Recently a user requested to change the default print style in IE7 from Shrink to Fit to 100% but I was unable to really find any straightforward procedure to assist in the process. The typical procedure to change this value is to select Print Preview then change the setting from Shrink to Fit to the desired percentage value from the drop down menu. I personally prefer the default as Shrink to Fit, but having the option to change the default is always a nice application feature.
The general online consensus seemed to be that Microsoft had not placed an easy way to change this default within the latest browser release and it had become quite an issue for users and web developers alike. But never fear User Dear, there is a workaround (as there usually is) and below is the process you need to perform in order to make this change after you save your current registry settings of course.
Navigate to this location in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl
Manually add the following registry Key:
FEATURE_STF_Scale_Min
Then create a new DWORD with a Value name of iexplore.exe and a Value data of 64 (The 64 is equal to 100% for the default print value).
Reboot and you should be able to default to 100% instead of Shrink to Fit in IE7.
I found out about this particular registry key from a fix Microsoft did for print issues in other programs such as Outlook or Microsoft Mail and it just so happens to work the same with IE7. You do not need to apply the hotfix in order to get this to work for IE7. I thought that the hotfix would install this specific key, but it did not so I had to manually add it. Aside from manually creating the key, I do not know how it gets created as described in that article. I would love to know, so if you do, drop me a line and educate me.