Magnifier Guide: Zoom, the Glass, the Typing Glass and More

A step-by-step guide to Magnifier and Zoom.

• Free: the Windows Magnifier remote (full screen, lens, docked), the glass, the typing glass, the strip, the pixel loupe, one watched area, profiles, freeze, copying the magnified view as a screenshot, the Magnifier window and panel, and several monitors.
• SlyPilot Pro: the Auto-Switcher, the second-screen view, up to four watched areas, recording the magnifier and editing a frozen view. Any of them opens the Pro window while Pro is not active, so you can see what it adds.

Everything here happens on your PC. Nothing is uploaded.

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1. Your First Zoom

1. Say "magnify", press Ctrl+Alt+G, or use the tray menu → Utilities → Magnifier.
2. The screen zooms in. Say "magnify more" or press Ctrl+Alt+= to zoom further; "magnify less" or Ctrl+Alt+- to zoom out. You can also say an exact amount: "zoom to four times".
3. To go back, say "stop magnifying" or press Ctrl+Alt+G again.

A small note on the screen tells you when the zoom changes. You can switch it off in the Magnifier window.

Voice commands are off until you turn them on (Settings → Voice). Until then the keys, the tray menu and the Magnifier window work the same.

The same thing from the command line: SlyPilot.exe mag on, mag in, mag out, mag zoom 4, mag off. See Command line and Stream Deck.

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2. Choose Your Engine

SlyPilot has two ways to magnify. You can use either, or both at different times.

Pick the mode of the Windows Magnifier:

Windows' own keys: Win + Plus, Win + Minus and Win + Esc stay Windows'. To let SlyPilot answer them, tick Let SlyPilot answer Win + Plus ... in the Magnifier window.

Windows 10 note: the glass is built for Windows 11. On Windows 10 it falls back to a slower way of reading the screen. The Windows Magnifier modes are unaffected.

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3. The Glass

1. Say "magnifying glass" or press Ctrl+Alt+Win+L. A glass appears at the pointer.
2. Move the pointer. The glass follows.
3. Say "magnify more" or "magnify less" to change the zoom while it is up.
4. Say "hide the magnifying glass" to end it.

Look and size: open the Magnifier window (say "magnifier settings") and open Glass look and strip.

Park and follow:

• "Park the glass" leaves it where the pointer is. Move away and read; the glass stays.
• "Free the glass" lets it follow again.

Hold to peek: hold Ctrl+Alt+Win+P and the glass shows only while you hold. For touch, make a Touch Bar custom button of the type hold with the keys ^!#p, or use the preset Magnifying glass: hold to peek.

Shake to show: shake the pointer side to side to show or hide the glass. It is off until you tick it in the Magnifier window.

Good to know:

• The glass is click-through. Clicks go to the program under it, and it never takes the focus.
• It is not in screenshots.
• Near the border of two monitors it shows both sides without a seam.

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4. The Typing Glass, and When It Works

1. Click into a text box.
2. Say "typing glass" (or SlyPilot.exe mag typing).
3. Type. A wide glass sits just above the text cursor and shows the line you are typing, large.
4. Say "hide the typing glass" to end it.

Where it works: the glass follows the text cursor in many programs: classic Windows text boxes, programs that offer UI Automation text, and Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers. For a browser, SlyPilot wakes the browser's accessibility tree once and reads the cursor from it.

Where it may not: some programs give no cursor position. Then the glass shows nothing, and SlyPilot says so.

Find out for your program, in four seconds:

1. Click into a text box of the program (Word, Notepad, your editor).
2. Say "test the typing glass", or press Does the typing glass work here? in the Magnifier window (SlyPilot.exe mag caret).
3. SlyPilot tells you whether it could follow the cursor.

If it cannot, the strip (section 5) or the Windows Magnifier in full screen follows the pointer instead.

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5. The Strip

A band of magnified screen along one edge, as wide as the monitor, following the pointer.

1. Say "magnifier strip", or "magnifier strip at the bottom". Other choices: top, left, right.
2. Move the pointer. The strip shows the magnified area under it.
3. Say "hide the magnifier strip" to end it.

Good to know:

• The strip is an app bar: other windows keep out from under it. Switch Keep the space free off if you prefer it to float.
• Size: small, medium or large (180, 280 or 400 pixels deep). It uses the glass' colour filter.
• Command line: mag strip top|bottom|left|right|off.
• This is not the "docked magnifier". That is the docked mode of the Windows Magnifier (section 2).

