The solution is simple and easy to change the desktop icons size on Windows 11 and 10 for every Windows 10 or 11 user !

1.) . Change the Desktop Symbols size on Windows 11 and 10!
2.) . Problems with Desktop Symbols size on Windows 10 and 11!

1.) Change the Desktop Symbols size on Windows 11 and 10!

1. Please use the keyboard-shortcut Windows-logo+D to see the Windows Desktop.

2. Click on an empty space on the Windows desktop, right Mouse-Button. And select “View”!

3. And now you can change the Windows Desktop icon size:

Small icons : like Windows XP
Medium icons: like Windows 7, 8.1
Large icons: visual impairment

See also:
► find Paint in Windows 10 / 11 ► Typing speed Windows 10 or 11 ► hidden files and folders ► create a PDF from Screenshot

(Image-1) Change the desktop icons size in Windows 10!

This example for customize or changing the desktop icons / symbol size is suitable for: Windows 11, 10 Pro, Enterprise, Home, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows-Server 2019, 2016, 2012, Windows 7 Basic, Professional, Starter, Ultimate

2.) Problems with Desktop Symbols size on Windows 10 or Win 11!

From Windows-10/11 creators update there many Problems whit Desktop Symbol size, before you upgrade create a backup of the Desktop Symbol Positions. Or rearrange the Desktop Symbols again.

See also:
► . Reset Windows 10/11 at update problem (restore action)!
► . The update will be downloaded but no installation under Windows 11/10?
► . Change Windows 10/11 update settings, quick fix!

Finally about the Desktop – Icon Size!

Even if the desktop icons are too big or too small, for whatever reason, you can change that pretty easily, as you can see above in Windows 10 shot screenshot, you can use this example as a general solution to make the desktop icons great or smaller is so Easily to apply this resowed problem tip on earlier and older versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems, whether it’s a native Windows desktop computer, or if the desktop icons size changes automatically on the tablet PC, Surface Pro / Go, even an administrator on the MS Server operating systems sometimes have problems with the desktop icon sizes.

It is a simple, yet effective example, and very useful, it has been tested on all MS-OS and successfully verified.

By Melanie Pinola published 25 April 22

Here’s how to change the icon size in Windows 10

Wish the desktop icons in Windows 10 were bigger and easier to tap on your touchscreen laptop? Or would you rather such shortcuts didn’t take up as much real estate space on your laptop? Not to worry, here’s how to change the icon size in Windows 10.

How to change the icon size in Windows 10

1. Right-click on an empty space on the desktop.

2. Select View from the contextual menu.

3. Select either Large icons, Medium icons, or Small icons. The default is medium icons.

On laptops with a native 1600 by 900 pixels display, the large option looks huge, the small size is too small, and the medium size looks just right (as Goldilocks would say). Your preference might vary depending on your screen’s display resolution. Changing the size of the icons on the desktop doesn’t affect the size of the icons elsewhere in Windows 10, but there are ways you can change those, too.

How to change the size of the taskbar icons

If you want to change the size of the icons in your taskbar, there’s a different setting for that, which will also change the size of text, apps, and other items across Windows 10.

1. Right-click on an empty space on the desktop.

2. Select Display settings from the contextual menu.

3. Move the slider under “Change the size of text, apps, and other items” to 100%, 125%, 150%, or 175%.

4. Hit Apply at the bottom of the settings window. Windows might ask you to log out and log back in for a more consistent experience.

This will not only make the icons in the taskbar a bit larger, but it will also make text bigger in apps like Microsoft Edge and Calendar, as well as in Windows 10 notification windows.

How to change the size of icons in File Explorer

If you’d like larger or smaller icons or thumbnails in particular folders, you can change those on the fly in File Explorer.

Just head to your folder location and use your mouse’s scroll wheel to zoom in or out, effectively switching the view between Windows 10’s large icons, medium icons, small icons, list, details, tiles, and content views.

Although File Explorer will remember your last setting when you open this folder again, this is a folder-specific setting, so you’ll have to adjust each folder you’d want different icon and text sizes for.

Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He’s written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times and Reader’s Digest, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami’s NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times—and that’s just here at How-To Geek. Read more.

Windows lets you choose large, medium, or small desktop icons. But did you know many other size options are available? You can fine-tune the size of your desktop icons with a quick shortcut that involves your mouse wheel.

The standard desktop icon sizes are available in the desktop’s context menu—right-click the desktop, point to view, and select “Large icons,” “Medium icons,” or “Small icons.”

For extra size options, position your mouse cursor over the desktop, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard, and scroll the mouse wheel up or down. Stop scrolling and release the Ctrl key when you’ve found your preferred size.

This shortcut lets you select a wider range of desktop icon sizes than the typical desktop context menu does—we counted a range of 28 sizes, from extra tiny to surprisingly huge. The mouse wheel shortcut will give you extra control over resizing your icons, shrinking or enlarging them much more than you otherwise could.

This trick works in File Explorer or Windows Explorer, too. You can quickly resize file and folder icons by holding Ctrl and rotating your mouse’s scroll wheel.

