Changing the size and size of icons on Windows

The icons on the desktop or in system folders can appear in different sizes: in some folders they can appear very large, while in other folders they appear very small (almost impossible to read).

If we found ourselves with a desktop full of giant or too tiny icons, we will show you in the following guide how to change the size of icons on Windows 11 and Windows 10so that we can adjust the size according to our needs.

In the final chapter we will also show you other effective methods for changing the size of icons, such as the mouse wheel and the screen resolution (often causing problems on new screens, where the resolution can be so high to show very small icons).

READ ALSO -> How to change Windows icons easily

1) Change desktop icon size on Windows

They are Windows 11 and on Windows 10 we can change the size of the icons shown on the desktop by pressing WIN+D on the keyboard to immediately display the desktop (if we had apps open), pressing the right key anywhere free, opening the menu View and choosing the size of the preferred icons (Large icons, Medium icons e Small icons).

To speed up we can also use the keyboard shortcuts for the size of the icons, thus unlocking the dimensions not visible from the previous menu:

• CTRL+SHIFT+1: very large icons
• CTRL+SHIFT+2: large icons
• CTRL+SHIFT+3: medium icons
• CTRL+SHIFT+4: small icons

Per quickly restore normal Windows icons we basta remember the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+3to be launched whenever we notice size problems on the desktop icons.

2) Change folder and file size on Windows

If the problem is with the size of the files and folders displayed on Windows 11 File Explorer (i.e. in the app to view folders), we can solve it quickly by pressing the View item at the top and choosing one of the folder and file views in the drop-down menu:

• Very large icons
• Large icons
• Medium icons
• Small icons

If we want to change the style in which Windows files and folders are displayed, we can choose one of the other items in the menu:

• List
• Details
• Boxes
• Content

To slightly reduce the size of the icons and folders displayed in File Explorer we can also activate by voice Compact viewthus gaining some additional space.

If we have Windows 10 as the operating system, the steps to follow are very similar: open File Explorer from the Start menu, press the top menu View and, in the bar that appears, we choose the size of the icons or a display style within the section Layout.

4) Other methods to change icon size

A trick widely used in the office to change the size of icons on the fly involves using the mouse wheelwhich can be used as a real “wheel” to change the size of icons on the desktop or icons in File Explorer.

To proceed, let’s go to the desktop or to a File Explorer folder, hold down the CTRL key and at the same time rotate the mouse wheel, so as to change the size of the icons according to our needs; this method allows you to have greater control over the size of the icons, thus being able to apply the right spacing and size.

Resolution and scaling

Alternatively we can change the size of the icons by pressing WIN+I on the keyboard, taking us to the menu System -> Displaye by changing the screen scaling and resolutionchoosing the most suitable values ​​for our screen and our view (someone prefers large icons, while other people may appreciate small icons more).

Always from the same menu we can press on the item Scaling (Advanced scaling settings on Windows 10) and choose the most suitable scaling (we recommend values ​​between 90% and 125%, also adjusting according to the resolution adopted).

System registry

More geek users can set the preferred size of the icons on the desktop directly from the Registry Editor (we use this procedure only if we know what we are doing).

To use this very nerdy method, simply press WIN+R on the keyboard, we type regeditlet’s go to the following registry path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop

let’s double click on the item IconSize and we use the following decimal values ​​to obtain the desired icon size:

• 32: small icons
• 48: medium icons
• 96: large icons
• 256: very large icons

We confirm and restart the PC for the changes to take effect. On the system registry we can read our guide on how to restore registry keys to their original state.

Conclusions

Windows icons can take on different sizes, also based on the monitor we use and the resolution we are using at that moment. If the icons seem too small or too large, we use one of the tricks seen in this guide to fix it immediately, choosing the quickest or most convenient method to use.

For further information we can read our articles on how to change screen resolution in windows come on how to separate taskbar icons on windows 11.