Whether you forgot your reading glasses, came across a website that's displaying incorrectly or want a leg up on your next game of Spot the Difference - it's always worth knowing how to zoom in.

Thankfully, this is something that's very easy to do across most Windows applications. There's a variety of ways to do it, and each has its own benefits.

So, without further ado, here's how to zoom in on your Windows computer.

How to zoom within a window

Starting with the simplest method, and the one that we use the most frequently, here's how you can zoom within a window across the majority of applications -including your web browser, photo viewer and more.

  1. Open the photo, application or web page that you want to zoom in on.
  2. Hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and press the + key to zoom in
  3. The more times you tap the + key, the closer you will zoom
  4. To zoom out, hold Ctrl and press the - key

If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can also hold Ctrl and use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out. If your PC has a touch screen, you can do a pinch gesture, just as you would on a smartphone.

The caveat here is that it doesn't work on every single application, but we've found that it works in the majority of common apps.

How to zoom the whole screen

In some situations, zooming within a window isn't enough, and really you need the entire screen to be magnified. Fear not, that's very simple, too.

  1. Press the Windows key and the + key on your keyboard at the same time
  2. This will open Magnifier, and you should see a small toolbar appear
  3. You can click the + and - symbols on your screen to zoom in and out
  4. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts Win and + or Win and - to control the zoom level
Windows 10 Magnifier

This method works on Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, but if you're still using Windows 7, you'll need to use the start menu. All you have to do is click on the Start button, type Magnifier in the search and click on it once it appears.

If you're on Windows 8.1 and newer, you can also access Magnifier in the start menu, if you'd prefer.

How to zoom in a web browser

While both of the previous methods will work likely work for web content, there's a third method you can try, too. Most web browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Firefox, have their own built-in zooming options.

At the upper right corner of your web browser, you'll find a menu icon. It's displayed differently on different browsers, but they all do the same thing. On Chrome it's shown as three vertical dots, on Edge these dots are horizontal, and on Firefox it's three lines instead.

Zoom tool Google Chrome

Click the menu button, and in the drop-down menu, you'll see a zoom option with a plus and minus symbol. Click the + to zoom in and the - to zoom out.

There's also a full-screen option on the far right. You can click this if you want to fill your entire screen with the web content and press F11 on your keyboard when you want to exit.