All Icons suddenly became LARGE when Start menu is clicked

**Oswaldo** · 22-12-2009

Hello, I have Windows XP installed on my computer. All was working fine but suddenly All Icons become large when i click on Start menu. After this happens there is no access to control panel. I can only access the control panel when the system is in Safe mode. Also the number keypad is not working. Is virus infection the base problem behind this? Anybody with a solution to fix this are welcome.

**Devasis** · 22-12-2009

This is not because of any virus. Only the resolution of the computer has been changed. You can change it back to how it was. Just Right click on the desktop and select properties. Now go to appearances and adjust the resolution according to your convenience. After adjusting click on Apply and then click on OK. Once you do that there will be prompt saying "Do you want to keep this settings" Click on Yes. That's it.

**MrChris-** · 22-12-2009

Adjusting the resolution will only make the Icons small. You will need to adjust the font size as well. Right click on desktop and select properties. go to appearances, now at the bottom you will see a font size option. In your case it will be large. Change it to normal by clicking on it. Now go to settings and then change the Colour Depth from 16 but to 32 bit. Now save and exit. Your desktop will be restored as it was before.

**jesse** · 22-12-2009

Probably the video drivers have gone bad. To check the drivers, right click on My computer and select Manage. Now select Device manager from the List, a list of the installed devices will appear on the left hand side. Now search for video codecs. See if there is a caution or a Question mark against it. Right click on the Video codecs and select properties. Now a new window with several tabs will open. See the status of the device. If it is working properly then Status will be "This Device is working Properly". If the device is not working properly then reinstalling the video drivers might solve the problem.

Dr. V · 22-12-2009

Scan the computer with an updated antivirus. The personal settings on win xp dont change on its own. If you have not changed the settings then probably your pc is infected by a virus. Check all hard drives and removable disk with the antivirus and take respective action (Repair or Quarantine) if there are any infected files found on the system. Take care while deleting the infected files as you may delete some files which are required by the windows to run smoothly and deleting these files may create problems while booting the system again.

**Luis234** · 22-12-2009

You will need to restore the windows or may be re-install it to solve the problem. I also was facing the same problems in windows xp and later found that the windows got corrupted due to some 3rd party application which i installed. If you have installed any such applications recently which could interfere with the working of windows then Uninstall it and check if the problem persists. If it does not get better with uninstallation then formatting and installing the windows again is the best you can do.