Adjusting Desktop Icon Resolution / Windows XP

Try changing your screen resolution to 1400 x 768

Depends on your model.

( The output from the graphics chipset drives a 14.1-inch SXGA+ screen which has a native resolution of 1,400 x 1,050 pixels. Also available as a cheaper option is a 1,024 x 768 pixel, 14.1-inch XGA screen. )

If it doesn't work, you may need to download the correct drivers for your graphics card. ( click here : driver downloads )

Here is a guide ( http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsxp/screenresolution.aspx )

Okay, a check of my system information tells me I've got an ATI Radeon 9000 graphics adapter, and it's maximum resolution is only 1024 x 768.

I'm not sure that should be the end of the story though. My predecessor computer was an IBM Thinkpad 600E, and it was running a NeoMagic MagicMedia 256AV adapter, with a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768 also. On that display screen, the Desktop icons were approximately 0.5 x 0.5 inches. On the Latitude screen, running the same resolution, the icons are a large and more grainy almost 1.0 x 1.0 inches.

Wouldn't those two resolutions be capable of producing an icon graphic of roughly the same dimension? I tried to check on a more updated graphics driver from Radeon, since my last update is indicated as 2005 or 2006. There was an updated driver, which I've downloaded, but when I attempted to install, I got some error messages.

First, the install wizard indicated that it needed .NET framework 2.0. Not sure what this is, but I downloaded and installed that and now I get an erro message that says, INF Error - Video driver not found. Followed by: Setup was unable to complete the installation. Try to setup your display adapter with a standard VGA driver before running setup.

I follow most of that, but I'm not sure how to force the installation of a standard VGA driver. Go to System Devices and push the current driver to update to a Windows XP standard VGA driver?

Is there some sort of Accessibility option that pushes the icons to a bigger size, just for those (like me) that are beginning to have some visual acuity issues? I only toss that out, because all the other aspects of the screen resolution reproduction, all seem to be very much on par with the resolution of my Thinkpad. Are we (am I) missing some easy fix, where some prior user has "toggled" some user setting option unbeknownst to me? Any thoughts?

Hi, Do you have an Intel or AMD processor ? (ATI Mobility Radeon 9000)

This might be your problem. If you have AMD, then you'll have to use :

Catalyst® 6.11 Display Driver for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition

Before you download and try, you'll have to boot into safe-mode and uninstall any previous drivers that you have attempted to install.

Hope this helps

This was an interesting angle on the type of processor that I certainly would never have thought of, and which I'm still not sure why that would be relevant. Regardless, I've got the Intel Pentium 4(M) processor, so the AMD processor driver angle is not a viable option to explore.

Any other thoughts out there? I'm still wondering why the same graphics resolutions renders such a wide discrepancy in the size of the Desktop icons. So, no one can think of any oddball setting on the accessibility option under Windows XP (which I am admittedly unfamiliar). Am open to other suggestions from the collective audience though.

Although I originally posted up this topic back in 2007, I thought it would be nice to post up what I finally figured out was the issue with this problem about the desktop icon resolution.

It turns out that only by serendipity, I was try to "juice" some additional performance out of my laptop fairly recently, and on someone's advice I went to the Control Panel System icon, and went to Advanced\Settings and changed from allowing Windows to choose the best setting, to selecting for Best Performance. By doing that, some appearance/smoothing function in the graphics card got changed, and the "fuzziness" and size of the icons reverted to the somewhat more crisp and smaller appearance that I had been seeking all along. Well, hopefully that will help others who have a similar problem in the future. There . . . . that problem only took two years to resolve!