Is there a way to increase "menu" fonts to a larger size?

bhs67 · Apr 10, 2024

Version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.3447)

I just installed Win11 on two laptops. It seems that the font size on the "menus", etc. => such as File Explorer and Settings => are smaller. Many of us are no longer 20 years old. Is there a way to increase these types of fonts to a larger size?

Flashorn · Apr 10, 2024

Hi!
Try this to see if it enhances the font to your liking:
Start / Settings / Accessibility / Text Size

Some text size are not or will not be able to follow the size you have chosen.

You can also increase the size of the font in Notepad by clicking on the Gear Icon on the upper right
and choose the size. You can look at the sentence below to see by how the font has changed:

NormanF · Apr 10, 2024

If some reason, text is small, you can zoom up the default text size and then return it to normal. That usually addresses the issue.

thecaretaker · Apr 10, 2024

You can always adjust the scaling. I have mine set to 175% now as I find 150% which is the recommended scale too small.

The Doctor · Apr 10, 2024

Winaero Tweaker has a specific option to change the menu font.

ian50 · Apr 11, 2024

@The Doctor

Yes, I use Winaero Tweaker to pick and choose various fonts from the standard Windows font library.

One of my pet peeves with Win 10 and 11. MS has deliberately chosen to drop the font choice interface while keeping the machinery there. I can't guess why - MS states that it is to reduce overheads, but the lost UI has a tiny footprint, all the basic fonts are still there, as is the underlying code to allow pick and choose - but for us older people, it is really annoying. (I'd add that WinTweak doesn't add or modify any machinery code, just a simple UI to access the Win11 machinery).

Coming from Win 7, which allowed smooth and easy font choices, into Win10: the tiny, tiny, ugly default font from MS caused me instant nausea - I just couldn't read it to see what I was doing from the very first opening screen. No problem, I says, I'll just use the font choice as per Win 7. Silly me - it just wasn't there. Couldn't believe it at first. Some very annoyed hours later, I stumbled across Tweaker and finally had the luxury of reading the various menus and screen choices. While that alone caused me to delete the Win 10 installation immediately, I kept Tweaker. And so Win 11 was much less trouble.

Steve C · Apr 11, 2024

The Doctor said:
Winaero Tweaker has a specific option to change the menu font.

I use that too for menu, title bar and icon fonts

Steve C · Apr 11, 2024

ian50 said:
@The Doctor

Yes, I use Winaero Tweaker to pick and choose various fonts from the standard Windows font library.

One of my pet peeves with Win 10 and 11. MS has deliberately chosen to drop the font choice interface while keeping the machinery there. I can't guess why - MS states that it is to reduce overheads, but the lost UI has a tiny footprint, all the basic fonts are still there, as is the underlying code to allow pick and choose - but for us older people, it is really annoying. (I'd add that WinTweak doesn't add or modify any machinery code, just a simple UI to access the Win11 machinery).

Coming from Win 7, which allowed smooth and easy font choices, into Win10: the tiny, tiny, ugly default font from MS caused me instant nausea - I just couldn't read it to see what I was doing from the very first opening screen. No problem, I says, I'll just use the font choice as per Win 7. Silly me - it just wasn't there. Couldn't believe it at first. Some very annoyed hours later, I stumbled across Tweaker and finally had the luxury of reading the various menus and screen choices. While that alone caused me to delete the Win 10 installation immediately, I kept Tweaker. And so Win 11 was much less trouble.

This is because young MS software engineers have eagle eyesight capable of reading font size 5.

bhs67 · Apr 11, 2024

Microsoft code writers should have ->their Grandma proof read -> before releasing.

Mooly · Apr 11, 2024

I find I still use Brinks reg files (which work fine) to customise fonts and that are on TenForums.
Post #1 here, option #2 are the Icon files:

Change Icons Text Size in Windows 10

How to Change Text Size for Icons in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

There are similar for all the other settings if you search.

From my notes. The registry key at the end is worth exporting as it contains the default settings which will get altered with the applied changes.

Code:

Currently using:


125% for Scaling. Set from dropdown. Scale affects File Explorer, Edge and the Taskbar. This is default setting.
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          11 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 11, Consolas, Regular.


Registry Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

I saved a copy of all the files for future use. You must sign out and back in after applying changes for them to take effect. The bold option I think looks good (to me anyway).