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How to Customize Windows 11 UI Elements

by Ravi Teja KNTS

Windows 11 has been unveiled to the world and with it comes new design language, interesting new features and some new ways to customize the Windows experience. We also got a new design style, Settings app, and customizable Start Menu. But there are other ways to customize Windows UI like the icons, fonts, resolution, and Taskbar. That’s what we are going to cover in this guide.

Also Read: How to Get Windows 10 Start Menu on Windows 11

How to Change Icons on Windows 11

The experience of changing icons hasn’t changed at all from Windows 10. Here’s how you can do it.

1. On the desktop, right-click on the app shortcut that you want to change icon of and click on Properties.

opening properties of icons on Windows 11 desktop

2. Now on the Shortcut tab, click on the Change Icon button.

Changing icon Windows 11

3. This will open another window where you can select choose from a bunch of available icons. Click on the Browse option to select an icon if you have one downloaded and save.

Browsing icon from file manager

4. Select the icon that you want and click Open. Windows 11 supports ICO file type for icons. So if you have an image of an icon, you can convert it to ICO using the ICO Convert web app.

selecting icon form file manager

5. Once selected, click OK and then select Apply. Now you can close the Properties window.

selecting a new icon on Windows 11

Your icon should have been updated.

New icon

Also Read: How to Remove Shortcut Arrow Overlay on Windows 11

How to Change Icons on the Taskbar

To change the app icon on the Taskbar, right-click on it and under Properties, select the app itself.

Changing icon for apps on taskbar

You cannot change app’s icon on the Start Menu. Also, changing the icon of one shortcut will not affect other shortcuts of the same app. For example, changing Chrome’s icon on the desktop will not change Chrome’s icon in the Taskbar. You have to change it individually for each app shortcut.

How to Change Size of Icons on Windows 11

Changing size of icon for any app is easy enough on Windows 11. Just right-click any where on the desktop and select the View option.

changing the size of icons

Here you can choose from Large, Medium, and Small icon size. By default, Windows 11 is set to Medium icons, you can instantly change that.

How to Change Taskbar Size in Windows 11

Unfortunately, changing the size of icons on the desktop does not changes the size of the icons on the Taskbar. Also, with version 11, Windows no longer allows changing the size of the Taskbar. Nonetheless, we can update some keys in the Registry Editor to change Taskbar’s size.

1. First, open the Registry Editor by clicking on Windows button+R to open Run prompt, type regedit, and hit Enter. Alternatively, you can search and open Registry Editor using Windows Search.

Opening Registry Editor from Run

2. In the Registry Editor, copy and paste the following directory path in the address bar at the top and hit Enter.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Opening directory in Registry Editor

3. In the Advanced folder, right-click in an empty area in the right window-pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) value to create a new key.

Adding a new DWORD key in registry editor

4. Rename the newly created Key as TaskbarSi.

Changing taskbar size from registry editor

5. Now open the key that you have just created and leave the value to 0 for small icons, change the value to 1 for medium icons, and change the value to 2 for large icons. Then click on OK to save changes.

changing taskbar size to small with registry editor

6. Now Reboot the system for the changes to take place and you shall notice the size of Taskbar changed along with the size of icons housed in it.

Small taskbar on Windows 11

For more Taskbar customizations, you can open Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and do things like automatically hide the Taskbar, move Taskbar icons towards left, and more.

How to Change Font Style on Windows 11

Windows’ default font, Segoe UI, is great, but you can change that to something else that suits your preference.

1. Press Windows key+I to open the Settings app and go to Personalization > Fonts. Here you shall find all the fonts that comes preinstalled in Windows 11.

Note: You can also install third-party fonts by dragging the TTF files into the Settings window. Once installed, you will find these fonts in apps too such as Microsoft Word.

Installing font on Windows 11 settings

2. But to install the font as a System font, copy the name of the font that you want on your system. Now open Start and search for and open Notepad.

opening notepad

3. Inside Notepad, paste the following code.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"Segoe UI (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]

"Segoe UI"="FONT-STYLE"
adding the code to the note

4. Now replace FONT-STYLE with the name of the font that you have copied. Make sure you are not missing capitals and spaces in the font name as it is case-sensitive.

Adding the font name to the code

5. Now save the file by giving it a name and using .reg at the end as file type format. Then choose All files in Save as type option.

saving the file as registry file

6. Once saved, right-click on the file and then click on Open or just double-click on the file icon.

opening registry file to run

7. Then select Yes in pop-up window and then again select Yes to add your registry key to the Registry Editor.

Giving permission to registry editor to add the file to the registry

8. Now restart your PC to implement the changes.

Windows 11 with changed font

How to Change the Font Size on Windows 11

Unlike font style, changing font size is easy. Just open the Settings app again (Windows key+I) and go to Accessibility > Text size.

Changing text size with Windows 11

Now adjust the text size accordingly. You can see the Text size preview in the section above. Then click on the Apply button beside it. Your screen will go blue for few seconds before applying changes.

Adjust the size of text on windows 11

How to Change Font Size Temporarily on Windows 11

Often times you may find font size too small or big in certain apps or a specific page making it hard to read. Changing the text size systemwide may not be what you need. Instead, you need a temporary solution.

In some apps, you may be able to use the Windows + to magnify and Windows – to reduce the whole screen. In web browsers, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + to zoom in and Ctrl – to zoom in the open tab.

Using zoom option on Google Chrome

How to Change the Size of UI Elements on Windows 11

If you want to make everything bigger like icons, text, and everything else, it better to make systewide change that reflects across the Windows OS UI.

To do that, open Windows Settings (Windows key+I). Got to open System > Display and select a value for the scale from the drop-down next to it. Choose a percentage to increase or decrease the UI elements size and choose one that you are comfortable with.

Using the Scale option in settings

The changes will be applied instantly after selecting the option.

How to Change Screen Resolution on Windows 11

Finally, you can also change the resolution of the screen, this will help to save battery by decreasing the screen quality. You can do that by opening the Settings > System > Display and change the resolution by clicking on the drop-down menu beside Display Resolution.

Changing the resolution of the display on Windows 11

Windows will suggest you the best possible resolution for your display by default, you can decrease it by selecting any lower resolution. Remember not all resolutions match the aspect ratio of your display. So you can find black bars around it.

Also Read: How to Redirect Windows 11 Widgets From Edge to Chrome

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