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As I get older and my monitors get better, the icons on my desktop seem a lot smaller. High resolution is nice, but being able to read the screen is nice too. Fortunately, Windows has a number of ways you can change how it looks to meet your visual needs.
For example, it's easy to make your desktop icons bigger. Right-click in a blank area of your desktop and choose Properties. In the Appearance tab, click the Advanced button. In the Item drop-down box, choose Icon. Next to Size, you can use the arrow keys to increase or decrease the size of your icons. You also can change the font and size of your icon text. Click Apply to see what your changes will look like.
If you increase the icon and font size, you also may need to increase the spacing to keep them from being squashed up next to each other. In the Item drop-down box, choose Icon Spacing (Horizontal) or Icon Spacing (Vertical) and increase the number to experiment with the spacing. Again, you can click Apply to see what it looks like.
While you are in the Properties dialog box, you may also want to try out some of the other settings in the various tabs to see which ones are easiest on your eyes. Personally, I find the default Windows XP theme truly awful. I always immediately switch any computer I own to Windows Classic view. You find that setting in the Themes tab, along with a number of other options. I also have a long-standing preference for the Teal color scheme, which you find on the Appearance tab.
Once you have set colors that you like, you can increase the size of more than just your icons. In the Appearance tab, click the Advanced button. In addition to the icon settings, you can change the size of almost everything else on your screen. Click the areas in the preview at the top, and you'll notice that the setting in the Item drop down box changes to indicate what the desktop element is called. You can change the size of the text in the title bars, menus, windows, and more.
After you have spent time adjusting all these display elements, you should save your handiwork. Click the Themes tab and click Save As. Give your new personalized theme a name and click Save.
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