September 24th, 2008

How do I change the size of my desktop icons?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Occasionally, somebody asks how to change the size of the desktop icons, not because they want to change the size from the default, but rather because they somehow turned into giant marshmallow men and they want to get the default size back.

There are two ways to change the size of the desktop icons on Windows Vista:

  • Click on the desktop, then hold the Control key while rotating the mouse wheel.
  • Right-click on the desktop and choose an icon size from the View menu.

When people get into this state where the desktop icons are gargantuan, it’s usually due to a mouse that went berserk thanks to some sort of hardware problem such as a loose connection. By the time the hardware problem is fixed, the mouse has clicked and twirled randomly all over the screen, causing all sorts of havoc.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
Tips/Support

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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