Marshall is a writer with experience in the data storage industry. He worked at Synology, and most recently as CMO and technical staff writer at StorageReview. He’s currently an API/Software Technical Writer based in Tokyo, Japan, runs VGKAMI and ITEnterpriser, and spends what little free time he has learning Japanese. Read more.

You might want bigger icons on your Windows 10 PC to help you find what you need, or smaller icons to keep things compact and tidy. Fortunately, it’s easy to adjust icon sizes on your desktop, taskbar, and File Explorer.

Resize Desktop Icons

If the icons on your desktop are too large or too small, you can quickly resize them into one of the three available sizes.

First, right-click anywhere on your desktop. In the context menu that appears, hover your mouse over “View.” In the sub-menu, you’ll see three sizes to choose from: large, medium, and small. You’ll see a dot next to the current size. Click the size that you want.

If you find that the three available options aren’t exactly what you’re looking for, you can place your cursor anywhere on the desktop, press and hold the Ctrl key, and then scroll your mouse wheel up or down to increase or reduce the size of the desktop icons, respectively. This adjusts the size in smaller increments, letting you get the size closer to what you want.

Resize Taskbar Icons

There’s an option to adjust the size of the Taskbar icons in the Settings menu, but you only have two options: normal and small.

Right-click on an empty space in the Taskbar. Click “Taskbar Settings” at the bottom of the context menu that appears.

The Taskbar Settings window will open. Near the top of the list of options, toggle the slider to the “On” position under the “Use Small Taskbar Buttons” option.

This will reduce the size of the taskbar icons.

To change the icons back to the default size, toggle the slider back to the “Off” position.

Resize File Explorer Icons

File Explorer lets you adjust the icon sizes to extra large, large, medium, or small.

First, open File Explorer. You can use the Windows+E keyboard shortcut, or just click the File Explorer icon on the taskbar.

Next, click the “View” tab.

In the “Layout” group, choose the icon size that you want. The current setting is highlighted in blue.

If one of these four options doesn’t fit your requirements, place your mouse anywhere in File Explorer, press and hold the Ctrl key, and then scroll your mouse wheel up or down to increase or decrease the icon size, respectively. This will adjust the size of the icons in smaller increments.

That’s all there is to it.

Changing icon sizes in Windows 10 is easy, but there’s no need to stop there. You can also change the size of Windows 10 text and even your cursor. Continue customizing Windows 10 to match exactly what you want.

How to make desktop icons smaller on Windows 10? You have 5 ways to easily do it. This tutorial offers the step-by-step guides. Check them below. For Windows users, you can find many useful tools from MiniTool Software, e.g. MiniTool Power Data Recovery, MiniTool Partition Wizard, MiniTool ShadowMaker, MiniTool Video Converter, etc.

Way 1. How to Make Desktop Icons Smaller with Right-click

  1. You can right-click the blank area on your desktop.
  2. Click View and click Small icons or Medium icons to make the desktop icons smaller on Windows 10.

Tip: To show or hide desktop icons on Windows 10, you can check and uncheck Show desktop icons in the list.

Way 2. How to Make Icons Smaller on Desktop with Ctrl + Scroll

  1. Place your mouse on your desktop.
  2. Press and hold Ctrl key, and scroll your mouse wheel downwards to reduce the size of desktop icons on Windows 10.

Tip: If you want to make the desktop icons larger, you can scroll your mouse wheel upwards.

Way 3. How to Make My Desktop Icons Smaller via Settings

  1. Click Start and click Settings to open Windows Settings window.
  2. Click System and click Display from the left panel.
  3. Find Scale and layout option in the right window. Click the drop-down icon under Change the size of text, apps, and other items option. Select a scale value to turn the desktop icons smaller.

Tip: You can also click Advanced scaling settings link under this option to custom the scaling value.

Way 4. How to Make Desktop Icons Smaller with Keyboard Shortcut

Another quick way to change the desktop icons to be smaller is to use keyboard shortcut.

  1. You can press and hold Ctrl + Shift keys on your keyboard.
  2. And press 4 to make your Windows 10 desktop icons smaller. To make the desktop icons in medium size, press 3. To make desktop icons larger, press 2. To turn desktop icons into the largest size, press 1.

Way 5. Change Screen Resolution to Make Desktop Icons Smaller

  1. Press Windows + I to open Windows Settings.
  2. Click System and click Display in the left column.
  3. Find Display resolution in the right window and click its drop-down icon.
  4. Choose a larger screen resolution and your desktop icon size will become smaller. To change desktop icon size to larger, you can select a lower resolution.

As for how to make desktop icons smaller on Windows 10, you can use one of 5 ways above. Now you can go to change desktop icon size on your Windows 10 computer.

Extra Tools You May Be Interested:

MiniTool Power Data Recovery – Free data recovery program lets you recover any deleted or lost files, photos, videos, etc. from Windows computer, external hard drive, USB, memory card, SSD, etc.

MiniTool Partition Wizard – Free disk partition manager allows you to create/delete/extend/format/wipe partitions, convert partition format, migrate OS, clone disk, check and fix disk errors, etc.

