XP Pro sp2, latest Firefox

(gearing up a new laptop)

I found how to adjust text size i.e. the pages on this forum, but the text
in the bars at the top and bottom are still so tiny I can hardly read them.

I'm sure there's a simple fix, I just can't seem to find it.
I played with display settings and got the height to width ratio
looking pretty good, but I can't find anything to make the various
status bars any larger.

Appreciate any tips!

Use the zoom feature in Opera? :p It won't be too pretty, but at least it is readable.

If a web page is made using static pixel counts as measurements, then everything will look tiny on a hi-res screen and AFAIK only Opera is able to zoom everything, including graphics and multimedia content.

or change your screen resolution