5 Quick Ways to Make Desktop Icons Smaller

If your desktop icons are too big, you can easily reduce the size to Medium icons or Small icons. You'll just need to right-click (or control-click) your desktop. You can also change the size of your iPhone or Android icons. Here's how to make desktop icons smaller on your Windows or Mac computer and mobile devices.

Quick Steps

On Windows, right-click an open area on your desktop.
Hover over View.
Click Medium Icons or Small icons.

Method 1

Method 1 of 5:

Using Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 7, Vista

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1
Right-click an empty area of the desktop. A pop-up menu will open.^{[1]
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- For a quick adjustment, place your mouse cursor on an empty area of the desktop. Hold CTRL on your keyboard and scroll down with the mouse wheel to make the icons smaller.
2
Hover over View. This will expand the menu. The top three options on this menu show different icon sizes.
- There will be a bullet point next to your desktop icons’ current size.
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3
Click a new size. If your icons are already set to Large or Medium, select Small icons.
- The changes will be applied immediately.
- In Windows Vista, “Small” is called “Classic”.
- You can also uncheck Show desktop icons to hide your icons temporarily or even auto-arrange them.

Method 2

Method 2 of 5:

Using Mac

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Right-click an empty area of the desktop. If you don't have a right-click mouse, you'll need to hold the Control key on your keyboard as you click. This is called a control-click.
- A pop-up menu will open.
This will open a new window.
3
Drag the "Icon size" slider to the left. The current icon size is displayed at the top of the window (e.g., 48 x 48). As you move the slider to the left, the Icon Size value will decrease.
- The smallest possible icon size is 16 x 16, and the largest is 128 x 128.
- The changes will be applied immediately. When you're finished, exit the window.

Method 3

Method 3 of 5:

Using Windows XP

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This will be in the pop-up menu
You can find this in the bottom-right corner of the window.
This will allow you to change the icon sizes.
You can enter a number manually in the field or use the down arrow to decrease the number.
This will save your changes. If you want to change the icon size again, repeat the steps above and set a new number for Size.

Method 4

Method 4 of 5:

Using iPhone or iPad

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Open the Settings app. This is the grey cog icon.
- If your iPhone or iPad has abnormally large icons, you may have Display Zoom enabled.
You can find this underneath Control Center.
This will be underneath the Display header at the bottom of the page.
If this feature was previously enabled, it would be set to Larger Text.
5
Tap Done. This will save your changes.
- If your screen looks zoomed in, double-tap with three fingers to zoom out. Then, go to Settings → Accessibility → Zoom → toggle off Zoom.^{[2]
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Method 5

Method 5 of 5:

Using Android

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1
Open the Settings app. You can access this quickly by opening Quick Settings and tapping the grey cog icon.
- Icons can only be resized in newer versions of Android.
This will be underneath Sound & vibration.
On some devices, you may need to tap Advanced and Display size first.
4
Drag the slider to the left. This will make the icons smaller.
- You'll see a preview of the app size as you drag.
- When you're finished, return to the home screen to save your changes.

Community Q&A

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Question

Is my laptop display too large?

Community Answer

If the icons seem too small for your laptop display, you can increase their size by following the steps in this article (though you'll increase the size rather than make them smaller).

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What is the use of icons on the desktop?

Community Answer

The icons on the desktop are triggers to open a file. They can open applications, documents, MP3 files, etc. There can also be folders, which hold icons. Icons provide the user with easy access to common programs.

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Can Android icons be made smaller?

Community Answer

Google recently standardized icon sizes in Android, but some phone manufacturers include special software that allows you to do deeper customization--including changing the size of your icons.

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You can manually arrange desktop icons by clicking on them and dragging them to the desired area in both Windows and Mac.

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If you are using the stock version of Android and feel comfortable installing new apps, you may consider installing a custom launcher. Launchers are apps that change the way your entire desktop looks and behaves. They often include the ability to resize icons.

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