Icon sizes and where they are used

Windows platforms use four different sizes of icons, as follows:

Size Values
Shell Large User selected. Standard sizes are 32x32 and 48x48.
Shell Small Size is 16x16 pixels as defined by Windows and cannot be changed.
System Large Size is defined by the video driver, usually 32x32.
System Small Size is derived from the size of window captions. The caption size can be adjusted from the Appearance tab in the Display Properties dialog.

Windows displays these sizes in different areas:

Size Where Used
Shell Large On the Desktop, and in Large Icon views of Explorer and open folders.
Shell Small On the Start menu, and in Small Icon, List and Details views of Explorer and open folders.
System Large In <ALT><TAB> dialog (also known as "Cool Switch").
System Small Title bar (caption) of application windows.

Related Topics