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I accidentally hit the keys on my laptop and the screen went dark. When it came on again a few seconds later everything it displayed was magnified. Web pages, toolbars, the desktop, everything. I think I accidentally hit some sort of hot key command that resizes how everything is displayed. This is a real nuisance and I'd like to fix it ASAP. I've checked my screen resolution and it's normal, at 800 x 600. I read an article that said the problem can be eliminated by hiding or showing desktop icons, but that didn't work either. I looked through the Microsoft Help database and this forum and Windows Help and Support and couldn't find anything that helped or even identified exactly what my problem is. I am running Windows Vista and all my graphics settings are on default. No matter what I try to display on my monitor-- the desktop, web browsers, and any program-- everything is magnified. When I try to adjust my browser magnification by using Ctrl - or +, only the content in the web browser window changes size and border of the browser (all my toolbars and searchbars) remain magnified. How can I put my screen back to normal?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hello dude_read, welcome.
1024 x 768 is actually the lowest accepted standard for viewing content. If you are running the system at 800 x 600, you will have visual problems displaying content that's designed for larger resolutions.
If you change it up a notch to 1024 x 768, that should do the trick. Alternatively you could change your DPI settings but it's most likely the low resolution you have set.
Let us know,
Thanks!
if top-of-page tool bars are normal but rest of screen is magnified, click on 'page' on right hand side of Explorer tool bar. Then click on 'zoom.' if it's set to larger than 100percent, reset to 100 percent. my six year old managed to change this setting and it took me quite a while to figure out how to undo it!
A Microsoft support agent resolved this issue for me (Windows 10). We had to change device drivers for my graphics card (display adapter). Apparently there is an incompatibility issue with the newer drivers, so we had to change to an older driver. I don't know if this will work for others, but here is what we did in order to change my graphics card driver:
8) A list of drivers appeared, and I selected the driver from 2015 by left-clicking on it and then clicking on "Next." (I was instructed to select the 2015 driver despite the fact that several drivers from 2017 were available as options; )
My screen went dark for a few seconds, and when the screen went back on, all had been restored to the normal appearance.
I hope this helps others.
This happens when I disconnect from a power projector, but not all the time (I also use VISTA). Right now I am unable to restore the screen so things are normal size again. I'm not even sure how to start! And yes, it is frustrating.
Thanks folks, Cathy
Sorry clicked "propose as answer" by mistake. Here is the solution. If you right click the mouse in a blank area on the desktop, then click "personalize". Click on display settings and change the resolution. This resets it.
