Changing Your Display Settings

Changing Your Display Settings

Click on START, go to SETTINGS then click on CONTROL PANEL. The CONTROL PANEL opens.

In the CONTROL PANEL double click the DISPLAY icon. The DISPLAY PROPERTIES window opens.

Click the SETTINGS tab in the top-right corner of the DISPLAY PROPERTIES window.

You will now see a representation of your monitor and below it, a COLORS setting and a SCREEN AREA setting. (see image below) Note the selected options for COLORS. If yours shows "256 Colors" you may want to increase it to "High Color 16 Bit" The higher the color depth selected, the better the images will look on your screen but keep in mind that a higher color depth ALSO uses more system resources which could cause an older computer to slow down. "High Color (16 Bit)" is recommended for most computers.

After selecting a color depth, look at your selected SCREEN AREA resolution. Lowest setting usually is 640 by 480 pixels which usually causes some windows to not be able to fit entirely on the screen. A setting of 800 by 600 pixels is the most common and is recommend. Anything higher may result in text that is too small for some to read. To adjust your SCREEN AREA resolution, move the slider bar to the "Less" or "More" until you reach the desired setting.

When you have chosen an color depth and a screen resolution, click the "APPLY" button in the bottom right corner of the DISPLAY PROPERTIES window. Windows will inform you that you are changing your display settings and will give you instructions on what to do next. Click OK and your screen settings should take effect. Windows will ask you if you are ok with the current settings and if you are, click YES. If not, click NO and your previous settings will be restored.

Click OK on the DISPLAY PROPERTIES window.

Close the CONTROL PANEL window and you are finished changing your display settings.

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