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Tip number 2, “Notice any Mud on Your Vista Desktop? Here’s How to Clean It” dealt with how your desktop looks. Since the desktop plays a big part in what you’ll be seeing right away, and every day on from there, here’s another desktop tip that I spotted at The UsefulTechnology Blog.
The icons in vista are a bit different than those in Windows XP. Referred to as ‘Live Icons’, they can actually be scaled to any size you like between 12 x 12 and 256 x 256. Vista offers three sizes by default that you can choose from simply by right-clicking the desktop, and looking in the View menu.
Choosing from this list will give you the following sizes:
| Classic | Medium | Large |
 |
 |
 |
If you want to choose a size different from those provided, you’ll need a mouse with a scroll wheel (most modern laser mice now include this feature). Click once on the desktop to be sure you’re not in another window, and while holding down the CTRL key, roll the scroll wheel on your mouse. Rolling it back towards you will decrease the icon size, rolling it away from you will increase the size:
| Smallest | Largest |
 |
 |
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Comments
30 Tips for Getting More (or Less) Out of Windows Vista | ITsVISTA
Jan 31, 2007 at 9:26 am
[...] Resize Your Vista Desktop Icons [...]
Adam
Feb 27, 2007 at 12:12 am
Thank you for the info; it was very helpful!
Scott
Mar 10, 2007 at 2:12 am
Thanks for screwing up my computer. Can’t reset my DPI. Screens to big & can’t get to the bottom to switch it back. Restore won’t work either.
Joe
Mar 10, 2007 at 10:50 am
Ahh, you’re referring to tip 29 that shows how to adjust the DPI (itsvista.com/2007/01/itsvista-tip-29-use-vistas-dpi-support-to-scale-your-user-interface/). I just got done creating a new tip just for you on how to get back to the default DPI. Go to tip 43 (itsvista.com/2007/03/itsvista-tip-43-restore-your-480dpi-screen-back-to-normal/) and give it a try. Let me know how it goes so I can adjust the tip if need be.
dave
Jun 3, 2007 at 6:56 pm
I love pages that just tell it like it is & give the info required without making you hunt. Thanks.
Is there any way to resize individual icons independantly? Like say, all icons ‘classic’ size, with the recycle bin massive.
Joe
Jun 30, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I don’t think so Dave, that would be cool though!
Kevin
Jul 31, 2007 at 12:54 am
I’ve been annoyed with the size of the icons in Vista for some time now. The CTRL + Scroll Wheel trick is fantastic and this is the only place that I’ve seen the tip on. (Not that I did an obscene amount of searching, your site was one of the top listed.)
Thanks for the help.
Vicosia
Nov 23, 2007 at 9:26 am
Thanks a lot, i was searching for this
Bear
Dec 18, 2007 at 10:29 am
Wow Awesome!!!! I like!
Dean Mitchell
Feb 25, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Mouse resizing with scroll wheel sure is an easy and useful fix for an annoying problem.
Thanks
klaus luecke
Jun 22, 2008 at 8:06 am
Hi - thanks for the hint. But how to resize the symbols to the ‘classic icons size’ inside of folders (e.g. I have a folder named ‘web’ on my desktop and therein some links - with symbols - to IE, FireFox etc) ? If I right-click inside the folder and select view - unfortunately, no ‘classic icons’ link is offered …
Thanks.
Cheltz
Aug 17, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Thank you SO much, the default size of the icons on Vista were killing me. You helped me a ton!
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