Zooming About The Screen In Windows
I watch a lot of videos with code (computer programming code) displayed and always wondered how they zoomed into various parts of the screen so easily. My attempts involved using the Windows Magnifier application and the mouse but I would often see this fellow:
![Magnifying Glass](/2015/04/zooming-about-the-screen-in-windows/magnifying-glass.jpg)
obstructing my screen or a window like this:
![Magnifier Window](/2015/04/zooming-about-the-screen-in-windows/magnifier-window.jpg)
Little did I know that by using the keyboard controls only, you don’t need to worry about these appearing, or even if they do, you can dismiss them quickly and then ignore them.
Zooming In and Out
There are only two keyboard short-cuts that you need to remember:
![Windows Key](/2015/04/zooming-about-the-screen-in-windows/windows-key.jpg)
![Plus Key](/2015/04/zooming-about-the-screen-in-windows/plus-key.jpg)
To zoom in.
![Windows Key](/2015/04/zooming-about-the-screen-in-windows/windows-key.jpg)
![Minus Key](/2015/04/zooming-about-the-screen-in-windows/minus-key.jpg)
To zoom out.
Just place the mouse pointer where you want to zoom and do one of the above. Simple!
Zoom Not Following the Mouse?
By clicking on the cog wheel (next to question mark in image above), you can control whether the zoom follows the mouse if it isn’t already. Just select the “Follow the mouse pointer“ checkbox as shown below and click OK.
![The screen showing how to control whether the zoom follows the mouse.](/2015/04/zooming-about-the-screen-in-windows/magnifier-controlling-zoom.jpg)
A short video explaining this in another form:
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