Do you find the icon size on Vista desktop too big or too small? The effect of visual appearance on shortcuts and programs icons is more stark when users adjust and change the monitor screen resolution or font size in DPI scaling, where the icons size becomes bigger and smaller to an uncomfortable level. Users can easily resize Vista desktop icons or change the size of icons on Vista desktop. There are four methods to resize the desktop icons, depending on your preference and also the ’size’ that you want to change the icons to.
Mouse Wheel Method
The option to select from only three available sizes wasn’t satisfying enough, so I found another method. Make sure the desktop has the focus, just click anywhere on the desktop before starting this process. Press & hold Ctrl on the keyboard, Scroll with the mouse wheel up or down to get the desired size.
Using ‘Color And Appearance’ Method
The above method was actually much better. You can have variety of sizes and one for sure will suit you. But what if you don’t have a mouse wheel?, the closest I could find is to do this: Right click on an empty spot on your desktop and choose Personalize, now choose the first item on the list Windows Color and Appearance, and then click the last link Open classic appearance properties for more color options.
You will get the Windows XP type dialog. Click on Advanced, Under Item choose Icon, Set the size to your liking. Range from 16-72, hit OK and again hit OK on the second dialog.
Registry Tweak Method
If you like to tweak around the registry (like I do), then that can be set under that key,
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
Using the first method it will instantly update the icon size on your desktop and you will see the changes, while working through the registry I couldn’t get it to refresh without logging off first. I tried F5 on the desktop and choosing Refresh from the shortcut menu on the desktop, but it had no effect. Note that changing the icons with the registry key manually will also reflect on the Windows Vista dialog and vice-versa.
I am sure I haven’t missed any method to resize the icons, but if I have, do let me know about it.
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91 Comments
great tips thank u
Mousewheel method works great!
mousewheel method is very effective tnx!!!
Excellent, love the mousewheel technique, very fast and efficient. Thanks!
Mouse Wheel Method is so cool.. it really works.. Thanks a lot
Mouse wheel method a piece of cake! Thanks!
Have to agree. anything with the mouse wheel ROCKs
Your registry location is useful for changing the distance between icons and some other settings, but not the size of the icons. Same for the advanced settings. Another method is to Right click -> View -> select between Small, Medium, and Large
Ya learn something new everyday, I had no idea it was so simple to enlarge icons using the mouse wheel. Perfect! I do have some icons that remain small (e.g. iTunes) but make a larger “blank space” around them…so those I’ll need to tweak…but for the most part it doesn’t get easier than this.
Thank you for the tip!
RJ
Hahahahhahahahahah……..Coool!
g8 tips… i was looking for icon resizing
i love learning new and or lesser known tricks/functions like the mouse wheel resizing! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Great, thank you! This wasn’t in the Win7 help files.
thanks asad, mouse wheel shortcut its works great
Very Nice & Effective tricks ………………………………………………. Thanks
THANK YOU! THAT WAS SO HELPFUL!
Thnx man!!!
Nice!! I am SO going to be messing with peoples computers…. LOL
Such a simple little easter egg. Why aren’t things like this more well known….
This mouse wheel method is great! Why didn’t I accidentally find this out myself. I’m always so clumsy on the keyboard hitting the wrong key and such I could hardly have missed this error
Thanks a lot!
mouse wheel method is great!
Nice! The mouswheel trick is like so obvious!
Tks much, the wheel worked fine.
Man, that icon re-sizing fix worked super fast and perfectly !!! Thanks so much.
Thanks so much, finally the smallness is over!!!!
Top tip works with Windows 7 as well. Thanks
That mouse wheel tip… WOW! Thanks for that one!
mouse wheel! -who knew??
- thanks from a new Windows 7 user
Thanks for the tip. Mouse wheel worked great. Now if I can get my roommate to stop changing the settings on my comp. lol.
You are a life saver. I accidentally increase the size of my desktop icon by 4x and the mouse wheel solved the problem. The help icon was of no help what so ever. What else do you know that I should know????
Thanks Again!
Mouse wheel option really nice….thanks
10x a lot bro !
thx, i was looking high and low on how to make the icon smaller…
Well, yeah. Thank you! No mouse wheel for me, just a laptop pad and the 2nd one works. Not as small as I would like… but its better!
I took your advise and started playing around with the sizes of different things – now everything is either too big or too small to a point where i can no longer access parts of my computer – nightmare. is there any way or restoring the original “default” size settings?? Need help.. quick!
Mouse wheel control – so simple, once one knows
Many thanks for sharing.
It works! you deserve credits – sponsors clicked. Thank you!
The mouse wheel technique is just awesome.. really loved it
works great ow u 1
that just saved hours. now how do you change the icon text color in win7 ultimate? option is greyed out in the desktop appearance settings…..
thanks a lot
Great stuff! Thanks Mousewheel did the trick
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