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My window is too large and wider than my screen. How to I resize it back?

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Something was downloaded to my computer while I was away this week. (My husband probably thought it was ok.) Now when I open an email thru Outlook it's huge - it goes way off the screen to the right. I don't know how to resize this or fix this.

Can you please tell me in simple one and two syllable words just what to do?

Oh, those husbands. Can't leave 'em alone for a minute, much less a week.

The too-wide window could be the result of a download, but it's also possible that it's not his fault. Even though it's not supposed to, sometimes it can happen for other reasons. Fortunately, it's fairly easy to fix.

Normally, of course, you can resize a window by using the mouse and clicking on and dragging the border of the window. In a case like this, though, the border is off the screen, and there's no way to move the mouse over to click on it. The result is that we have to use the keyboard interface.

When you're in one of those too-wide windows, do the following.

  • Type ALT+spacebar: this should pop up a menu at the upper left of the window that should look something like this:

    System Menu Example

  • Click on Size (or just type s): the cursor should change to a 4-pointed compass

  • Press the right arrow key (or the key that "points to" the window border that is off the screen): the cursor should jump to that window border - which of course you can't see right now, since it's off the screen.

  • Press the left arrow key (or the opposite of whatever key you pressed in the previous step) to resize the window: the edge of the window should move in the direction you've chosen.

  • Press Enter when done resizing.

I believe it's still the case that while a mouse is technically listed as a requirement for Windows, there is a keyboard interface for everything. (Sadly, while Windows meets this criteria, not all applications do.) It's not always elegant, and sometimes downright cumbersome, but in cases like this it can be quite handy to at least have some familiarity with it.

Related:

Article 10182 | Posted April 20, 2006

Recent Comments
22 Comments

I tried your Alt+space 'x' with no help. My window is too big for my screen and I can't print what I need to print. I can't see the 'OK'. I defaulted my larger print with no help, as well as restored point[if that is what it is called] I tried the DPI back to 96 from 192, to no avail. I have tried everything I know on this Windows Vista which I realize is minimal. Please help me Leo!
Barbs

Posted by: Barbara Fortin at February 6, 2008 1:10 AM

This is related to the issue, but reversed. my windows are supposed to be bigger (the info runs off the page) but i can't enlarge the windows! Please help!

Posted by: 137banana at March 4, 2008 1:46 PM

I have the oversize problem, but when I press Alt & Spacebar the box appears but the SIZE is grey so I cannot re-size. Is there any other way of re-sizing apart from minimizing? The sliding around does not work either.

Posted by: Jan Evans at March 17, 2008 10:13 AM

I have the same problem as Mike (April 2007) even the desktop is too big, extending slightly off the top of the screen.

Maybe Nvidia automatically updated the drivers on my computer? I have not changed anything and I have not downloaded anything intentionally.

Since I keep my start bar at the top of the screen (I was used to Mac before Windows) at first I thought it had simply disappeard. I have moved it back to the bottom but now program windows and icons are cut off at the top.

There are a few people saying that their desktop is too big for their monitor on the Net but there do not seem to be any solutions other than changing desktop resolution which was not a solution.

Posted by: Timothy at April 20, 2008 3:27 PM

Solution:

I think that when I turned off my screen I pressed the auto resize button by mistake.

The autoresize button tries a variety of sizes and then choose the best one. But it seems to require that I keep my finger pressed on the auto-resize button for the duration of the process.

But I think that I pushed the button for too little time and the screen resized to an incorrect screen size, and did not have time to realise that the size was incorrect. So the screen got stuck at the wrong size.

All I needed to do to correct the issue was to keep my finger pressed on the auto resize.

I am using a LG Flatron L1953T screen.

I hope that this information is useful to someone else.
Silly me.

Posted by: Timothy at April 21, 2008 4:40 AM

The resize or the Restore icon in the windows are greyed out. It happens with all the applications I open.. If there is a setting in the registry to reset the "Windows Frame" values to default, please let me know...... :(

Posted by: Dinesh at May 29, 2008 7:48 AM

my window is too large, wider than my screen--I did the alt+spacebar--menu popped up--but the 'SIZE' is not in Bold, and does not respond--please help!

Posted by: dee at July 21, 2008 2:25 PM

window too large...followed your directions but stop after finding f4 point cursor..When I move it with right and left arrow keys nothing happens so therefore I can't hit enter and be done..can you advise?

Posted by: Nyla Sterner at August 7, 2008 2:05 PM

my screen is too large, i cannot get it to minimize, all of the info is at the top. i tried the alt and spacebar it only want to move it around. i need everything smaller

Posted by: darlous johnson at August 13, 2008 3:50 PM

The option above didn't help me. The size option is greyed out on mine as well. So try this. First hit Alt+V. Then you can select text size. Select the size you want from the 5 options. It fixed my problem. Good luck.

Posted by: James at October 3, 2008 1:09 PM

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