Quickly increase and decrease the size of desktop icons

Updated: 12/31/2020 by Computer Hope
increase icon size

In Windows Vista and later versions of Windows, while on the desktop, hold down Ctrl and scroll up and down using the wheel on your mouse. When scrolling up, all the icons on the desktop increase in size, becoming larger. When scrolling down, all the icons decrease in size, becoming smaller.

While you hold down Ctrl, icon text increases or decreases in size when scrolling up or down with the mouse wheel.

If you don't have a scroll wheel on your computer mouse, or you are using a laptop and don't use a mouse, you can do the following.

  • To decrease icon and text size, hold down Ctrl and press the - (hyphen) key, also called the minus key.
  • To increase icon and text size, hold down Ctrl and press the + (plus) key.