I ran into an interested tech support problem this past weekend. A family member had a laptop running Windows XP. The colors in Word had a dark gray background. Some backgrounds were strange and buttons would not appear within web pages in Internet Explorer.

I first installed the Opera Web browser. No problem with web pages using Opera, thus it must be a Microsoft software issue. After installing all of the Windows updates, checking program defaults, checking for a virus, and checking registry entries, I resorted to Microsoft tech support forums.(hmm… maybe this should have been the first step). Found that all that was needed was to un-check the “Use High Contrast” settings under Accessibility Options in the control panel. Apparently there are multiple “Use High Contrast” settings. This computer used “Maple” which caused the colors in Word and Explorer to be rendered incorrectly.