How Can I Find a Readable File Manager?

The standard Windows 11 File Explorer gives me headaches.

I've tried *everything* to make it more readable, but even looking at the standard Home, Gallery, or Personal folders gives me headaches due to eyestrain; trying to work in the other folders eventually gives me headaches, too. I've currently downscaled resolution to 1280x720 to make text bigger and bolder everywhere, I've reduced gamma to make bold text bolder, I've used Better Cleartype Tuner to make it bolder, etc. I've experimented with other options, too.

I understand that Files, Total Commander, etc. are alternatives to the standard Windows 11 File Explorer, but I can't find info about readability and/or general accessibility.

I tried searching the Windows Store, but search is broken, so searches for "accessibility," even with quotes, yield a lot of unrelated results.

I have hearing issues so I can't use screen readers.

I tried Winver, but I couldn't copy and paste the info to read it.

winver displays your current windows version and build. if you want to paste it here, you can just open it and press Alt+PrintScr and paste here with ctrl+v.
if you want to paste the text to enlarge and read it elsewhere, you can use snipping tool to capture it and then click the Text Actions button to run OCR (so then you can highlight and copy/paste the text from the image)

i dont know which one has the best visual effects in regard to text/formatting... you can use XYPlorer. i looked online and you can set font & text size on that one.

You really should get an eye examination. Have you tried reading glasses? They come in different magnifications and you may find a pair that helps. You can also get blue light blockers that may help.

I have had *many* eye exams, and seen *many* doctors about my visual issues. I can't do anything about these. P.S. I tried reading glasses, but they're blurry at screen distances.

I have ruled out hardware issues.

I've already found accessibility fixes in some versions of MacOS (which has bolder fonts throughout the system), and Linux (which allows users to pick desktops and either x11 or Wayland; most desktops allow users to pick accessibility options, switch fonts, etc.), etc.

Are there no comparable fixes in Windows? (it has MacType, but it doesn't work everywhere.) P.S. I have requested a couple Windows 11 help books at the library. I will try Xyplorer, and Files, if I can download it. I also plan to try Xfce within wsl2, if I can figure out how to run it.

Windows uses Segoe UI as the default font. Find a size you can see without eye strain.

Ananiujitha said:

I've currently downscaled resolution to 1280x720 to make text bigger and bolder everywhere,

Click to expand...

That is not the solution. It only makes viewing worse.

Put your resolution back to it native setting.
Change your system font to one that is more readable. Without installing other fonts, I suggest Aptos Bold (which should be installed already) as a good one to start with. If you don't like that font, pick one you do like from Control Panel >Fonts. (Not all of them have a bold option available. You have to open the font folder to see the fonts in that family)

Change your system font.

Once that's done, set your scale at no more than 125% for a laptop.

Then use Advanced system Font changer to tweak the size of fonts. System Font Size Changer - Increase Text Size in Windows 10
Only change font for ICON. (This will control what you see in Explorer as well as Desktop.) Change it a little at a time and test the results. Keep tweaking size until you can read it.

You do know that your browsers each have a setting called zoom that enlarges fonts in browsers.

Note. There are a few areas of Windows that this will not change, such as Control Panel

Files gave me a *far* worse headache. I wish I knew why. If it were more readable, then column view, tags, and so on would be usable too.

XYplorer seems better than the default File Explorer. Just setting Segoe UI Semibold 12 instead of Segoe UI 9 goes a long way. I might want to take another look at other desktops with comparable font support.

There are many better fonts than Segoe. For people with bad eyes, there is only so much one can do, especially when using a laptop. Your best bet would be to use a large monitor.

At native resolution, I can't read Segoe UI Regular at all at 10 pts or below; I can read it but get a lot of eye strain at 19 pts or below. I can't read Segoe UI Semibold at 9 pts or below; I can read it but get a lot of eye strain at 14 pts or below.

I tried using native resolution and scaling instead. I tried 125%, not enough. 150%, 175%... it was still too hard to read.

I find that, if gamma is low enough or ClearType settings are bold enough, then reducing resolution works better than scaling, and it works more widely than scaling; it just doesn't work well enough to fix the File Explorer, Files, and certain other apps.

I initially dismissed Wintools because I was using Winaero Tweaker and it seemed to do the same thing; it didn't work everywhere either. P.S. The site notes that "9. You can currently only change system fonts that are used by traditional Windows software. The font management of special software of Windows 10/11 (e.g. Windows Explorer, Start menu, Taskbar, Task Manager) cannot yet be changed."

P.S. WinTools does include its own Explorer tools, so I might gie it another look: WinTools.Info - Explorer Utilities

I have a large external monitor. I have to downscale it, too, when using Windows.

I'm sure you are familiar for all vision accessibility tools in Windows. Accessibility tools for vision - Microsoft Support

Have you looked into any of the free third party applications available for the vision impaired. There are a lot of them.
One such is Morphic. You can get it in the Microsoft store. You can read about it here Morphic Basic - Morphic

I'm sorry but I don't have anything else to suggest. I hope you can work it out.