How to change screen resolution in Windows 10 (and resize text and icons)

The resolution of a screen, be it the PC monitor or a TV, is represented by the amount of pixels displayed, horizontally and vertically. When connecting the PC to an external monitor there may be display problems related to the incorrect resolution configured on the system, with different consequences such as writing and icons that are too small or too large, or a shaky image or with a very annoying flicker effect on the eyes . These problems can be solved by changing the screen resolution in Windows 10 or by using the settings to zoom in (if you see everything too small in proportion to the size of the monitor) or to zoom out (if everything is too large taking up too much space) text and icons to display them in the desired size.
In this article we therefore see how to change the resolution in Windows 10 in order to resize the screen in cases where the desktop, windows and everything else seems to appear too small or too large and correct display problems,

Change screen resolution in Windows 10

To start, press the "Start" button on the taskbar (located at the bottom left of the desktop if it has not been moved) or press the Windows key on the keyboard to be able to search the Display Settings. These can also be found by opening the Windows 10 Settings app, going to the System> Display section.
At the bottom of the screen settings, you will find the screen resolution option, with a drop-down menu that allows you to change the number of horizontal and vertical pixels. Changing the resolution from this menu will also change the ratio between height and width (for example 16/9 or 4/3). Among the resolutions that can be chosen, Windows 10 always recommends using the one it deems optimal, marking it as "recommended". Usually this recommended resolution is the maximum resolution obtainable from the monitor used.
Changes to this menu are activated immediately in preview with the possibility of returning to the previous resolution or confirming the change. If you make no choice, Windows will revert the change back to the previous resolution.

Change resolution from Nvidia Control Panel, Intel or AMD

Depending on the graphics card mounted inside the PC, you can change the screen resolution from the video card management program. For example, on PCs with an NVidia graphics card, you can open the NVIDIA Control Panel and find options for changing the screen resolution.

Use custom screen resizing

If the icons on the desktop and the writing should be too small or too large, after setting the resolution recommended by Windows 10, you can use the custom resizing options that are always in Settings> System> Display . Here you can choose to increase the screen resolution to 125%, 150% or 175%. If none of the three options are satisfactory, you can press the link of the customized resizing settings and enter, in the lower part of the window, a different number such as, for example, 110 to have an increase in the size of icons, text and windows to 110% I respect the initial situation. At the top of this screen, leave the option that automatically corrects the size of the apps absolutely active, so as not to risk seeing blurred windows.
READ ALSO: Magnify text and icons on Windows without blurring

Other ways to work with a small or low resolution screen

In case you work on a laptop or with a not big monitor, then you can use different systems to be able to work better.

Fast switch between windows and featured programs

Typically, when working on a small screen, there is enough space to display only one program at a time. It therefore becomes essential to use the ALT + TAB keyboard shortcut to switch from one window to another very quickly. You can then customize the management of programs and windows in Windows activate the quick selection of windows from the corners of the screen.

Use space more efficiently

Thanks to some external programs it is possible to better organize the windows on the desktop in order to support them and keep more programs open in view.
For Windows we have several tools to align and move windows quickly with automatic arrangement or other free tools to move and resize windows automatically on the screen. Always for Windows, the Small Windows program is very convenient, for an overview of all the windows.

Use workspaces

Having all the programs open on the screen can be really inconvenient, so you can use the workspaces, to keep the windows separate according to the type: for example one for the browser, one for writing and one for the chat. In Windows 10 the workspaces are called virtual desktops and can be used by pressing the activity viewer button on the taskbar, then clicking on New desktop at the top.

Hide menu bars

When working on a small screen, to take advantage of all the small screen space, especially if you have to work with more than one visible app, you need all the space you can get. On Windows you can hide the taskbar by pressing on it with the right button, going to the properties and activating the option Hide automatically .

Resize the display of websites

On any web browser like Google Chrome you can use the zoom options to make the text of the web pages bigger or smaller. A quick shortcut that changes the text size in Chrome, Fireofx and Edge is to hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard and then use the mouse wheel forward or backward to zoom in or out.
If you use a small screen it might be a good idea to always open full screen sites.

Full screen writing programs

If you need to use the computer to write, you can use a program that takes advantage of the entire screen, hiding any distractions, such as FocusWriter or Omniwriter, both available for both Mac and Windows.
READ ALSO: How to enlarge the PC screen