I tried to adjust my Windows display settings and accidentally set the scaling to 500%, thinking it would increase the screen resolution. Now everything is so large that the settings controls are off-screen, and I do not have another monitor available. How can I return the scaling to 100% or otherwise fix the display?
4 Answers
If navigating the settings is too difficult, you can reset the display scale through the registry. Press Windows + R, type cmd, and press Enter. Then run: reg add "HKCUControl PanelDesktop" /v LogPixels /t REG_DWORD /d 96 /f. Finally run shutdown /r to restart. A LogPixels value of 96 corresponds to 100% scaling.
Another keyboard-only option is to press Windows + R, type ms-settings:display, and press Enter. Wait a few seconds, then use Tab to reach the scaling dropdown and use the arrow keys to choose a smaller value. The exact number of Tab presses varies between Windows versions, so try moving through the controls until the scaling option is selected.
You can navigate to Display settings without seeing the screen. Press the Windows key, type “change the size of text, apps, and other items,” and press Enter. After the settings page opens, press Tab until the scaling control is selected—depending on your Windows version, it may take around five to eight presses. Enter 100, press Tab, then press Enter to apply it. Restart the computer afterward if the change does not take effect immediately.
You can try doing it with keyboard shortcuts. Press Windows + Minus repeatedly to reduce the zoom, or open the affected app and try Windows + Esc to reset its zoom. If the shortcut works, set the zoom increment back to 10% afterward.
The shortcut did not work for me, so I had to use the keyboard-only settings method instead.
On my Windows 10 system it took five Tab presses rather than four, so the number can vary.