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6. The Pixel Loupe

For checking a single pixel: a design, an icon, a colour.

1. Say "pixel loupe" (mag loupe). A square glass appears at 12 times, with lines between the pixels.
2. The pixel under the pointer is framed. Its colour (#RRGGBB) and its place are written below the loupe.
3. Say "copy the pixel colour" (mag colour) to put the colour on the clipboard.
4. Change the zoom with the usual zoom words (5 to 48 times). Say "hide the pixel loupe" to end it.

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7. Watched Areas

Keep one part of the screen in view while you work elsewhere.

1. Say "watch an area" (mag region).
2. Drag a rectangle on the screen, or click a window.
3. The area appears in a small, magnified, live window in a corner of the screen. It takes the corner farthest from the area.
4. Use "move the watched areas" for the next corner, "watched areas bigger" or "smaller" for the zoom, and "clear watched areas" to close them.

Free: one area. SlyPilot Pro: up to four, stacked in the corner. The windows never take a click or the focus.

For several monitors, mag region monitor 3 puts them on monitor 3.

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8. Profiles and the Auto-Switcher

A profile is a look you can switch to with one word.

The six that come with the program: Reading, Pointing, Precision, Typing, Night reading, Presenting.

Make your own:

1. Set up the magnifier the way you like it (a glass, a zoom, a filter).
2. Open the Magnifier window → Profiles and rules.
3. Choose Save what is on now as... and give it a name.
4. Delete a profile from the same list.

A profile puts the right magnifier away and the other one on: the glass, the typing glass, or the Windows Magnifier with its mode, zoom and colours.

The Auto-Switcher (SlyPilot Pro):

1. Open the Magnifier window → Profiles and rules.
2. Switch on the choice of the profile by the program in front.
3. Make a rule: a program, and if you like words of its window title, with the profile it should use.
4. Switch to that program. The profile is chosen when it comes to the front.

The Auto-Switcher acts only while a magnifier is on. A profile you chose by hand stays until the program changes.

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9. Several Monitors and the Second-Screen View

Find the numbers: say "identify the monitors" (mag monitors). Each monitor shows its number for two seconds. They are the numbers of Settings → Display.

The second-screen view (SlyPilot Pro):

1. Say "second screen view" (mag screen).
2. The other monitor shows the magnified area under your pointer, with the pointer drawn in it.
3. It steps aside while the pointer is on that monitor.
4. Say "hide the second screen view" to end it.

The strip and watched areas on a chosen monitor: mag strip monitor 2, mag strip all ("magnifier strips on every monitor"), mag region monitor 3.

Your choices are remembered for each monitor setup (the number of monitors and their sizes). Unplug the external monitor, plug it in again, and the old arrangement returns.

If there is no second monitor, the second-screen view says so.

Pen, touch and monitors with different display scaling were only partly tried on real hardware. If something looks off on your setup, please report it.

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10. Freeze, Copy and Edit

1. Show a glass, the strip, the second screen or a watched area.
2. Say "freeze the magnifier" (mag freeze). The picture stays still, and nothing is captured while it is frozen.
3. Choose what to do with it:

1. Press Esc or say "unfreeze the magnifier" to let go.

The glass is made recordable only while you record the magnifier, and left out again afterwards.

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11. Touch and Pen: the Panel, the Window and the Dial

The Magnifier panel: say "magnifier panel" (mag panel). Fifteen big buttons appear, docked at the right: zoom in and out, on and off, glass, typing glass, strip, pixel loupe, watch an area, second screen, copy the colour, next profile, invert, full screen, lens, all off. It never takes the focus. Say "hide the magnifier panel" to close it.

The Magnifier window: say "magnifier settings" or use tray → Utilities → Magnifier. The main buttons are on top. Four headings open and close: Glass look and strip, Several monitors, Profiles and rules, Options, keys and voice.

Touch Bar: make a custom button from the presets Magnifier on / off or Magnifying glass: hold to peek. See Touch Bar and Dock.

Surface Dial and pen: both can zoom. Set them in Settings → Pen & Dial.

Gesture pad: while the magnifier is up, a pinch on the gesture pad zooms it. Say "show gesture pad" to open it.

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12. Quick Reference

The full list with every phrase is in the voice command reference. Keys are collected in the keyboard and gestures cheat sheet.

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13. Troubleshooting

More help: Troubleshooting and the Doctor · FAQ.

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Next: Magnifier and Zoom · Presenter Tools · Low Vision and Reading Support · SlyPilot Pro