Notification area icons and date/time font sizes

PeterM42

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Although I have "Use Small Icons" UNticked & a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024, I find the notification area and the date/time display rather small (yes, my eyesight is NOT that brilliant!!). I do NOT want to switch screen resolution, but would like these items larger. Any ideas please, anyone?
 

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Why don't you take a look at some of the many 3rd party date/time apps that are available?

Also, some of your system's font size settings are directly affecting the font size of your date and time display.

As another person who prefers (and needs) larger fonts and images, I'm happy to share my list of settings with you. As you go through them, you'll see which one(s) affect the time and date display:

1. Fonts - Change - This is the one of the main setting tools for setting various locations of Windows font sizes. Right-click on the Desktop and go to Personalize, Window Color and Appearance. Click on Advanced, and in the drop-down menu, select the item that controls the location where you wish to change the font size. (Note: the last one, Window, does not have an option to control font size.)

2. DPI - How to Change the Display DPI Size in Windows 7
Right click on Desktop, Personalize, On Personalization Page, (OR go to Start Menu, Control Panel, Display, and in left column select Custom DPI setting.) go to left column to: Adjust Font size – DPI, DPI Scaling: Click on Large scale (120 DPI), and click Apply. OR Click ‘Set custom text size (DPI)’ in the left pane to customize the text size and drag the ruler with your mouse to increase or decrease the percentage.

3. Screen Resolution - TechTalkz.com Technology & Computer Troubleshooting Forums > Operating Systems > Windows 7 – Guide to How to Change Font Size + Icon Size

Right-click on the Desktop, choose Screen Resolution, (OR go to Start Menu, Control Panel, Display, and in left column select ‘Adjust resolution.’) click on the down-arrow at the end of the Resolution box, and pick the desired resolution. Check OK.

4. Display: Right-click on the Desktop, select Personalize, then Display. (OR Start Menu, Control Panel, Display.) From the 3 settings: Small, Medium, Large, if screen defaults to Medium (125% size for font and images) and that’s too large, use Small for 100% size (aka “normal”)

5. At the lower right hand corner of every IE web page, there’s a Zoom control that lets you increase the size of every web page, and it stays at that Zoom setting for every page until/unless you change it.

6. Open Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, UNcheck all three:
Reset text size to Medium for new windows and tabs, and
Reset text size to Medium while Zooming, and
Reset Zoom level to 100% for new windows and tabs

7. Open Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, General, Accessibility, Select Ignore font sizes specified on web pages. Click OK, then Apply, then OK.

8. Open Internet Explorer, click the Page button, click Text Size, and then select the size you want i.e. Large (Largest may be too large).

9. Ease of Access Center – Go to either: Control Panel, All Control Panel Items, Ease of Access Center, Make Your Computer Easier to Use, Explore All Settings, and click on: Make this computer easier to see (Optimize Visual Display). OR go to Control Panel, and Explore all settings. Under the following heading, Make things on the screen larger, select: Change the size of text + icons. This takes you to the dpi settings screen.

10. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, use command/ctrl + your scroll on a web page to increase the font size. (You should be able to change the button assignments of the mouse in its Control Panel by selecting an appropriate option for the function you want.)

11. MS Word templates: In the Ribbon or QuickAccess Bar select Styles, Normal, and when the little arrow appears, select Modify. Under Formatting you can change the default font size (12) to whatever size you wish. At the bottom of the screen select Only in this documents OR New documents based on this template. Click OK. You can change this font size setting for any/all other MS Word templates as well.

12. In IE and FireFox (for current use – not permanent): press Ctrl and the + key to increase screen size. To reduce screen size press Ctrl and the – key. (To restore screen size to 100% press Ctrl and 0.)

13. FireFox (permanent setting): go to Tools, Options, Content, and on that screen set the new default text size that you wish. Then, click Advanced and there are additional default text size settings. Plus, in the box that says "Minimum text size" select None, and down below, UNcheck the box that says "allow pages to choose their own fonts instead of my selections above."

14. FireFox Add-On: NoSquint (http://urandom.ca/nosquint/)

15. Magnifier – To Magnify Entire Page: Start, Search pane, and type: magnifier. When it comes up click the plus (+) sign. The entire page will magnify. OR go to: Control Panel, All Control Panel Items, Ease of Access Center, Make Your Computer Easier to Use, Start Magnifier.

