After spending much of my day straining to read PowerShell command prompts, GUI interfaces at high resolution on screens that were not large enough for the audience to see and, in one case, a slide deck that looked like it used 14 point text (!), I thought it was worth blogging about a Windows tool that can really help out in technical demonstrations (and which should really be part of every presenter’s toolkit).

Windows Magnifier can be invoked using a variety of methods but the quickest way is probably using the Windows and + or - keys together. As its name suggests, it magnifies a portion of the screen around the current mouse cursor. To switch it off again, press Windows+0 and exit the Magnifier application.

For those who require a little more functionality (e.g. annotation features), there is a SysInternals tool called Zoomit that is available from the Microsoft TechNet website.