MiniTool ShadowMaker – Free PC backup software lets you backup and restore Windows system, select and back up files, folders and partitions to external hard drive or USB, etc.

MiniTool Video Converter – Free video converter, audio converter, screen recorder, and video downloader.

MiniTool MovieMaker – Edit video for free to make amazing movie video. Support various output formats.

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About The Author

Alisa is a professional English editor with 4-year experience. She loves writing and focuses on sharing detailed solutions and thoughts for computer problems, data recovery & backup, digital gadgets, tech news, etc. Through her articles, users can always easily get related problems solved and find what they want. In spare time, she likes basketball, badminton, tennis, cycling, running, and singing. She is very funny and energetic in life, and always brings friends lots of laughs.

Steve Larner Steve Larner carries over ten years of content management, editing, and writing experience in a wide variety of industries. As a tech enthusiast, Steve also enjoys exploring new products and devices and helping others solve their technological problems. Read more April 16, 2021

One of the best things about Windows is that you can customize it almost infinitely to look and feel just how you want. While the default settings are pretty good, there is always room for improvement.

So, how do you configure your computer to make desktop icons smaller? This tutorial walks you through the steps to shrink those icons and explains how to move, change, and delete them.

Make Desktop Icons Smaller (or Larger) in Windows 10

To make desktop icons smaller in Windows 10, there are three predefined defaults available. You can also use your mouse’s scroll wheel to adjust the size.

Choose Icon Size from Three Predefined Options

  1. Right-click on an empty area within your Windows 10 desktop.
  2. Select “View.”
  3. Choose one of the preset options: “Small icons,”“Medium icons,” or “Large icons.”

Use Your Mouse’s Scroll Wheel to Adjust Icon Size

To resize desktop icons using your PC mouse, follow these steps:

  1. Hover the mouse on an empty place on the desktop.
  2. Hold “Ctrl” on the keyboard and scroll your “mouse wheel” forward and backward to change the size of the Windows 10 desktop icons. Remember, this does not change the font size or other images.

Use Laptop’s/Netbook’s Touchpad to Adjust Icon Size

To resize desktop icons using your laptop’s touchpad or touchscreen, follow these steps:

  1. From within the desktop (any location), place two fingers (usually your thumb and index) on the touchpad, then move them together or away to adjust the icon size gradually.
  2. If you run out of room on the touchpad, repeat the above process until you achieve the desired icon size.

Resizing Windows 10 icons with the mouse wheel or touchpad offers more control because they aren’t restricted to three presets. You can use these three resizing options to find the perfect fit for your desktop.

Adjust Text Size, Running Apps, and Other Visuals

If you’re into customizing your desktop, you can also change the size of the text and other graphical items along with those icons. This process applies to all apps, windows, and screen views.

  1. Navigate to Settings ->System ->Display.
  2. Change the slider underneath ‘Change the size of text…’
  3. Slide it up to make everything larger or down to make it smaller.
  4. Select Apply once you’re happy.

Your screen resolution will remain the same, but the items displayed will increase or decrease in size based on your chosen setting. It’s primarily designed to make things on the screen easier to see, but it is useful in other applicable ways too!

Text resizing works with most but not all Windows apps. If a program is fully compatible with Windows 10, it will work. If the app is not 100% compatible, Windows may try to rescale it to fit or will leave it alone.

Adjust Icon Size within Windows Explorer

You can also change how files and folders appear within Windows 10 File Explorer.

  1. Open Windows Explorer.
  2. Select View from the top menu.
  3. Select a setting directly underneath in the ribbon menu that appears.
  4. You can also use the Ctrl and mouse scroll wheel trick again if you prefer.

As you can see from the above information, there are infinite sizing options you can make to your system. Whether you just want tiny icons to save some and preserve your beautiful wallpapers or larger ones to see them better, Windows 10 has plenty of ways to do it!

If you also want to change the look of any hard or soft-link icons, you can customize desktop shortcut arrows to suit your needs.

    tutorial by Codrut Neagu published on 02/13/2019

If you are a Windows user, it is almost impossible not to use desktop icons. They are one of the easiest ways to open apps and files, without having to dig into the file system. However, that is true only if you can see your desktop icons clearly so that you can click on them. By default, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 display desktop icons in a preset medium size. Although that is the right choice in most situations, for some people, the default medium size could seem too large or too small. If you want to know how to change the desktop icons size to make them smaller, so more of them can fit on your screen, or larger so that you see them better, read this guide:

NOTE: All the methods shared in this guide work the same in Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7. For simplicity, we use screenshots taken only in Windows 10.

1. How to make desktop icons smaller or bigger, by using the right-click menu

One of the easiest ways to change the size of your desktop icons in Windows is to use the right-click menu. Right-click (or tap and hold, if you have a touchscreen) somewhere on the empty space on your desktop. In the right-click menu, click or tap View. The first three options you get are “Large icons,” “Medium icons,” and “Small icons.” A dot near its name signals the current view. Click or tap on the size you want, and the desktop icons size changes accordingly.

2. How to make desktop icons smaller or bigger, by using your keyboard and mouse

Another way to change the size of your desktop icons is to use the keyboard and the mouse. That means you need to have these two peripherals connected to your PC, so it is mostly limited to those who use a desktop PC or a laptop.

