This is a great new feature in Vista that can assist visually impaired people use their PC. The Vista magnifier allows people see close up images of their screen in a large block at the top of your PC, and zooms in on the area around your mouse cursor.

Windows magnifier actually has been around in various forms since Windows 98 but you will get a much easier to use version in Vista. Earlier versions allowed the user to magnify up to 9 times, but you can magnify up to 16x in Vista.

If you want to turn on Windows Magnifier follow this;

  • Open control panel
  • Click ease of access
  • Click ease of access center
  • Click start magnifier

Windows Vista Magnifier

Your screen should now become a bit shorter as the magnifier bar is introduced at the top of the page, you will also see a magnifier command box. In this command box you can change settings such as;

  • Options
  • Presentation - here you can alter the scale of the magnifier
  • Tracking