Customize the Display (24H2)

Windows 11 usually does a good job of configuring your PC to use its display at its native resolution and an optimal display scaling value based on its physical size and other factors. But you should still review these settings and ensure that they and other display-related options are configured to your liking.

Most of this work occurs in Display settings, which you can find by opening the Settings app and navigating to System > Display.

There's a quicker way to get to Display settings: Just right-click the Desktop and choose "Display settings" from the context menu that appears.
Configure the display resolution to be the native resolution
Display settings lets you choose a resolution for your display, with the native resolution usually being the optimal choice (and the highest resolution it offers). You can find this by opening Display settings and viewing the "Display resolution" setting in the "Scale & layout" section.

Check to make sure this setting is set to your display's native resolution--it's marked with "(Recommended)"--because lower resolution settings will make everything on-screen look blurry.
If you find user interface elements to be too small (or too big) at your display's native resolution, you can make them bigger (or smaller) using the display scaling and text sizing settings noted below.
Configure the display scaling
Once the display is set properly to its native resolution, you can use the display scaling capabilities in Windows 11--also found under "Scale & layout" in Display settings--to scale all the user interface elements in the system so that they are sized as you prefer.

Here, for example, you can see the impact of switching a 14-inch Full HD+ display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 from the default display scaling of 150 percent down to 100 percent: The on-screen user interface items, including the text, are all much smaller now.

The scaling that Windows recommends is denoted with the text "(Recommended)." But feel free to change this setting to whichever value you prefer: Unlike with the resolution setting, none of the Scale choices will make the display look blurry. This is all about your eye comfort.

You can also configure a custom scaling size between 100 and 500 percent. This is not generally recommended because these custom sizes can sometimes cut off the display of some user interface elements. But if you'd like to give it a shot, select the "Scale" setting in Display settings (not the size drop-down but the setting itself) to navigate to the Custom scaling page.

Here, you can enter a custom scaling value between 100 and 500 percent. You will need to sign out and then sign back in to see how the setting change impacted the display. It can be dramatic, as seen above.
Configure the size of on-screen text only
You can also optionally scale on-screen text independently of other user interface items. This is useful if you prefer to use a smaller display scaling...

Gain unlimited access to Premium articles.

With technology shaping our everyday lives, how could we not dig deeper?

Thurrott Premium delivers an honest and thorough perspective about the technologies we use and rely on everyday. Discover deeper content as a Premium member.

Tagged with

Share post

Thurrott