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In Windows, if a file name on the Desktop is greater than a set number of characters, the name is truncated and an ellipsis (...) appears.

Is there anyway to always display the full file name?

1 Answer 1

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For Windows XP (later versions covered in this post)

The file names are truncated because the icons only have a certain amount of vertical and horizontal area assigned to them.

Icon Settings in XP

You may want to check out a little utility named DeskView:

Deskview.exe changes your desktop icons from “large icons” to “small icons.

Deskview Results

For later version of Windows

In later versions of Windows, follow the same guide for Windows XP but the Advanced Appearance exists in either:

Control Panel -> Display -> Change color scheme link -> Advanced

Control Panel -> Personalization -> Window Color and Appearance -> Advanced appearance settings...

When you change the size, you must click on apply, clicking OK will not have any affect (until after PC restarts). Also, you need to change the icon spacing.

It should also be noted that, if your screen is totally full of icons then changing the size may not help!

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  • Does this work in Windows 7 as well?
    – cutrightjm
    Mar 25, 2012 at 18:43
  • Made an edit to work with later versions of Windows as well, and updated OP to make it more broad to Windows and not just WinXP
    – Dave
    Jun 17, 2016 at 9:54
  • @Dave so in short it is not possible. I tried to change the size of my icons (which I would like to avoid), but text stayed the same shortened.
    – zx8754
    Jun 17, 2016 at 10:05
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    See my update @zx8754
    – Dave
    Jun 17, 2016 at 10:19
  • @Dave great thank you for your help, I will have to restart then.
    – zx8754
    Jun 17, 2016 at 10:20

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