First, go to your desktop and minimize or close all opened apps. To make your desktop icons smaller, press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard, and scroll your mouse wheel downwards.

To make your desktop icons larger, press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard, and scroll your mouse wheel upwards.

3. How to make desktop icons smaller or bigger, by changing your screen’s resolution

A third and more radical way of changing the size of your desktop shortcuts in Windows is to modify the resolution used by your display. More specifically, what you need to do to make desktop icons smaller, is to increase your display resolution. If you want larger desktop icons, you should lower your screen resolution.

Take heed, though, that changing the resolution does not only alter the size of your desktop shortcuts but of everything else shown on the screen. That means apps, text, icons, and everything else. Do not do this unless you want to make everything smaller, or bigger.

If you want to modify your display resolution, follow the steps shown in these tutorials:

4. How to make desktop icons smaller or bigger, by scaling the text, apps and other items

Finally, the fourth method we know for changing the size of desktop icons involves changing the scaling of your display. What scaling does is increase or decrease the size of text, apps, and other items, including desktop icons, so that the people using the computer can easily see them.

To make the desktop icons size smaller, decrease the display scaling. To make your desktop icons bigger, increase the screen scaling. In Windows 10, these actions are performed in the Settings app. Go to “System -> Display -> Scale and layout.”

If you do not know how to make these changes, and you are using Windows 10, read the last part of this guide. If you want to do change scaling on a Windows 7 or 8.1 PC, read the last part of this tutorial.

Conclusion

Desktop icons represent one of the fastest ways to open anything on a Windows computer or device. Now you know how to make them smaller or bigger so that you can see and find them more easily on your desktop. Before you close this tutorial, we would like to know if you prefer your desktop icons small or large? Do you have many icons and shortcuts on your desktop? Tell us in the comments below.

We show you how to change desktop icon size in Windows 10 using three methods, then go on to show you how to change taskbar icon size.

Love them or hate them, desktop icons for many people are a core part of how they use their operating system. Their default size, however, doesn’t work for everyone.

You may want to make your desktop icons smaller so you can fit more on, or larger if your screen is a high resolution or you have poor eyesight. As a result, today we’re going to show how to change your desktop icon size in Windows 10.

Due to there being a good chance you’ll want to change both, we’ll also be showing you how to change taskbar icon size in Windows 10. As well as making your taskbar icons bigger or smaller, this will adjust the size of your taskbar so you have more or less screen space to work with.

How to make icons smaller on desktop or taskbar

We’ll be showing you three methods to make desktop icons smaller or bigger today, one that uses the mouse, one that uses the keyboard, and one that uses both. Though there are a couple of ways to change taskbar icon size, we’ll keep that to one method – the easiest one. Let’s get started:

How to Change Desktop Icon Size Using the Scroll Wheel

Perhaps the fastest way to make desktop icons smaller or larger is through your mouse’s scroll wheel. This is particularly suitable if you have a physical mouse rather than using a touchpad. All you need to do is press a specific button on your keyboard while you scroll:

    Press Ctrl and scroll your mouse wheel

Of course, you should be looking at your desktop while you do this or it won’t work. The icons will change size in increments, but there’s quite a few of them, so you should be able to find a size you like.

How to Make Icons Smaller or Larger on the Desktop via Context Menu

If you’re more mouse-oriented, you can choose between the preset small, medium and large desktop icon sizes through the use of the context menu. Here’s how:

    Right-click your desktop and press “View > x icons”

Replace x with whatever size you’d like your icons to be – small, medium, or large. You can experiment until you find the one you prefer.

How to Change Desktop View Layout using Keyboard

Alternatively, you can use just the keyboard to change your desktop view layout, which will have a similar effect to changing your desktop icon size. Here’s the shortcut to do so:

    Press Ctrl + Shift + a number to change icon size

The main difference between the view layout and changing icon size normally is that the smallest sizes will present your icons in a list format with file size, date, and other info. This can be quite useful if you have a lot of icons or files.

How to Change Taskbar Icon Size in Taskbar Settings

With that done, you’re probably wondering how make taskbar icons bigger or smaller in Windows 10 to match. The process is quite intuitive, and will also make your taskbar smaller or larger to suit them. Here’s how you do it:

    Right-click the empty space on your taskbar

Select “Taskbar settings” in the context menu

Toggle “Use small taskbar button” on

Or, if you already have it enabled, just turn it off.

Extra: How to Create a Desktop Shortcut

Of course, knowing how to change desktop icon size isn’t much use if you don’t know how to make them in the first place. For that, you can follow our dedicated how to create a desktop shortcut tutorial.

Extra: How to Fix Missing Icons and Thumbnails

If after resizing your icons you realize that some of them are blank, you can instead follow our fix missing icons and thumbnails guide.