16. Magnifier – To Magnify a Certain Portion of the Screen - go to Start, Search pane, and type: magnifier. Click the program at the top. The Magnifier can be set to Docked Mode which places a re-sizable window at the top of the screen that follows the cursor. (To read more about Magnifier go to Start, click "Help & Support" on the right hand side, type in "magnifier.") Magnifier is actually located at: Start, All Programs, Accessories, Ease of Access, Magnifier.

17. 3rd Party apps: Magic Zoom Plus (http://www.magictoolbox.com/magiczoomplus/)
 

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If you are using the default aero theme I can change that for you. I have Windows Style Builder that can make that change. Here is an example the first one is the default Aero theme with size 9 the second one is size 12.
1.png2.png
If you are using a custom theme you will need to ask the theme maker. It's not cool to change someone else work.
It would be making a custom theme so you would need to do 1 of these 2 ways of Enabling custom themes for it to work.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/34579-enabling-custom-themes-windows-7-a.html
Or
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/28377-theme-how-apply-custom-themes.html?filter

As far as the notification area icons they are a fixed size sorry
Let me know
Jerry
 

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You can alter the size of the notification icons slightly if you play around with the advanced appearance settings and taskbar width.

Standard
larger.PNG

Smaller
small.PNG

Its not a massive change and you loose a little detail in them aswell

Danny
 

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NOBODY has yet come up with a solution - NOTE: I am COMPLETELY HAPPY with the size of EVERYTHING ELSE on the screen, so I DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE icons, fonts size, screen resolution, Word, Excel, IE fonts or ANYTHING ELSE.

I LIKE the Aero scheme - It works fine for me.

I ONLY ONLY ONLY want to CHANGE the SIZE of the System Tray/Notification area and date/time. ie: make them BIGGER.
If you do NOT have an ACTUAL solution to this ACTUAL request, then please don't waste my time by posting.
Thank you.
 

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Shucks Peter - try show show some gratitude for the effort put in so far. if you scroll up a few posts you will see that Bongo has offered to build you a customised theme to do some of what you require : why don't you explore that further and see how that works for you?

Good luck,
Golden
 

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Sorry to appear ungrateful, but I have spent SO much time chasing this one and going through the various suggestions without success.

Also Bongo's post says: "As far as the notification area icons they are a fixed size sorry"

ie: customization will NOT achieve the main objective of increasing the icon size.

Hence my post with the particular emphases.

:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:
 

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No worries Peter :)

Perhaps the icons in the notification area can't be done at all? Bongo is pretty handy with the customisation, and I'd still encourage you to see if you can at least get the clock large enough.

Regards,
Golden
 

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The clock is only secondary, it is the icons I REALLY want to enlarge to be the same size as the taskbar icons. From what I have found so far, this is NOT possible.

How does one make an enhancement request to Microsoft?

:huh:
 

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Hi Peter,

I was hoping there might be a registry hack to enlarge the icons (there are hacks for hiding them) but alas I couldn't find anything. I'll aks our resident MVP's to comment on the best way to request an enhancement.

Regards,
Golden
 

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I am 99% sure you will not be able to change the notification area icons to any other size, the taskbar icons and most other icon are built on a 256 pixel by 256 pixel image but the notification area icons are 32 pixels by 32 pixels I have tried making bigger icons and putting them there and the size did not change.
My offer still stands to make the clock text bigger.
Jerry
 

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Laptop
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Sager NP9170
OS
Win 7 Pro x64 / Win 10 Pro
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40GHz
Motherboard
CLEVO P170EM
Memory
12 GB
Graphics Card(s)
(1) Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 (2) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M
Sound Card
(1) Realtek High Definition Audio (2) Intel(R) Display Aud
Monitor(s) Displays
17.3
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
(1) Samsung 860 EVO 500GB(OS) (1) Samsung 860 EVO 500GB(Data)
Keyboard
Backlite
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MSE, Malwarebytes Pro
Browser
Firefox
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DESKTOP: Custom-built.
OS: Win 10 Pro x64.
CASE: Rosewill R5.
CPU: Intel I5 4670K CPU @ 3.40GHz.
CPU COOLER: Cool Master Hyper 212 EVO.
MOTHERBOARD: Asus Z87-A.
MEMORY: Kingston HyperX 2x4 GB.
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 650 TI.
PSU: Corsair TX750.
DRIVES: (1) Samsung 840 120 GB SSD (2) Western Digital blue 500 GB 7200 RPM.
Thanks Golden.

