Horizontal icon spacing decreased in 22H2?

I clean installed 22H2 and noticed that the icon names are truncated quite early even if the name is not that long. This was not the case in 21H2.

I'm aware there are 3rd party apps and register editing that can solve this, but is this actually a default thing in 22H2 now?

I'm not seeing that, the names are shown in full and wrapped if long, this is the same regardless of icon size. Win11 includes an option for reducing the space between icons for people not using tablets and touch screens, maybe you can change that setting. It could also be due to the choice of icon arrangement, auto, to grid etc.

Nor am I seeing it. As long as scale, resolution, size of the screen, same system font, font size, and icon size in registry is the same, the icons and their fonts will appear the same whether it be 10 or 11. Using different themes can also make a difference.

it is easy enough to adjust settings with a simple regedit.

Loads of web guides e.g.

Hard to tell by the tiny thumbnail of a screenshot, but, if that's the icon border, the label doesn't look right!
Truncated labels should be viewable upon selection, movement or mouse hover...

DigitalGoat said:

I'm not seeing that, the names are shown in full and wrapped if long, this is the same regardless of icon size. Win11 includes an option for reducing the space between icons for people not using tablets and touch screens, maybe you can change that setting. It could also be due to the choice of icon arrangement, auto, to grid etc.

Click to expand...

Where is that option?

glasskuter said:

Nor am I seeing it. As long as scale, resolution, size of the screen, same system font, font size, and icon size in registry is the same, the icons and their fonts will appear the same whether it be 10 or 11. Using different themes can also make a difference.

Click to expand...

Could you please check what your value in regedit is for the horizontal spacing between icons?

I noticed the icons are quite close to the left edge of my monitor, don't know how to change that.

Mine is -1130 but you can not go by that. As I said above, your other settings affect this as well.

I never said I had no truncation. I said that I have no difference in how they appear between my Win10 and Win11 machines. Instead of spreading out my icons in order to have no tuncation, I choose to rename them in order to keep everything orderly.
Whether or not there is truncation not only depends on all the settings I listed above as well as your horizontal icon spacing, it also depends on the naming convention of the file or folder.
Look at this example. It all depends on how I word and punctuate the name.

Kinda weird to figure out!
I think the grid spacing is of a default size...,
... just that strange things happen based on titles, selection and first-selection focus, etc...


then you've titles that bleed over...

glasskuter said:

Mine is -1130 but you can not go by that. As I said above, your other settings affect this as well.

I never said I had no truncation. I said that I have no difference in how they appear between my Win10 and Win11 machines. Instead of spreading out my icons in order to have no tuncation, I choose to rename them in order to keep everything orderly.
Whether or not there is truncation not only depends on all the settings I listed above as well as your horizontal icon spacing, it also depends on the naming convention of the file or folder.
Look at this example. It all depends on how I word and punctuate the name.

Click to expand...

I have no idea why there's a difference for me between 21H2 and 22H2, even though I haven't changed to scaling, theme or anything else whatsoever. Here's a comparison. In 22H2 the icons are cramped up to the left side of my monitor edge, notice how there's more space on the left side of the icons.. It's as if the grid spacing is decreased.

21H2


22H2

The setting I mention about space between items is in the folder view options, the 3 dot menu, options, view tab, however mine is set to decrease the space between items and I am still not seeing truncated names like you show in your original post.

DigitalGoat said:

The setting I mention about space between items is in the folder view options, the 3 dot menu, options, view tab, however mine is set to decrease the space between items and I am still not seeing truncated names like you show in your original post.

Click to expand...

That only seems to change the vertical spacing in the navigation pane in my case. Doesn't do anything for the desktop icons.

Something else to note here. You did a clean install of 22h2. I did an inplace upgrade to 22h2 which did NOT affect any of my windows metrics settings. So you are probably correct in that a clean install now defaults these settings differently than before.

glasskuter said:

Something else to note here. You did a clean install of 22h2. I did an inplace upgrade to 22h2 which did NOT affect any of my windows metrics settings. So you are probably correct in that a clean install now defaults these settings differently than before.

Click to expand...

I'm really curious now what the default spacing value is in the registry editor when using 100% scaling and a resolution of 1920x1080 for other 22H2 users (clean install or not).

Mine is -1125

I do not use 1920x1080. Mine is 2560x1440, 150% scale so my settings wouldn't help you.
Why not export your windowsmetrics settings to a reg file, then experiment by manually changing your registry settings OR even easier use WinaeroTweaker-under Advanced Appearance Settings-Icons.
You can always import your original settings back in if need be. (Note that this setting also affects what you see in Explorer if you are viewing by icons rather than list)

I absolutely hate how drab Windows 11 is so I've tweaked a lot. I got rid of those awful pale yellow folder icons in explorer and regedit, They are now blue.

I used Wintools System Font Size Changer to tweak the different font sizes used for the different sections of a window. However, these settings have to be changed again if the scale is ever changed such as when I update my graphics driver.

I went really crazy and used a Windows 7 VM to build my own theme, then used Wintools Classic Color Panel to adjust the color of fonts that were complementary to the theme I built, specifically the hot tracking color (which you can see is a deep burgundy in this browser screenshot of this forum post) and I toned down all the bright white to a more acceptable gray hue. These are the settings in [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors] The only part I have been unable to change is the drab gray of an explorer window.

So, if you want to go bold, there are ways to do it... As long as you backup your settings first.

glasskuter said:

I do not use 1920x1080. Mine is 2560x1440, 150% scale so my settings wouldn't help you.
Why not export your windowsmetrics settings to a reg file, then experiment by manually changing your registry settings OR even easier use WinaeroTweaker-under Advanced Appearance Settings-Icons.
You can always import your original settings back in if need be. (Note that this setting also affects what you see in Explorer if you are viewing by icons rather than list)

Click to expand...

I have experimented but I don't know what the default reg values were for horizontal and vertical spacing in 21H2 to change it to those values.

If anyone with Windows 10 or 11 21H2 can check in the reg I'd appreciate it a lot.

DigitalGoat said:

The setting I mention about space between items is in the folder view options, the 3 dot menu, options, view tab, however mine is set to decrease the space between items and I am still not seeing truncated names like you show in your original post.

Click to expand...

This setting only affects the spacing on the Navigation sidebar and Explorer windows in the List, Small and Detailed view config, it does not affect Tiles, or Medium+ icons such as that on the desktop.

JohnnyGui said:

Mine is -1125

Click to expand...

Default is always -1125, however there are differences in the Height spacing between 10 22h2 and 11 22h2 at the same settings, for sure.

Diceman2037 said:

This setting only affects the spacing on the Navigation sidebar and Explorer windows in the List, Small and Detailed view config, it does not affect Tiles, or Medium+ icons such as that on the desktop.



Default is always -1125, however there are differences in the Height spacing between 10 22h2 and 11 22h2 at the same settings, for sure.

Click to expand...

It appears that the spacing should differ depending on the language of your Windows installation, as explained here. My version is in Dutch but for some reason the English spacing is applied to it when clean installing 22H2.