Infopackets Reader Denise N. writes:

Thanks for your article on ‘How to Fix: Increase Taskbar Thumbnail Preview in Windows 7, 8, 10’. I have a similar question. I recently purchased a new PC with Windows 10, and the monitor resolution is 1920 x 1080. The problem is that when I go to My Pictures folder, the picture thumbnails are too small and I have a hard time figuring out what is in the picture thumbnail preview. I have tried setting the icons to ‘Large’, which is a bit too small, but when I set it to ‘Extra Large’ it is way too big. How can I make the picture thumbnails in Explorer somewhere between Large and Extra Large?”

There are two options you can use to resolve the issue. One is that you can adjust the icon / thumbnail size using the scroll wheel on your mouse; the other is that you can set the DPI (dots per inch) to a higher resolution, similar to what I explained in the other tutorial.

How to Fix: Increase Thumbnail and Icon Size in Windows 7, 8, 10

Increase Thumbnail and Icon Size: Using Mouse Wheel

By far the easiest way to increase the icon / thumbnail preview in Windows Explorer is to use your mouse scroll wheel. To do so: navigate to your pictures folder using Windows Explorer (or any random folder you want to adjust, for that matter). To increase the thumbnail preview or icon size, right click an empty space inside your folder window, then select View -> Large icons. Now, press and hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard and at the same time, use your mouse scroll wheel up or down to change the thumbnail preview / icon size. You can also use this icon adjustment ‘trick’ on the desktop if you want to adjust your desktop icons.

Another tip: if you want to use this exact same layout for all folders, then click the File menu at the top of the Explorer window, then go to “Change folder and search options”. The “Folder Options” window will appear; click the “View” tab. Under the “Folder views” heading, click the “Apply to folders” button and this will make all your folders open up the same way.

Increase Thumbnail and Icon Size: Using DPI Scaling

If you find that just about every aspect of using Windows is too small to read, another option is to adjust your DPI scaling. In fact, you can adjust your DPI scaling and also use Option #1 at the same time if you wanted. To do so: click Start, then type in “DPIscaling”; wait for the “DPIscaling” icon to appear, then click it. A new window will with the title “Display” will appear; click the link that reads “set a custom scaling level”. A new window will appear with the title “Custom sizing options.” Next to the heading that says: “Scale to this percentage of normal size,” select 150%, then click OK. You will need to log off the system and log back in. When complete, you will see your desktop is considerably larger than before. If it’s not big enough you can adjust it again by following these steps.

I hope that helps.

Got a Computer Question or Problem? Ask Dennis!

I need more computer questions. If you have a computer question – or even a computer problem that needs fixing – please email me with your question so that I can write more articles like this one. I can’t promise I’ll respond to all the messages I receive (depending on the volume), but I’ll do my best.

One of the most long-overdue trends in PC is the rise of high-pixel-density displays. For ages, computer monitors have gotten bigger and bigger, with only a minor increase in resolution to go along with it, meaning that we’ve been paying more to see a blurrier, more pixelated desktop.

Finally some laptop manufacturers are getting with the program. Apple’s Retina Display MacBooks, Toshiba’s Kirabooks, and Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga line—just to name a few—are all offering laptops with crisp, pixel-packed displays, and it’s clear that it won’t be long before all high-end laptops include high-DPI screens.

Unfortunately, Windows isn’t totally equipped to deal with high-density displays out of the box. If you’re new laptop isn’t as crisp as you expected, or it’s difficult to work with the user interface, it might be your operating system that’s at fault. Here are five things you can do to make sure Windows is set up to take advantage of your high-density display.

Use global scaling

One of the main problems with a high-density display is that most software was designed back when high resolution automatically meant a huge display. If you take a program designed for a 24 inch monitor and shrink it down to 11 inches without changing anything, buttons and text and other UI elements are going to look absolutely tiny on the screen.

Windows’ custom scaling utility.

The easiest way to fix this problem is with Windows’ system-wide scaling feature. This feature simply enlarges all programs and system UI elements.

To configure it, just open the Control Panel, then click on Display > Custom Sizing Options. You’ll see a simple options window with a zoom percentage selector and a ruler. You can select a percentage manually, or click and drag on the ruler to decide how much to zoom in. The idea of the ruler is that you can hold an actual physical ruler up to your display, then adjust the virtual ruler until they match, and that will give you an appropriate amount of zoom—though of course you’re free to use more or less as your own preferences and eyesight dictate.

If you’re happy with general UI size, but want just text to be a little bigger system-wide, you can make that change at the bottom of the main Display options window.

Set exceptions

Chrome becomes a blurry mess when it’s subjected to Windows’ custom scaling, alas.

Unfortunately, the global scaling feature does not work well for every program. You might find that it makes some programs look ugly and blurry, or that it makes them too large. Worse, some applications are bugged when magnified by Windows. Google Chrome, for instance suffers from blurry text and a malfunctioning tabs bar when using the system-wide scaling.

You can disable high DPI scaling in a program’s property options, as shown here for Chrome.

Fear not! You don’t have to disable the very-useful scaling as a whole just for those few programs. Instead, you can make them an exception, so that the scaling is selectively not applied to them.

To do so, simply track down the executable file for the program in question—Google Chrome’s is located by default at C:/Program Files(x86)/Google/Chrome, for instance—then right-click on it and select Properties. Then click on the Compatibility tab and check the box labelled “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.”

