CyberNotes: How to Adjust the Border Thickness in Windows Vista

Tutorial Thursday

I have really become accustomed to the transparent borders that Windows Vista Aero offers, and so have many other people I know using Vista. One of the frequently asked questions that I get is how to adjust the thickness of the border because by default Vista ships with a pretty thin border around non-maximized windows. Of course the thicker you make your borders the less room there will be for content, but some people just can’t get enough of that eye candy.

Adjusting the width of the border is actually straight forward, and is an option that Microsoft lets you change through an advanced configuration screen:

1. Right-click on your desktop and select Personalize:
   
2. Choose the Window Color and Appearance option:
   
3. Click Open classic appearance properties for more color options:
   
4. Make sure Windows Aero is selected, and then click Advanced:
   
5. From the “Item” drop-down menu choose Border Padding. Increase the Size property to make the border thicker, or decrease it to make the border thinner. In case you forget, the default value is 4.
   
6. After choosing the value that you like press the OK button, and then you should be taken back to the Appearance Settings screen where you can hit the Apply button to see your changes. Here is what my border looked like when I put the size up to 15:
   

See, I told you that was pretty easy. I’m not sure if you want to go and set the size of your window borders to 15, but a small increase might not be too bad. Remember, the border is not shown when you maximize a window so temporarily hiding the border is a piece of cake.

In case your wondering, I keep my border thickness set to “6” which is a good cross between looking nice and not overdoing it. It’s really just a matter of taste though.