How to make everything bigger in Windows 10

Some user interface elements are just too darn small. Here’s how to fix that.

Windows 10 has had some issues with display scaling on high-resolution screens — you may have noticed that some of your legacy apps on Windows 10 have (or had — they’ve been slowly fixing this) minuscule user interfaces, with icons and text so tiny you can barely see them, let alone click them.

Well, I have some good and bad news for you. The good news is that there are a few things you can do to bump up the size of your Windows 10 UI elements, including changing the text size of individual elements, such as menu s and tooltips. The bad news is that this probably won’t help that much with Windows 10’s display scaling issues, which are slowly being fixed with each update.

But if you simply want bigger icons, bigger text, and a magnified screen, here’s what you need to do:

Make everything bigger

You can change the size of everything in the user interface — including icons, text, and apps — from the Settings menu by scaling the display. To do this, open Settings and go to System > Display. Under «Change the size of text, apps, and other items,» you’ll see a display scaling slider. Drag this slider to the right to make these UI elements larger, or to the left to make them smaller.

Your computer will likely already be set to the recommended scale setting, which may be 100 percent or higher. You cannot scale UI elements to be less than 100 percent.

Some apps will not immediately respond to these changes, so you’ll need to log out of your account and then log back in.

Only the text

You don’t have to make everything bigger — you can change just the text size of title bars, menus, message boxes, palette titles, icons, and tooltips individually. To do this, open Settings and go to System > Display > Advanced display settings > Advanced sizing of text and other items. This will open the Display window in the Control Panel. Under «Change only the text size,» select the item you want to change and then pick the text size you would like (size 6 — 24). You can also choose to make the item’s text bold, to make it stand out better.

Magnify your screen

If you only need parts of your screen to be bigger, and only occasionally, you can turn on Windows’ Magnifier. To do this, open Settings and go to Ease of Access > Magnifier and turn the Magnifier on.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

A small Magnifier window will open up — you can drag it around your screen and press the plus symbol to magnify that section of the screen. Under Views, you can choose a lens option (a square lens that you can drag around the screen) or a docked option (a dock will appear at the top of your screen; as you drag your mouse around the screen, you’ll see a magnified version in this top dock).

Everything on the screen went small!

So my son got ahold of my laptop keyboard and now everything on my webpages is small! Anyone know how to fix it? I’m sure it’s a simple fix, he just pushed a few buttons! I am running on a hp with IE and Windows 7.

Look to your Taskbar, Bottom right>>>Click the dropdown arrow, Change zoom level>>>Set it to 100%

If I brought you Joy, cast your Vote! If I answered your question, click, Propose As Answer! >WT ·

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If its just web pages on IE8 then, two possibilities:

1 — Adjust the Zoom using CTRL + — and CTRL + + until you get what you want. CTRL + 0 sets zoom to default 100%.

2 — Adjust text size. Click on Page then Text Size then the size you want. Medium is the default

All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

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Everything is too small — windows 8.1 not allow me to enlarge entire interface?

I’m on a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and the entire interface—every app, every dialogue box, every icon, etc—is too small on this high resolution (3200×1800) screen. The size of the mouse pointer was the only thing I could increase to an adequate size.

In Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display I’ve specified EXTRA LARGE (200%) for all items.

It’s still too small.

Is it possible that Windows (I have 8.1) isn’t keeping up with screen resolutions and I need to just wait for a Windows update?

Replies (43) 

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1. Do you get any error message when you try to change the font size on the computer?

2. Have you made any recent hardware or software changes to the computer prior to the issue?

You might be facing this issue because of an outdated or corrupted display card drivers. I suggest you to install the latest display drivers and check if it helps.

Step 1 : uninstall the display drivers.

a. Press Windows + X, Click Device Manager.

b. Expand Display Adapters.

c. Check if the name of the graphic card is the list.

d. Right click on the Display Adapter’s name and click uninstall.

e. Once you uninstall the drivers it will prompt to restart the computer, do not restart the computer.

f. It will take default drivers in the computer.

Step 2 : Reinstall the drivers.

Please download the drivers from the computer Manufacturer’s website and reinstall the drivers.

After installing the latest display drivers, I suggest you to refer to the following Microsoft articles to change the font size on the computer.

Make the text on your screen larger or smaller

Internet Explorer Ease of Access options

Hope this helps.

