Ok Mag/all, check this out: I followed Cliff's "Text Shadow" thread and tried removing the
"use drop shadows" from the control panel-->performance information and tools-->advance tools-->adjust the appearance and performance of window area and that didn't do anything BUT. When I then went into that area and unchecked "Use Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons" I managed to restore the sharp text almost everywhere!! HOWEVER, this also whacks a lot of the win 7 theme look, you are gonna notice everything goes back to an almost plain vanilla win 95 look, as if by unchecking that 7 is removing ALL customization from EVERYTHING. So I haven't tried messing around with it yet to see what kinds of themes I can get from here, but this is the direction you need to go in if you want this
In other words, something about the "Visual Style" in 7 is causing the additional rendering.