Accessibility Change Text Size in Windows 11

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text_size_banner.png

This tutorial will show you how to increase or decrease text size across the system for your account in Windows 11.

You can change the text size that appears throughout Windows and your apps without having to change the overall DPI scaling level of your system.

Starting with Windows 11 build 22635.3930 (Beta), build 26257.5000 (Canary), and build 26120.1330 (Dev), Microsoft has updated System Info (msinfo32) to now follow your text size preference under Settings > Accessibility > Text Size.

Starting with Windows 11 build 22631.5116 (RP 23H2) and build 22631.5126 (23H2), in part of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to improving File Explorer accessibility, this release includes increased support for the text scaling (Settings > Accessibility > Text size) across File Explorer, File Open/Save dialogs, and the copy dialogs.

Reference:

Change the size of text in Windows - Microsoft Support

Change the size of text in Windows using Settings or Magnifier.
support.microsoft.com support.microsoft.com


Changes to the text size are saved to the registry keys and values below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Accessibility
TextScaleFactor

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
UserPreferencesMask

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
AppliedDPI
BorderWidth
CaptionFont
CaptionHeight
CaptionWidth
IconFont
IconSpacing
IconVerticalSpacing
MenuFont
MenuHeight
MenuWidth
MessageFont
PaddedBorderWidth
ScrollHeight
ScrollWidth
Shell Icon Size
SmCaptionFont
SmCaptionHeight
SmCaptionWidth
StatusFont




Here's How

1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Accessibility on the left side, and click/tap on Text size on the right side. (see screenshot below)


text_size_Settings-1.png

3 Adjust the Text size slider to the percentage you want, and click/tap on Apply. (see screenshot below)

The default text size is 100%.

The text size in the Text size preview box will change as you adjust the slider to see a preview of the text size before you apply it.


text_size_Settings-2.png

4 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink


Related Tutorials

 
Last edited:
Click to expand...
Have you noticed that Universal apps text is far larger than desktop apps when using the MTB slider? In order to get Universal apps more in line with desktop apps is too reduce the TextScaleFactor at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Accessibility. This key seems to affect Universal Apps only while desktop apps use the values in WindowMetrics.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900K
    Motherboard
    ASUS Maximus Hero Z790
    Memory
    Corsair 2x32GB @ 6600
    Graphics Card(s)
    PNY RTX3080 TI
    Sound Card
    Realtek on motherboard.
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Corsair 4k, BenQ 4k.
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
Which text does this adjustment change e.g. menus, title bar, icons etc? How does this setting interact with font settings in other utilities such as WinAero Tweaker, System Font Changer and the reg files at Tenforums e.g. Option 2 at Change Icons Text Size in Windows 10? Do those reg filess for various text sizes work in Windows 11? If so, I suggest you publish them on this forum too.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Self build
    CPU
    Core i7-13700K
    Motherboard
    Asus TUF Gaming Plus WiFi Z790
    Memory
    64 GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR5
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC 8G
    Sound Card
    Realtek S1200A
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VP2770 & Dell (secondary)
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    Kingston KC3000 2TB NVME SSD & SATA HDDs & SSD
    PSU
    EVGA SuperNova G2 850W
    Case
    Nanoxia Deep Silence 1
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D14
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Digital Media Pro
    Mouse
    Logitech Wireless
    Internet Speed
    80 Mb / s
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Defender, Malwarebytes Free & AdwCleaner
Steve C said:
Which text does this adjustment change e.g. menus, title bar, icons etc? How does this setting interact with font settings in other utilities such as WinAero Tweaker, System Font Changer and the reg files at Tenforums e.g. Option 2 at Change Icons Text Size in Windows 10? Do those reg filess for various text sizes work in Windows 11? If so, I suggest you publish them on this forum too.
Click to expand...

Hello Steve, :alien:

The W10 REG files only affect the IconFont value in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics key. It will not affect everything like W11 below.

The W11 setting affects all the values at the top of the tutorial instead. The text size should be applied system wide, but there could be some 3rd party apps that may use their own settings instead.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self build
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING (11GB GDDR5X)
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G75 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3 wall mounted
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Amazon Basics Wired Full Keyboard MD005
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 4
    Internet Speed
    2 Gbps Download and 100 Mbps Upload
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Surface Laptop 7 Copilot+ PC
    CPU
    Snapdragon X Elite (12 core) 3.42 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB LPDDR5x-7467 MHz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15" HDR
    Screen Resolution
    2496 x 1664
    Hard Drives
    1 TB SSD
    Internet Speed
    Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender
I use ASFC but, you gotta leave the Menu font at default or it'll blow Office apps all out of proportion!

000470.png
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS ROG Strix
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS VivoBook
Steve C said:
Do those reg filess for various text sizes work in Windows 11? If so, I suggest you publish them on this forum too.
Click to expand...
I have every one of all those reg files saved for reference and find them very useful indeed.

Fwiw I make notes when clean installing and these are my current settings:

Windows 11 22H2 Metrics For Dell Precision 7760.

Currently using:

125% for Scaling. Set from dropdown. Scale affects File Explorer, Edge and the Taskbar.
100% for Text Size. Default setting.

Windows 11 Font Sizes.

Notes.
Icons Size. This will affect the text font size for icons in Address bars, Desktop, File Explorer. Icons will resize according to overall DPI setting.
Title Bars. These are the headers at the top of the page or program that is open.
Menus. These are top line view in programs such as File/Edit/View etc.

Icons 12 Bold
Title Bars 11 Bold
Message Boxes 9 Bold (currently not applied)
Menus 11 Bold

Notepad Text and Font can be set separately Using font size 10.

Registry Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
Click to expand...

It all gives a look that I like.

Fonts Sizes.jpg


Being able to make the top line of a program appear in bold is visually appealing to me as well. All this used to be able to be done from the settings in W8.1 and removing all this stuff was a real step back imo.

Screenshot 2023-04-29 141604.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W11 Pro x64 ongoing Canary 29500 latest builds
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell 7760 Mobile Precision 17"
    CPU
    Intel i5
    Motherboard
    Unknown
    Memory
    8Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Hard Drives
    2 x 256Gb SSD
    PSU
    Dell 240 watt
    Mouse
    Dell Premier Bluetooth
    Internet Speed
    50Mbps
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Default Microsoft Security
Windows' own settings will not let you select a bold font, but Winaero Tweaker does (bold, semibold, italics, depending on your system font). And that worked fine for all my system fonts but one -- this one:

Right-click some random file. Select properties. Note the text in the Properties dialog and menu items. I have not been able to learn what this text is called nor if there is a WindowMetrics setting for it; its size/weight is not changed by any of the font settings in Windows Settings nor in Winaero Tweaker. It also affects the filename box in a Save As dialog, and various other places (notably in legacy apps).

I did root through WindowMetrics with regedit but wasn't sure enough to try altering by hand. It may be that a key needs to be added??

The problem text is too spindly for my eyes, hence the desire to identify and change it. It has been a source of eyestrain all the way back to XP, and still is with Win11. :(
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    XP64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    custom
    CPU
    i7-4770
    Motherboard
    Asus P9X79
    Memory
    64GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung S27D360
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    SSD 480GB, NVMe 250GB/500GB, HDD 2TB/3TB
  • Operating System
    Win11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Xeon E3-1276 v3
    Motherboard
    MSI-7918 H7 Gaming 3
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Radeon R7 350X / Intel HD 4600
    Sound Card
    onboard AMD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung S27D360
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    NVMe 500GB
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