Win 10: Using Magnifier

I husband recently had eye surgery and I’ve had to utilize several Ease of Access features in Windows 10 so he can use his PC while his eye heals up.

One particularly useful feature is the Magnifier. Magnifier increases the size of everything on the screen. Even if you’ve increased text size on your PC, you still might have issues seeing pictures or videos or things on websites. This is a great tool if you’re having vision issues, stuck working on a small tablet screen, or just need to look at something tiny.

Magnifier can run either full screen, act as a separate window, or follow your pointer or cursor around.

Here’s how to access it. Open your Start Menu and choose Settings.

settings-icon-start-menu

Then choose Ease of access.

ease of access

Select Magnifier from the left pane.

magnifier-choose.jpg

You can choose to leave it turned on all the time or access it by pressing the Windows key and the + key. Turn it off by pressing the Windows key and the Esc. key.

magnifier.jpg

You have the option of having the Magnifier start automatically when the PC starts for all users or only after you have signed in. Some users may want the Magnifier at sign in to help through the process of signing in.

start-at-sign-in.jpg

The zoom level can be adjusted between 100 and 1600% by clicking the plus and minus keys.

zoom-level.jpg

Press the drop-down arrow under Choose view to pick your preferences for the magnifying glass.

chooseview.jpg

Choose between docked, full screen, or a lens.

choose-views.jpg

Here’s a regular screen.

regular-screen.jpg

 

Here’s a 200% magnification set to full screen.

full-screen-magnifier.jpg

With the magnifier docked, the parts of the screen I’m hovering over display enlarged at the top.

magnifier-docked.jpg

With lens selected, parts of the screen are magnified as I move over them.

lens.jpg

You can adjust the size of the lens.

lens-size.jpg

The Magnifier can also be set to follow your mouse cursor, keyboard, text insertion point or the Narrator, if you’re having text read to you.

magnifier-follow.jpg

Remember, to exit the magnifier, you can always hit the Windows key and Esc.

 

3 thoughts on “Win 10: Using Magnifier

  1. This is among the top best tips you have given, thank you so much, from one with old tired eyes.

  2. Hi : I’m not sure if you already know , but the magnifier also works on my Win.7 . I never tried it before so I’m not sure if the magnifier always worked in this manner or not . Thanks for the great work you do ,it’s much apreched . Best Richie G

  3. I magnified everything very well doing all that was advised but there is no way that I can get my pc back to normal. Clicking Windows and Esc doesn’t work. Icons on the desktop, gmail etc are all huge. Please help.

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