Border Width of Windows - Change in Windows 8

How to Change Window Border Width in Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to change the border width of windows to what you like in your user account in Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1.

EXAMPLE: Window Border Width Set Wider or Thinner
NOTE: This is with the setting of 0 (zero) and -1500 in the steps below.

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Here's How:

1. Press Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and click/tap OK.

2. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.

3. In regedit, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)

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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics​

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4. In the right pane of WindowMetrics, double click/tap on PaddedBorderWidth to be able to modify it. (see screenshot above)

5. Type in a data value of 0 (zero) or between -1 to -1500, and click/tap OK. (see screenshot below)

   Note

The default value is -60. A higher value (ex: -1500) will give you wider window borders, and lower value (ex: 0 or -1) will give you thinner window borders.

Each -17 is equal to 1 pixel in width.

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6. Close regedit.

7. Sign out and sign in with your user account to apply.


That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Change the Color of Window Borders and Taskbar in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Change the Text Size of Items in Advanced Appearance Settings Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Change Scrollbar Width Size in Windows 8 and 8.1

 

[Coke Robot]

Very nice tutorial!

 

[Brink]

Thank you sir.

 

[A Guy]

Another good one Shawn

A Guy

 

[Brink]

Glad you like it Bill.

 

[DanRex]

Nice as always! Thanks!

 

[eXcite]

Pretty awesome! I will use this. Do you know what value I would have to set for there to be no borders at all, like OS X?

 

[Brink]

Hello eXcite,

It appears that 0 is the thinnest width available. Using 1+ or -1+ only makes it wider.

 

[eXcite]

Oh well, thanks anyway!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome. Maybe in the future, a way may be found.

 

[Tepid]

I don't mind the value of 0 width of the border, it is actually perfect. I just wish I could make it black. They would effectively disappear and give some padding between apps that are edged against each other.

 

[vsrawat]

Can't express how much thankful I am to you for this tip.

ever since I installed 8, I cursed ms for having wasted my precious bandwidth by having such wider borders.

At that time I had searched the net for the solution, but couldn't find any, so I gave up and never thought again.

Today, I again needed to open 3-4 MS word windows on one screen, and felt the need again. So I searched and landed up on your this thread. Tried it and voila, it is done.

Lots of thanks.

I still feel that MS should make it even thinner and should provide easier way to change it. but they don't listen to us.

 

[Brink]

I'm glad it could help vsrawat.

You're going to love Windows 10 then. The borders of windows are very thin by default.

 

[Cliff S]

Brink,
I've been using this hack a couple of weeks now(set to 0) and I love it. It gives a 1-2mm border that highlights the window. It looks really good on WMP:
I've also set it up on my Windows 7 disk and with glass it's just fantastic because glass just lightens the thin borders color when the window isn't the one in focus. Thanks for the telling us about the hack

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Cliff. Thank you for posting your results.

 

[Cliff S]

You're welcome Cliff. Thank you for posting your results.

Popped my Windows 7 drive back in my laptop today to keep it updated... and thought I also share how minimal boarders(set to 0) looks with clear glass:
Personally I feel it looks better than Windows 8's solid colors and a lot better than 10TP's lack of boarders(taste...go figure)

 

[Brink]

It does look good.

 

[Gort]

Thanks for this tip. My borders now look a bit nicer after their diet.

BTW, can anyone inform me what the difference is between BorderWidth and PaddedBorderWidth? I notice quite a few of these tutorials on the Internet mentioning that one should also set BorderWidth to zero as well. Some people comment that changing BorderWidth doesn't change anything (I've tested myself, and can't seem to find any difference once you've set PaddedBorderWidth to zero). I've decided to leave BorderWidth to its default of -15, but I'm still curious as to what exactly this setting does.