window magnification

My name is Jeff, I have a new hp 200 quad computer with windows 7. I prefer to view the screen at a custom magnification of 160%. I cannot seem to get the computer to remember this magnification. Sometimes it boots up at my mag. and sometimes it is boots up at 100%. Any permanent fix for this prob? Thank you!!

Jeff, if you're using Internet Explorer 8 or 9, there is a Zoom button at the lower right-hand corner of your screen. You can set that to pretty much any magnification, and it will be a permanent setting, unless/until you change it. Here are some other magnification and increased text/image size suggestions, including one for FireFox:

1. 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.

2. DPI - Right click on Desktop, Personalize, On Personalization Page, go to left column to: Adjust Font size – DPI, DPI Scaling: Click on Large scale (120 DPI), and click Apply.

3. 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.

4. Open Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, General, Accessibility, Select Ignore font styles specified on web pages, check boxes and click OK, then Apply, then OK.

5. 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

6. 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).

7. Ease of Access Center – 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.

8. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, use command/ctrl + your scroll on a web page to increase the font size.

9. Magnifier – For those instances when you need to magnify a certain portion of the screen - go to Start, in the Search pane, type in "magnifier" + click the program at the top. (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.

( Open Internet Explorer, Internet Options, Appearance, Fonts, How to ignore present fonts - The notes refer you to numbers 3, 5, 6 and 8).

To increase font size permanently in FireFox: 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." Also, see this link: nosquint

Thanks karlsnooks for the above suggestions. I've incorporated them into my list and have also added the font size settings for MS Office. Here's the revised list, if anyone would like it:

1. 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 - Right click on Desktop, Personalize, On Personalization Page, go to left column to: Adjust Font size – DPI, DPI Scaling: Click on Large scale (120 DPI), and click Apply.

3. Screen Resolution + Display: In Windows 7 right-click on the Desktop, choose Screen Resolution, click on the down-arrow at the end of the Resolution box, and pick the desired resolution. Check OK. For Display, right-click on the Desktop, select Personalize, then 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”). (In Vista: Right-click on Desktop, Personalize, Display, Settings, and under Resolution there is a sliding scale where you can adjust the size of the screen resolution.)

4. 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.

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

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

8. Ease of Access Center – 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.

9. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, use command/ctrl + your scroll on a web page to increase the font size.

10. MS Office apps have a Zoom slider at the lower right hand corner of every page, that lets you increase the size of every Office app page, and it stays at that Zoom setting until/unless you change it.

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. Magnifier – For those instances when you need to magnify a certain portion of the screen - go to Start, in the Search pane, type in "magnifier" + click the program at the top. (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.

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

(If you go to Internet Explorer, Internet Options, Appearance, Fonts, How to ignore present fonts - The notes refer you to numbers 4, 5, 7, 9, and 12 above).

Now imperfect, if you would only increase the type size of your advise, the advise would be more readable to a person who wants to know how to make text more readable.

karlsnooks said:

Now imperfect, if you would only increase the type size of your advise, the advise would be more readable to a person who wants to know how to make text more readable.

Great idea! Thanks for the advice. I can do that! See revised post above.

Excellent. Now I just need to add that my bookmarks so that I've gat a canned response ready.

Nice work.