Trim Windows Vista’s Bloated Window Borders

Windows Vista by default has huge borders, probably to show off the new transparancy. If you’d prefer a more slimmed-down, minimal approach, you can easily configure this setting to make it more reasonable.

 

Here’s the normal window border, that you are probably used to. The borders look even more ridiculously large if you aren’t using Aero.

And here’s the window border after we’ve removed the padding. Much less wasted space!

To make this change, we’ll need open the classic Appearance Settings dialog. Right click on the desktop and choose Personalize. Then click on Window Color and Appearance:

If you have Aero enabled, you’ll have to click on “Open classic appearance properties for more color options�.

Click the Advanced button, and then change the dropdown to Border Padding. The default will be set to 4. I changed mine down to zero for the second screenshot above.

 

A setting of 1 or 2 would probably be more reasonable for your system. You’ll have to test it out and see what you like best.

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. This article was written on 02/10/07 and tagged with: Desktop Customization, Windows Aero Glass, Windows Vista

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Comments (12)

1. July 26, 2007 12:37 pm
   Casey S

   thank you! I hated the huge borders, just ridiculous

2. August 21, 2007 6:32 am
   krabbe

   Thanks!! But I want to make them even smaller! Photoshop windows looks silly!

3. March 10, 2008 3:16 am
   Richard

   Thank you…while I was here I messed about with the HUGE desktop icons and spacing…much better.

4. April 10, 2008 8:02 pm
   robert

   wow, now that is a useful piece of information, thanks

5. July 20, 2008 5:42 pm
   tboy34

   I’m using the smaller borders myself. It looks so much better.

6. July 24, 2008 9:04 am
   decaff

   yeah!, i finally slimmed down my vista borders. it previously was a waste of space. just annoying

7. August 13, 2008 12:16 pm
   jcaldw737

   FYI, set my border to zero and my machine locked up requiring a reboot.

   then set it to 1 and things seem to be fine. THANKS for this and many other tips!

8. September 23, 2008 10:19 am
   Jmh010

   I love how Vista looks but the one thing I could do was take off the side and bottom border, much like Mac OS X. Thanks looks like this will get it pretty close.

9. November 17, 2008 11:30 pm
   Tewan

   This works very nicely when you reduce the size of the Active and Inactive Title Bar aswell.

10. November 30, 2008 3:37 am
    Amish

    Thanks!

11. March 14, 2009 8:22 am
    Jordan

    Great deal. Thx alot

12. June 13, 2009 12:37 am
    Joe

    Any way to get rid of a border completely? Meaning truely 0? I’m running dual screen and want it to not overlap off the side of one screen onto the other when running an application at the screens resolution.