How to change icon size in Vista

Posted on July 8, 2008 at 5:34 am

Do you find the size of desktop icons in Vista too large? For some strange reason, all of the icons are huge! I like things small, so I quickly found a way to make the icons much smaller.

There are actually two ways you can go about reducing the size of the desktop icons, either via the desktop or by using your mouse, if it has a scroll wheel. I found the second method to be the fastest and easiest.

Firstly, go ahead and minimize all programs or windows so that you only see your desktop. Then simply press and hold the CTRL key on your keyboard and scroll the mouse wheel up or down. That’s it! You can make the icons really small or really big:

Image Source: CraigBailey

If you don’t have a mouse with a scroll wheel on it, you can change the size of the desktop icons in Vista manually by simply right-clicking on the desktop, choosing View and then picking an icon size.

If you choose Classic Icons, that will change the size of all the icons to the default size in Windows XP. That’s my preferred choice.

The scrolling mouse method will allow you to adjust the size of the icons to many more intermediary sizes, rather than just Large, Medium, or Classic. Enjoy!

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» Filed Under Windows Vista

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8 Responses to “How to change icon size in Vista”

Beth Hoy said on : July 9th, 2008 at 12:06 am

Hi Aseem: Can’t check my reader without seeing what you and your contributors have come up with now! Online Tech Tips is my favorite blog, you all do amazing work!

San J said on : July 26th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

Thanks you.
It Works….

Safi said on : August 12th, 2008 at 11:52 am

Thanks man. It works for me.

nadia said on : August 24th, 2008 at 5:28 am

thanks so much for the change icon information, i spent about 20mins searching my computer to do it and gave up then did a search ..found your site and did it in less than 5 seconds..thanks again!

gmuvis said on : August 27th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

thank you!!!

liz said on : September 18th, 2008 at 9:59 am

awesome. it’s these little things that make such a difference. thanks!!

Lakshmi Narayana said on : September 26th, 2008 at 12:16 am

thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

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July 18th, 2008 at 4:22 pm