Bigger Icons

A friend just bought a new computer with XP Home Edition and signed up with AOL. All the icons on the Desktop are real small and also when AOL comes in the whole browser is very small too.. Is there a way to make everything bigger or should I say normal size. Its real hard on the eyes being this small

Bill

 

Right click on the desktop in a blank area and choose "properties ". Click on the settings tab and under the screen resolution box, drag the slider to the far left. Click apply, and, hey, it can't hurt to reboot. The lowest setting I have available on mine is 800 by 600 pixels. That should get you the biggest icons.

HTH
Johanna

 

Quite a few tweaks you can make to help out here.

- The smaller your display area, the larger icons and type faces will be. So, 640-480 will be larger than 800-600 and so on.

- The typeface size for desktop and other places (like the browser toolbar area) can be made larger. Right-click on a blank spot on the desktop, click on properties then on the Appearance tab. You can set the typeface from there to normal, large, extra large. If you click the advanced button, you'll find other items you can tweak.

- The browser will allow for other modifications that make reading easier. Go to tools~internet options~accessibility tab and tick the two 'ignore' boxes that deal with fonts. Most pages will still display fine and you can resize the text by holding down the CTRL key and rolling the mouse wheel.

 

Right click on an empty portion of the desktop, choose properties from the context menu. Once the properties applet opens click on the settings tab, use the slider in the screen resolution box to adjust the resolution lower depending on the monitor size 17" 1024 X 768 or 1152 X 864 and an 19" 1152 X 864 or 1280 X 1024. The smaller the monitor the lower the resolution.

 

Some of us don't want low resolution desktops just so we can see the icons.

 

In that case, you should by all means stay with a hi res desktop. For sure.

 

Bill ...

To make the desktop icons larger, once you're on the Appearance tab in Display Properties, check the "Effects..." button, then check "Use large icons" and OK your way out. The change should take effect immediately.

A long time since I've had any experience with "AOHell ", but you should be able to expand the browser window if there's a resize button (middle one of the three) in the upper right corner of the window. If there isn't, try clicking on each edge of the window. If you get a double-headed arrow, drag that edge of the window to the edge of your screen (or to the Taskbar). Press and hold the Ctrl key while closing the window ... hopefully, the window will open full-size next time.