How to resize desktop icons on Windows 10
Desktop icons are all the same size. It really doesn’t matter what an icon is for; it could be a simple text file, it could be a shortcut, an app EXE, or the Recycle Bin. The icons will all be the same size. If you have a high resolution screen, your desktop icons likely appear to be much smaller whereas with a low resolution screen, the icons appear much larger. If you’d like to resize desktop icons and make them either bigger or smaller, you can. Here’s how.
Resize desktop icons
There are two ways to resize desktop icons. The first method limits you to three sizes; large, medium, and small. The second method allows you to freely resize desktop icons on Windows 10.
Desktop context menu
Right-click on an empty area on the desktop and go to View. The sub-menu will list three sizes for the desktop icons that you can set. Pick one of the three sizes and the desktop icon size will change.
Freely resize desktop icons
If you want to freely resize the desktop icons outside the three options the desktop context menu gives you, you can. The process may take a little trial and error but the most reliable way to do this is with a mouse.
Go to your desktop, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, and scroll with the mouse wheel. Scrolling it in one direction will increase the size while scrolling it in the opposite direction will decrease it. The increase/decrease scroll direction may vary based on the system.
Another method that you can try to freely resize desktop icons is to go to the desktop and use the pinch in and pinch out gestures on the track pad.
The minimum and maximum size of the desktop icons will depend on the screen size. A larger screen will be able to show much larger icons than a smaller screen. The smallest size will likewise vary but that will have more to do with screen resolution.
If the largest or the smallest size that you can set from the desktop context menu doesn’t suit you, you can use the mouse/pinch method to get a smaller or bigger size than what it allows. Additionally, if you need File Explorer to show you bigger icons for various files, you can use this exact same trick in a folder. The context menu in File Explorer will also have icon resizing options.
Need to change the icon spacing on Windows 10? We’ve got you covered.
