors for the remote session" on the "Display" tab of the Remote Desktop connection dialog.

Greta answered 7/7, 2024 at 6:58 Comment(0)

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