Magnify Desktop (formerly Magnifying Glass)

Windows contains an abundance of little tools which combined can be of great help for most domains of activity. These include a magnifier to zoom in on particular regions of the screen. Just like many default tools, you have the possibility to rely on third-party alternatives, and a suitable example here is Magnify Desktop.

Going through the setup process is a walk in the park, with little time and effort invested. Launching the program brings up a classic window frame, inside which you wind a zoomed-in picture which updates in real-time as you move the cursor around. The window itself stays on top of everything else so you don’t lose focus.

Response time is pretty impressive, and you’re free to position the window anywhere you see fit to be able to include or analyze all details of interest. Resizing the window is also possible, but aspect ratio gets affected by this, even though it’s not a considerable deformation of the picture.

By default, the application maximizes the area under the cursor twice the original size. Luckily, this can easily be adjusted through the scroll wheel while hovering the cursor over the window. You’re free to change the magnification factor to almost anything between normal, and ten times the size.

The application can come in handy for inspecting elements in great detail, even though there’s no color picker for more flexibility. There isn’t even an option to capture the image inside the frame. If you want to quickly access the tool regardless of your Explorer location, you can go ahead and assign a hotkey command to its shortcut from the Properties panel.

Taking everything into account, Magnify Desktop is a pretty straightforward tool you can use to analyze up to ten times the normal size of any region under the cursor. Magnification factor can easily be changed, but it’s a shame aspect ratio doesn’t stay intact after resizing the window.