How to change font sizes and icon sizes in Windows 10

Hello! Are you reading this guide from a 5 inches Windows tablet screen? Maybe from your 15 inches laptop? This guide is for anyone who wants to have better visual experience using their Windows 10 device.

So, we will be guiding you through changing your resolution, fonts and icons size. Unfortunately, after the Fall Creators Update, Microsoft has removed the old panel that used to allow us to fully control every single font in the computer.

If you want to know more about the Fall creators update, make sure to take a look at it here:

What’s new in the Fall Creators update and how to get it?

So, we will be doing our best to solve this problem and manage to control the fonts and sizes as much as possible.

As usual, we will be introducing the simplest methods first and then longer ones to suit all the usage cases. So let’s start!

Method I: Use your Ctrl key and your mouse scroll

Yeah, it’s the simplest way to scale up and down your icons size:

  • Hold your Ctrl button and scroll up to increase the icons size.
  • Hold your Ctrl button and scroll down to make the icons smaller.

Method II: change the icons size from your Settings

This method will make you able to change some text, windows, apps and icons size.

  • Right-click on any blank area on your desktop and select Display settings.
  • You can immediately change the scaling to 125% from this list:
  • If you want some more size options, just click on Custom scaling.
  • Input a number between 100 and 500, this will be the percentage of scaling. And don’t forget to click on the Apply button.
  • You’ll be advised to sign out and sign in again so that the changes can take place. You can do that by right-clicking on your start button > Shut down or sign out > sign out. Then just sign in again. Easy, right?

Method III: Use .reg files

While Windows no longer allows you to do this the easy way, I found and tried some preconfigured .reg files that let you change the font of specific parts of your display. And now I will tell you how to use them, follow me:

  1. Click on the link that suits your needs:
    1. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/19768-change-icons-text-size-windows-10-a.html
    2. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/70839-change-menus-text-size-windows-10-a.html
    3. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/77571-change-message-boxes-text-size-windows-10-a.html
    4. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/19150-change-title-bar-text-size-windows-10-a.html
    5. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/77559-change-tooltips-text-size-windows-10-a.html
  2. Choose the font size you want and also if it’s bold or not.
  3. Once the .reg file is downloaded, double-click on it.
  4. Click Yes to allow it to changes to your computer.
  5. Click Yes to confirm editing your Registry.
  6. Now, click Ok.
  7.  and restart your computer so that the changes can take effect. Be careful that the default font size is 9 without bold, if you you go to the maximum (24 with bold) it will look like this:

Method IV: Use the magnifier

Well, this is a nice hack if you don’t like having big icons and fonts all the time, but just some of the time. The magnifier can now enlarge your whole screen or only the part your mouse’s curses is above, and once you close it, it’s gone. So it’s a temporary solution if you don’t like permanent increases in size. Here’s how to use it:

  1. Open your start menu, type magnifier and here your go, it’s up there. OR you can just press the Windows logo key + The Plus button (+) on your keyboard.
  2. You are now ready to use the magnifier in its three modes that you can select from the View menu (Full Screen, Lens, Docked).

Mode I: Full screen

In this mode clicking on the Plus button or the Minus button, the whole screen will get zoomed in or out and you will have to get your mouse to the edge of the screen to be able to move around it.

Mode II: Lens

This will bring up a transparent rectangle which will zoom in only the area inside it.

Mode III: Docked

This mode is a little tricky. It opens a new rectangular window at the top of your screen and displays what your mouse hovers over in a bigger size. This means you can enjoy both normal and zoomed in text or photo simultaneously.

The choice is yours!

Method V: the desktop context menu

OK, you’ve seen the method through which you right-click on the desktop and then select “Display settings.” But what if I told you that there is an even simpler method than that, even though you might consider it a little less accurate.

Try it right now: right-click on your desktop and, instead, hover over the “view” option. Next, the menu will expand and you’ll see options for large, medium, and small icons. It’s one of the fastest ways to change the icon size despite the fact that it doesn’t allow you to fine-tune as you would when holding ctrl and using the mouse scroll wheel.

Method VI: the easy way to resize icons within a single folder

OK, so let’s say that you only want to resize the icons of files and subfolders located within a specific folder. Lucky for you, File Explorer lets you do just that.

To increase the icons in File Explorer, go to home folder in File Explorer, then click the ellipsis (three dots) on the toolbar, then select the folder size that suit your. In File Explorer, you have Extra large icons available to you.

A final tip: what about changing the whole resolution?

Changing the resolution will change the fonts, icon sizes and apps size. In that same display settings page (from method II), change the resolution from the list. Remember you can always find a Recommended resolution tagged in the list, make sure you give it a try if you weren’t using it before, as that is the native resolution of your monitor.

The Bottom Line

For all intents and purposes, you now know how to change the font size of desktop and folder icons in both Windows 10 and Windows 11. And guess what, a large selection of these methods also work on older versions, such as Windows 7 and Windows 8 or 8.1.

So go ahead and try them out. There’s literally nothing you can break by trying any of these methods. They all work wonders in their own way, and I encourage you to explore all of these options and much more that modern Windows can offer.

13 Comments

  1. things like this makes tihs windows worse and worse, what would we do expect from microshit making ackward changes in x or in y thing? let stay things that worked well as it was before this silly changes and dont force people to force our eyes to get blind when we become old later and with worse eyesight!

    f***** microsoft!

    Thanks to author for helping me to solve these “forced” issues!

    • Hello tierra,
      I really understand your anger, some updates really affect our experience and that’s why it’s our duty to help people go through it. Maybe one day someone will hear our voice and fix the issues we all face. Cheer up! We will always find a solution for others mistakes cuz we are the Windows 10 guys ?

    • Hello Simoné, yes it should work perfectly. The new update got a list of your fonts in the Settings but you can’t control each font setting just like the old version, then the solution is the same so far.

  2. Hi guys,

    Is there really anymore the “change icon font size/style” that used to be in the advanced display settings, in previous Windows versions?
    I’m wearing glasses and my sight gets worse and worse because of the latest changes on my display settings.
    I don’t wnat larger icons, just their name to make it bigger. I’m also tired of searching and finding the same steps that I already wnet through on my laptop, digging and testing by myself…
    Can you really help here and provide me some support?
    Many thanks! Violeta

    • Hey Jack, we do understand your disappointment, but we are doing our best to make it better for people with no second choice.

  3. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I hope you know what a huge lifesaver you are, I could cry. Please don’t underestimate your good deeds ever, thank you for not requiring people to pay, life isn’t always easy. A donate button would not go unnoticed though!

  4. Good morning and thanks for offering solutions to help myself and others with very poor eyesight. I have tried all the reg edit options but none seem to have any effect on the font size. The PC is running the latest update to Win 10 x86 (Jan2022). Am I missing a step?
    I am trying the “change size” from wintools which changes some options but frustratingly not the secondary drop down window text size which is all the time.
    Can you help.
    Many thanks, Nick

  5. GOD ASSENT

    Thanks for the explanations!

    I tried the fontresizer, and was about to buy it, BUT, it has some unexpected effects for me.

    SO THX for the Reg-Files !!!! GREAT JOB ON THAT!

    And today after a year of search google must have had pity on me to show your site the first hit !!!

    • Oh by the way:
      If you have done this far, could you please make all things in 1 ZIP-file to download and extract locally?

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