Sensible Title Bars Under Windows XP

21 Sep 2004

I made a simple but useful discovery today at work; it is possible to make the title bars on Windows XP a reasonable size without resorting to a thrid-party skinning tool or the "classic" look (yes, yes - I know the classic window furniture looks far less like it belongs around The Square Window, but the toolkit and colour scheme is far better in the XP theme). Just go to the "Appearance" tab of Display Properties, and click Advanced. Select a title bar in the illustration, and you can change the font and size, allowing you to make the title bar smaller. Selecting "System" (which is only available at 10pt) makes the title bar eighteen pixels, which is more or less the same as Classic. I've no idea why I didn't spot this earlier, but I'm glad I did.

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