Increase icons sizes

A simple way to make your computer more high-density-friendly is to change how your icons and folders display, so that they use the high-resolution large or extra-large icons. To do this, just right-click on the desktop or any folder in Explorer, and mouse over View, then choose Large or Extra Large icons.

If you’d like to keep using the list view in Explorer, but want to take advantage of the extra space your high-density display affords you, you can enable the preview pane by hitting Alt + P. This pane is great for getting more details about individual files.

Use manual zoom

The Zoom options in Microsoft Word.

You should also know that many programs have a manual zoom feature that may be better implemented than the system-wide scaling. The near-universal keyboard shortcut for zoom is to hold down the Control key and turn the scroll wheel. You’ll find that this shortcut works in all web browsers, and most programs that involve editing any type of document.

Upgrade to Windows 8.1

Finally, you should upgrade to Windows 8.1 if you haven’t already. The free upgrade to Windows 8 includes a number of new features designed to benefit high-density displays. New features include the ability to increase UI scaling all the way up to 200% and automatic scaling adjustment for multiple monitors, so you can pair a regular-density external monitor with your high-DPI laptop, and both will receive the appropriate amount of scaling.

Desktop, file, or folder icon sizes on your computer are changeable. You can modify them based on your actual requirements. But, do you know how to change icon size on Windows 10? In this post, MiniTool Solution will tell you how to change desktop/file/folder icon sizes on Windows 10 easily.

Some Reasons for Changing Windows 10 Icon Size

The Windows 10 icon sizes are not changeless. You can change desktop icon sizes or file icon sizes based on your own requirements.

For instance, if you want the Windows 10 icon text to be easier to read, you can change the icon size to be larger. However, if you want the screen to display more icons, you can make the Windows icon size to be smaller. Besides, for aesthetic reasons, you can also modify the Windows 10 icon size to meet your own beauty-appreciation.

All in all, you need to change icon size on Windows 10 as your wishes. But, do you know how to change icon size on your computer?

You don’t need any third-party software to do this job. All you need to do is to make some settings on Windows 10.

We will divide this issue into 2 sections of changing desktop icon size Windows 10 and changing file icon size Windows 10. You can select a suitable guide based on your own needs.

Do you know what the two blue icons on icons are? Do you know how to remove the two blue arrows on icons? You can get the answers from this post.

How to Change Desktop Icon Sizes on Windows 10?

The computer desktop is one part of Windows 10. It contains the shortcuts of the installed applications and Recycle Bin. the shortcuts icon can be changed to match your own tastes.

Your desktop is part of Windows 10 that hosts shortcuts to the Recycle Bin and your favorite apps. These shortcuts are represented by icons that can be made larger or smaller to match your tastes.

Here is a simple guide on how to change Windows 10 desktop icon size:

  1. Right-click on any empty space on the Windows 10 desktop to generate a popup menu.
  2. Click the View option from the menu.
  3. You can see three options of icon sizes: Large icons, Medium icons, and Small icons. Please note that the current Windows 10 icon size is the one that has a black dot next to it in the menu. You can select one and Windows 10 will quickly change the desktop icon size.

How to Change File Icon Size on Windows 10?

You may need to change file icon size on your computer to make the files easier to be seen in some special situations. You can follow these steps to change file icon size on Windows 10:

  1. Open File Explorer on Windows 10.
  2. Click the View tab on the top side menu.
  3. You will see the extended menu where you can see these options: Extra large icons, Large icons, Medium icons, Small icons, List, Details, Titles, and Content. If you don’t know their effects, you can try them one by one.

The file or folder icon size preferences are folder-specific in the File Explorer. This means that you need to repeat the above steps to change the file or folder icon size in every folder.

Why are there red X’s on my folders Windows 10? If you are also facing this issue, you can read this post to get some possible solutions.

By: Software Advice and Collin Couey on January 18, 2022

Changing the size of your PC’s desktop, taskbar, and File Explorer icons is a simple yet valuable computer personalization technique that helps declutter your computer.

Learn how to change the size of the icons on your computer screen and reduce the time you spend looking for applications, files, and more. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll learn:

How to resize desktop icons in Windows 10

Desktop icons often take up too much screen space, contributing to desktop clutter. Follow these steps to resize desktop icons in Windows 10 and clean up your workspace:

  1. Right-click any blank space on your desktop.
  2. From the menu, select “View,” and choose your desired icon size—large, medium, or small—from the options. The icon size you choose will apply to your desktop immediately after selection.

Right-click on the desktop to open the “View” menu (Source: All images are from the author’s personal device)

How to resize File Explorer icons in Windows 10

File Explorer icons can be resized either directly from the File Explorer “View” tab or by accessing the “Display settings.”

Resize File Explorer icons using the “View” tab

To resize File Explorer icons on your Windows 10 computer using the “View” tab, follow these steps:

    Click the magnifying glass icon on the right-hand corner of the taskbar, and type “File Explorer” in the search bar to open the File Explorer app.

Type “File Explorer” in the search bar

To open icon sizing options, select the “View” tab.

