Changing the Size of Start Screen Tiles

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 14, 2020)

The Start screen is the place where your tiles are displayed, and you can quickly start the apps associated with those tiles. Some of those tiles show information in real time, such as those for your e-mail, a social media application, or the weather. You'll quickly notice that some tiles are large, some are wide, and some are small.

Windows allows you to resize the tiles that appear on your Start screen. Doing so can make tiles easer (or harder) to find, easier to organize, and provide differing amounts of information for a particular application.

To resize a particular Start screen tile, you'll need to select it. You can select a tile in any of these ways:

  • If using a mouse, right-click on the tile.
  • If using a touch screen, perform a short, downward swipe on the tile.
  • If using a keyboard, use the arrow keys to navigate to the tile and then press the spacebar.

Windows displays a context menu with some options for that tile, including Resize. Click the arrow to right of the Resize option to display various tile sizing options. Depending on the tile you selected, the resulting options can include the following: Small, Medium, Wide, or Large. (The current size is marked with a check mark.) Click the sizing option and Windows immediately changes the size of the tile.

You should note that if the tile you resize is a live tile, the specific information it displays after the resize depends on the app that drives the tile. The only way you can see what information is provided on large and small tiles is to make them large and small and do the comparison.

 This tip (12937) applies to Windows 8 and 10.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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