How-To

How to Adjust Display Scale Settings on Windows 11

By Brian Burgess

Published February 8, 2022

If you are having trouble seeing text and other items on your monitor, you can adjust display scale settings on Windows 11 to fix it. Here’s how.

If you’re struggling to see on-screen items and elements on your PC, whether it’s icons, text, or your navigation pointer, you can adjust display scale settings on Windows 11. Changing display scale settings is important if you have poor eyesight or want larger icons to avoid eyestrain—especially if you look at a computer screen all day.

Windows 11 offers pretty good default settings for adjusting to your display’s settings by default. However, that doesn’t mean your text and icon scaling is quite right—if it isn’t, you’ll want to change display scaling.

Thankfully, you can change your display scale settings on Windows 11 by following this guide.

How to Adjust Display Scale Settings on Windows 11

You can adjust the display scale setting by going to the Settings menu on Windows 11.

To adjust display scale settings on Windows 11:

1. Click the Start button or hit the Windows key on your keyboard to bring up the Start menu and select Settings.
   • Alternately, you can use the keyboard shortcut Windows key + I to bring up Settings directly.

2. When Settings opens, click on System from the left panel, and on the right side, click on Display.

3. Next, under the Display & layout section, click the dropdown menu next to Scale and choose the option you want to use.

The percentage choices for Scale will vary between machines based on different hardware and displays. The Scale settings you choose should apply right away. However, you might want to restart Windows 11 for the changes to properly appear in all apps.

Your display scale settings will correlate to the percentage you chose, like in the example shown below:

Here is an example of boosting the Windows 11 Display Scale settings to 200%

You can also go the other way and make text and other items smaller, as we’ve demonstrated below.

Example of lowering Display Scale settings from 150% to 100% which is the lowest available on this machine.

How to Use Custom Display Scaling on Windows 11

If you don’t like the default scaling options offered in Settings, you can create custom values.

To set a custom display scale size on your Windows 11 PC:

1. Click the Start button or press the Windows key and select Settings
2. When Settings opens, click on System on the left side and click Display on the right.

3. Next, under the Scale & layout section, scroll down the right page and click on Scale. This isn’t the dropdown menu shown above, but directly on Scale.

4. Now, under the Custom scaling section, you can type in a value between 100% and 500%.

5. Click the checkmark next to the value you entered, then click the Sign out now button for the changes to take effect.

Setting a custom value could create a situation where text and other items aren’t viewable. Also, if you have a multi-monitor setup, each display will reflect the custom change. It’s a trial-and-error process, but you can go back to the Custom scaling section and increase or decrease the value until it looks right.

How to Change Text Size on Windows 11

It’s also worth noting that you can make the text size larger without affecting other on-screen elements on Windows 11. If you only want larger or smaller text, you can change its size without changing the size of other elements via display scaling.

To change text size only on your Windows 11 PC:

1. Click the Start button or press the Windows key and select Settings from the menu.
2. Once Settings is open, click on Accessibility from the left side.

3. From the Accessibility menu, click on Text size on the right.

4. Use the Text size slider to increase or decrease the size of the fonts you see on the screen. Note the Text size preview box that will give you an idea of how the new text size will look.

5. When you get the text size how you like it, click the Apply button.

A blue Please Wait screen will flash while the new text size is applied to your system. The text will be larger, but other elements like icons and navigation points will remain the same size.

Configuring Display Scaling on Windows 11

There are a number of great reasons why you might want to adjust your display scale settings on Windows 11 using the steps outlined above.

For example, if you’re connecting to an external display or projector, adjusting the display scale settings can make it easier to view a presentation. If your eyesight is poor and you need larger text and icons on your PC, you can quickly change the settings to figure out what works best for you. Changing display scale settings or text size isn’t a one-and-done thing, either, as you can go back and change the settings back at any point.

Windows 11 has an overhauled visual interface that not everyone will like. For instance, the Start menu is in the center of the screen, and you might want to move it back to the left.  If you’re not on Windows 11 yet, you can change the size of elements on Windows 10, too.