PeterM
 

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Thanks Bongo, but the clock/date is a secondary issue - it is the icons I really want to enlarge.

Regards,

PeterM
 

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Peter,

I've asked our MVP's to provide some comment - they may even be able to facilitate a request on your behalf. Lets see what they come back with.

Regards,
Golden
 

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2*Samsung F3 SpinPoint 1TB in RAID0;
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Logitech G110
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The notification area icons can be 12x12, 20x20 or 24x24 pixels but these are not normally controlled by Windows other than to display what is provided by the program based on the user's display size options. The notification area is used by programs and/or drivers to display temporary icons for status or user intervention. These are a special type of icon and their size(s) are fixed by the definition of Notification Icons. They are purposely small as to not distract the user and to differentiate them from Task Bar icons. They cannot be changed except as noted.

If you need that area of the display to be larger, I suggest you stick a fresnel lens over the lower right hand corner of the screen. Otherwise, there is no other option.
 

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Hi Peter,

Brink suggested using this link to send feedback:

Windows 7 Feedback

Regards,
Golden
 

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Intel i7 860 @ 2.80 GHz O/C'ed to 4.0GHz
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Gigabyte P55A-UD3R Rev.1. Award BIOS F13
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EVGA NVidia GTX 560 1024MB
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Dual Samsung SyncMaster 2494HS
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1920*1080 and 1920*1080
Hard Drives
1*Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD;
1*OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD;
2*Samsung F3 SpinPoint 1TB in RAID0;
1*Samsung F1 SpinPoint 1TB;
2*Western Digital 1TB External USB 3.0
1*Western Digital 500GB External USB 3.0
1*Seagate 500GB External USB 2.0
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Thermaltake ToughPower QFan 750W
Case
Thermaltake Element S VK60001W2Z
Cooling
Corsair H60 Water Cooling, 2*230mm and 2*80mm case fans
Keyboard
Logitech G110
Mouse
Logitech MX518
Notification Area icon size

Thanks Golden and Brink, I have submitted feedback as suggested.

Regards,

PeterM
 

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Dell Optiplex GX620
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No worries - glad to have helped.
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Golden Mk. I.4
OS
Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
CPU
Intel i7 860 @ 2.80 GHz O/C'ed to 4.0GHz
Motherboard
Gigabyte P55A-UD3R Rev.1. Award BIOS F13
Memory
16GB Corsair Vengance DDR3 @ 661 MHz Dual Channel (9-9-9-24)
Graphics Card(s)
EVGA NVidia GTX 560 1024MB
Sound Card
Realtek Integrated
Monitor(s) Displays
Dual Samsung SyncMaster 2494HS
Screen Resolution
1920*1080 and 1920*1080
Hard Drives
1*Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD;
1*OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD;
2*Samsung F3 SpinPoint 1TB in RAID0;
1*Samsung F1 SpinPoint 1TB;
2*Western Digital 1TB External USB 3.0
1*Western Digital 500GB External USB 3.0
1*Seagate 500GB External USB 2.0
PSU
Thermaltake ToughPower QFan 750W
Case
Thermaltake Element S VK60001W2Z
Cooling
Corsair H60 Water Cooling, 2*230mm and 2*80mm case fans
Keyboard
Logitech G110
Mouse
Logitech MX518
I had exactly the same problem and this worked for me......

Change the active title bar size setting to a standard value:

  1. Open Control Panel, select "Personalization";
  2. Choose Window Color, click "Advanced Appearance Settings";
  3. Make sure "Active title bar” size is set to 22;
  4. Log off your Windows account and then log on again to apply the changes.
 

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Thanx, but makes no difference to the notification area icons, date or time.:cry::cry::cry:
 

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