Please post back with the status of the issue and we will be glad to assist you further.

Everything is too small with 1080p resolution

Psyntaur

Reputable

Hello there. I recently reinstalled windows and my native resolution (1080p) was automatically selected upon installing drivers for my video card. Now, before this I’ve been running my pc in 1360 x 768 because of this issue I am having again today with the native res and that is this:

When in 1080p, icons, text, windowed programs, my internet browser, those whole interface is scaled down to a ridiculously small size. It’s hard to see from 2 feet away, it’s that bad. I’ve seen multiple unanswered threads about this issue but everyone plays dumb like the OP is the only one that’s ever had the issue. one guy even got told he just needed glasses! The ignorance! Here’s what I’ve tried (I have Windows 8.1 btw):

I know you can go into «personalize» from desktop and then «display» to select the size you want ICONS and TEXT to be, but like the caps indicate, it only lets you resize icons and text. Windowed programs still look small in every single different scale. I literally have to zoom in to every new page on the internet to see anything. I found that the «Medium» scale setting made my icons and taskbar a little larger, and «Large» scale made it normal again, but the icon grid is screwed up. There isn’t enough room for the last column of icons on the right side of the TV (Yes, I’m using a 1080p TV, and it has nothing to do with the issue, because others are having this problem with standard PC moniters).

Has anyone been able to discern the cause of this annoyance? I want to run my games in 1080p, but not if everything else is ruined by an extremely small interface.

One last thing, my TV is only rated for 720p, but hooked up to gpu my pc shows it’s native res is 1080p. I can run games, watch videos and movies, the works, all in 1080p, so what’s up with that? I fear this may be the issue but I doubt it, as others who have had this question and been left unanswered did indeed have 1080p moniters or TV displays.

You shouldn’t need my specs, but here you go since I know someone will ask for them:

Vizio 321VL
GTX 660 FTW
. umm those are the only 2 in the equation here, but ask for anything else if you need.

If you got this far and don’t have an answer for me, but you think you can point me in the right direction of who might, please let me know.

Well that’s it guys! If you could solve this long and annoying mystery then much glory and honor will be bestowed to your name.

How to use multiple monitors in Windows 10

After you’ve connected your Windows 10 PC to external displays, you can adjust the settings for each one.

Video: Connecting a monitor

Here’s a video on the basics of connecting to an external monitor.

Before you start

Before changing settings for your external displays, make sure everything is connected properly. Here’s what you can do:

Make sure your cables are properly connected to your PC or dock.

Check for Windows updates. To check for updates, select Start > Settings > Updates & Security > Windows Update > Check for updates.

Tip: If you’re using a wireless display adapter, connect to an HDMI port on newer TVs, then wirelessly connect your PC to it. After connecting your wireless display adapter to your TV, go to your Windows 10 PC and select Start > Settings > System > Display, then select Connect to a wireless display.

Rearrange your displays

You’ll see this option when Windows detects more than one display. Each display will be numbered to help you identify them more easily.

Identify a display

To see which number corresponds to a display, select Start > Settings > System > Display > Rearrange your displays, then select Identify. A number appears on the screen of the display it’s assigned to.

Detect a display

If you connected another display and it isn’t showing in Settings, select Start > Settings > System > Display > Rearrange your displays, then select Detect.

Arrange your displays

If you have multiple displays, you can change how they’re arranged. This is helpful if you want your displays to match how they’re set up in your home or office. In Display settings, select and drag the display to where you want. Do this with all the displays you want to move. When you’re happy with the layout, select Apply. Test your new layout by moving your mouse pointer across the different displays to make sure it works like you expect.

Change display options

After you’re connected to your external displays, you can change settings like your resolution, screen layout, and more. To see available options, select Start > Settings > System > Display.

Change orientation

Windows will recommend an orientation for your screen. To change it in Display settings, go to Scale and Layout, then choose your preferred Display orientation. If you change the orientation of a monitor, you’ll also need to physically rotate the screen. For example, you’d rotate your external display to use it in portrait instead of landscape.

Choose a display option

To change what shows on your displays, press Windows logo key + P. Here’s what you can choose.

See things on one display only.

See the same thing on all your displays.

See your desktop across multiple screens. When you have displays extended, you can move items between the two screens.

See everything on the second display only.

Second screen only

Related topics

Simply Windows on Youtube — These videos are only available in English