How do I reduce the size of the titlebar and window border padding on Windows 8 or Windows 10?

I think the size of the titlebars and the titlebar text are too large in Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10.

Also, the window border padding cannot be adjusted like it could in Vista and Windows 7, as the dialogue box to do this has been removed.

Is there anything I can do to make them smaller?

Solution 1:

I think Microsoft must have made the titlebars larger to make them more easily draggable when using a touch interface, but they just use unnecessary vertical space on a normal desktop or laptop computer, especially if it has a low resolution screen. I also think it looks nicer when it is reduced in size a little.

The following registry .reg file will make the titlebar thinner, the titlebar text smaller, scroll bars thinner and the border padding as thin as possible.

This also works on Windows 10, but it does not affect WindowsRT/Metro/Modern/UWP/Whatever apps.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
    "CaptionHeight"="-285"
    "CaptionWidth"="-285"
    "CaptionFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,\
      00,00,00,01,00,00,05,00,53,00,65,00,67,00,6f,00,65,00,20,00,55,00,49,00,00,\
      00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
      00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
    "ScrollWidth"="-240"
    "ScrollHeight"="-240"
    "PaddedBorderWidth"="0"

Remember to export the WindowMetrics key before you start modifying it, just in case you need to revert to the defaults after having messed something up.

You need to log out and back in again to see the changes.

Before

After

Solution 2:

The free Tiny Window Borders utility adjusts your borders without logging out or messing with *.reg files.