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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
November 1, 2009
Q.
I have increased my screen resolution since
I have a larger monitor but find the scroll
bar on the right of the windows is too
narrow. How can I increase its width without
increasing everything else?
A.
This is something that was relative easy in
XP, became more hidden and thus more
involved in Vista, and is somewhat easier in
Windows 7. But when you know where to look,
this and other appearance settings can be
easily made in any of these Windows
versions.
In XP:
Right click on the desktop and select
Properties. Click the Appearance tab then
the Advanced button. Click on the scroll bar
in the display window or select it in the
"Item" box. Now you can increase or decrease
the scroll bar's width by clicking on the up
or down arrows in the "size" box. Click OK
and OK and the width of the scroll bar will
be changed.
In
Vista:
Right click the desktop, and select
Personalize. Click on "Window color and
appearance" and then on "Open classic
appearance properties for more options".
Click the Advanced... button and then click
on the scroll bar in the display window or
select it in the "Item" box. Now you can
increase or decrease the scroll bar's width
by clicking on the up or down arrows in the
"size" box. Click OK and OK and the width of
the scroll bar will be changed.
In
Windows 7:
Right click the desktop and select
Personalize. At the bottom there are four
icons across the screen. Click on "Windows
color" and then on "Advanced appearance
settings". (Note that with aero
disabled, you will go directly to the
"Windows color and appearances" dialog). Click on the scroll bar in the
display window or select it in the "Item"
box. Now you can increase or decrease the
scroll bar's width by clicking on the up or
down arrows in the "size" box. Click OK then
the Save changes button.
I have
found that a scroll bar width setting of 24
is about right for a 22" wide screen monitor
with a resolution of 1440 X 900, but you can
experiment to determine the best setting for
your screen size and personal tastes.
There is
another change that I have found to be
desirable with a higher resolution screen
setting. This is the size of the Minimize
(-) maximize and close (X) icons in the top
right corner of a window. Using the same
basic procedure outlined above you can
easily change the size of these.
In XP and
Vista changing the size of these icons will
also change the size of the icons in the
Quick Launch toolbar if activated, the
taskbar and the system tray. However, since
Windows 7 has different type taskbar, the
size of the icons in it are not affected by
this change. |