Click the “View” tab to open icon sizing options

From the “Layout” panel, select an icon size: extra large, large, medium, or small. Your chosen icon size you will apply immediately after selection.

Select an icon size from the “Layout” panel

Resize File Explorer icons using display settings

To enhance your Windows 10 experience, you can adjust the size of text, applications, and other items on your screen (including File Explorer icons) using the “Display settings”. Remember that any changes made to these settings will affect all on-screen items. Here are the steps to follow:

    Right-click any blank space on your desktop. From the menu, select “Display settings”; a “Settings” window will open.

Right-click on the desktop to open “Display settings”

Scroll down to “Scale and layout.” Click the down caret, and select your preferred size for text, apps, and other items from the drop-down menu. Once you make a selection, on-screen items will immediately adjust to the size you’ve chosen. You may need to restart Windows to apply all changes.

From the drop-down menu, select your size preference for text, apps, and other items

How to resize taskbar icons in Windows 10

Similar to desktop icons, you can resize taskbar icons to minimize clutter or achieve a more personalized Windows 10 experience.

Note that this method of resizing taskbar icons allows you to only reduce the size of the icons, not enlarge them. Windows 10 doesn’t yet allow users to enlarge taskbar icons. To toggle between small and normal-sized taskbar icons, follow these steps:

    On your Windows 10 desktop, click the “Start” button and then click the “Settings” icon to open Windows 10 settings.

Click “Start” and then open “Settings”

On the “Windows Settings” panel, click “Personalization” to open the personalization options.

Select “Personalization” from the settings menu

Select the “Taskbar” tab and then click the “Use small taskbar buttons” switch to use small-sized icons.

Under “Taskbar,” click on the “Use small taskbar buttons” switch

Benefits of desktop personalization

One-size-fits-all settings can hinder productivity and make working digitally a painful process. Desktop personalization serves as a way to optimize computers to ensure positive end-user experiences.

Windows 10 allows you to personalize your computer in many ways to ensure ease of use. These personalization features come in various forms including, but not limited to, screen resolution, font characteristics, mouse settings, and screen color depth.

With desktop personalization techniques such as changing the size of desktop, taskbar, and File Explorer icons, you can customize your PC experience and optimize your computer for the work at hand.

Desktop personalization enhances the user experience

Changing the icon size in Windows 10 can not only personalize your desktop experience but also increase your productivity by reducing the time spent scrolling through small hard-to-read icons or rearranging icons that simply take up too much space.

Looking for desktop personalization software? Visit Software Advice’s desktop as a service (DaaS) page to check out top-rated software options.

By Melanie Pinola published 25 April 22

Here’s how to change the icon size in Windows 10

Wish the desktop icons in Windows 10 were bigger and easier to tap on your touchscreen laptop? Or would you rather such shortcuts didn’t take up as much real estate space on your laptop? Not to worry, here’s how to change the icon size in Windows 10.

How to change the icon size in Windows 10

1. Right-click on an empty space on the desktop.

2. Select View from the contextual menu.

3. Select either Large icons, Medium icons, or Small icons. The default is medium icons.

On laptops with a native 1600 by 900 pixels display, the large option looks huge, the small size is too small, and the medium size looks just right (as Goldilocks would say). Your preference might vary depending on your screen’s display resolution. Changing the size of the icons on the desktop doesn’t affect the size of the icons elsewhere in Windows 10, but there are ways you can change those, too.

How to change the size of the taskbar icons

If you want to change the size of the icons in your taskbar, there’s a different setting for that, which will also change the size of text, apps, and other items across Windows 10.

1. Right-click on an empty space on the desktop.

2. Select Display settings from the contextual menu.

3. Move the slider under “Change the size of text, apps, and other items” to 100%, 125%, 150%, or 175%.

4. Hit Apply at the bottom of the settings window. Windows might ask you to log out and log back in for a more consistent experience.

This will not only make the icons in the taskbar a bit larger, but it will also make text bigger in apps like Microsoft Edge and Calendar, as well as in Windows 10 notification windows.

How to change the size of icons in File Explorer

If you’d like larger or smaller icons or thumbnails in particular folders, you can change those on the fly in File Explorer.

Just head to your folder location and use your mouse’s scroll wheel to zoom in or out, effectively switching the view between Windows 10’s large icons, medium icons, small icons, list, details, tiles, and content views.

Although File Explorer will remember your last setting when you open this folder again, this is a folder-specific setting, so you’ll have to adjust each folder you’d want different icon and text sizes for.

Microsoft Windows users can make program icons smaller or larger by changing the scale of the icon size. To do this, select your version of Windows below and follow the instructions.

  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows Vista, 7, and 8
  • Windows XP
  • Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, and 2000

Windows 11

On the Windows desktop, hold down the Ctrl key and scroll up and down with the mouse wheel to increase and decrease the icon size.

  1. Using your mouse, right-click an empty area of the Windows desktop.
  2. In the pop-up menu that appears, select the Display settings option.
  3. On the Display settings window, in the Scale and layout section, select 125%, 150%, or 175% in the Scale drop-down list.

If you want to select a higher scaling percentage, click the Scale option instead of the drop-down list.

