Change Windows 8 Desktop Icon sizes?

[Cah]

Medium is too small and Large too big (View > Icon Sizes). Does anyone know how to set an exact size via the registry?

[Rudi]

You can use the mouse to do this...

1. Using the left click of the mouse, click on an empty area in the desktop. This step is to make sure that there is no application selected/clicked on.
2. Using your keyboard, press and keep holding the CTRL button, then using your mouse wheel, roll it upward to make the icons size larger, or downward to set the icon size smaller.

[Cah]

Thanks, I don't actually have a mouse with this - it's a hybrid and would prefer a more precise way.

[Rudi]

The web page I point to is for windows 7. I am not on a win 8 pc now and cannot test this, but if you can access the dialog box as seen in method one on this page, you can modify the icon size as needed. I just hope this dialog is available, but cannot confirm.

One other option that could work is to look for a win8 tweaking app that exposes windows icon settings.

I did notice settings in the registry, but confirmations reported that they do not work.

[Jay Freedman]

Rudi, unfortunately the advanced appearance settings link is one of the things MS removed in Windows 8, and the dialog it leads to is gone.

I found the magic registry setting but it's a bear to work with. Also, I'm not certain that it isn't different on other computers, as I have only one to look at.

The registry entry I changed was the IconSize value in the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop. Its default value is hex 30 (decimal 48). After I change it in regedit.exe, I started an administrator command window (Windows key + X, A) and entered these two commands:

ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F

When explorer.exe restarts, it shows the new icon size on the desktop.

I suspect that (a) only values that are multiples of decimal 16 are valid and (b) some programs don't contain icons of all possible sizes -- where some may offer 16-pixel, 32-pixel, 48-pixel, and 64-pixel sizes, others may have only one or two of those. I'm not sure what they'll display if you request one of the missing sizes.

[Rudi]

Thanks for confirming that dialog scenario and good find on that registry entry. Its now up to Cah to decide if the options are suitable.
Cheers! :)