  1. On the Custom scaling window, enter a percentage between 100 and 500 in the text box ( A), then click the checkmark button ( B).

As shown above, Windows 11 warns you that selecting a custom percentage for text and icon scaling could result in display issues in other applications that use those same scaling settings.

Windows 10

On the Windows desktop, hold down the Ctrl key and scroll up and down with the mouse wheel to increase and decrease the icon size.

  1. Using your mouse, right-click an empty area of the Windows desktop.
  2. In the pop-up menu that appears, select the Display settings option.
  3. On the Display settings window, under Scale and layout, select 125%, 150%, or 175% in the Change the size of text, apps, and other items drop-down list.

If you want to select a higher percentage, click the Advanced scaling settings link below the drop-down list.

  • Under Custom scaling, enter a percentage between 100 and 500 in the text box on the Advanced scaling settings window, then click the Apply button.

    • Selecting a custom percentage for text and icon scaling could result in display issues in other applications that use those scaling settings.

    Windows Vista, 7, and 8

    On the Windows desktop, hold down the Ctrl key and scroll up and down with the mouse wheel to increase and decrease the icon size.

    1. Open the Control Panel.
    2. In the Control Panel, click Appearance and Personalization (must be using the Category view option).
    3. In the Appearance and Personalization window, under the Display section, click the Make text and other items larger or smaller option.
    4. In the Change the size of all items section, drag the bar towards Larger to make text and icons larger.

    If you do not want everything larger, in the Change only the text size section, select Icons in the first drop-down list, then increase the font size or make the text bold for easier reading.

    OK, we have a Win7 workstation which is used by our volunteers. This PC has MS Powerpoint loaded and we have a looping announcement slide show that we present while clients are waiting for services.

    On the desktop we have a shortcut pointing to the PowerPoint show (.ppsx) which the volunteers start at the beginning of a session. They often have difficulty finding the shortcut for various reasons.

    I’d like to make this one shortcut larger than the rest of the desktop icons. To make it stand out clearly. I know how to make the entire array of desktop icons appear bigger but I just want one icon button to be bigger.

    Anyone have an experience with handling this?

    Enter to win a

    12 Replies

    I dont know if you can make only one icon bigger. You could just move the Powerpoint icon into the middle of the screen so there are no other icons around it making it impossible to miss?

    On the desktop we have a shortcut pointing to the PowerPoint show (.ppsx) which the volunteers start at the beginning of a session. They often have difficulty finding the shortcut for various reasons.

    I’m thinking probably not, if there is it would be a third party software, but I have not been able to find anything in my quick research. I did however find this link:

    On the desktop we have a shortcut pointing to the PowerPoint show (.ppsx) which the volunteers start at the beginning of a session. They often have difficulty finding the shortcut for various reasons.

    By beginning of a sessions do you mean when they log on? If so, why not add it to the startup group so they don’t need to do anything at all?

    This is a good idea, I would add it to the start up so that it is running when they log in. Then they have no excuse.

    I believe pdestefanis is right. The only thing I would add to pdestefanis’s post is I would change to a solid color background as well as move it to the center of the screen

    If its possible Clean the unneeded icons off the desktop then place it in the middle of the screen. Or as others have suggested place it in the start up folder. Pin it to the task bar maybe. Not really sure if just one icon can be made bigger.

    How about removing all other desktop icons. Then you can set the zoom level higher for the remaining icon.

    I believe pdestefanis is right. The only thing I would add to pdestefanis’s post is I would change to a solid color background as well as move it to the center of the screen

    Or better yet, crack open MSpaint and make a solid black background with a big white box in the middle, and in size 72 bright red letters, put “CLICK THIS TO OPEN THE PRESENTATION” above it.

    Set as desktop background, put ppt file in big white box, profit.

    Terrific answers guys! Some of them won’t work because.

    The computer is left “logged on” to the desktop most of the time. This is not a good security practice. However, volunteers can’t be fired. Well, they actually can but you get the picture. So we leave this on the desktop and simply power down the monitor when done.

    This PC is connected to a 66 inch display in the reception area. It is operated with a wireless mouse and keyboard when we need to administer it including starting the show. It is also used for other things like meeting presentations software demos and the like so removing all the icons except isn’t the ultimate solution.

    I think one of the main issues here is that you have about 15 people who start the show at the beginning of session. Each one of them can move that icon either by intent or by mistake. I’m sure there’s a way from the admin acct to lock the icons in place so they don’t move. Slide all the non-show ones to one side or position them around the periphery. And then teach everyone, “This is the button to double click and it’s always found here, center screen.”. I just changed the shortcut icon picture to a “projector screen” out of shell32.dll.

    I was just hoping to be able to make something big and obvious. Workaround City is my home!

    Thanks one and all for the assistance.

    How about just telling them that to start the show you click Log Off, then log back in? They can’t move those 🙂

    You know what? I’ll bet they’ll find a way. 🙂

    This teaches me that everyone operates their home machine in totally different ways.

    With security not too big of a issues for you, you may try looking into windows gadgets.
    Just keep in mind that they are vulnerable to hacking.

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