Change screen resolution

Screen resolution refers to the clarity of the text and images on your screen. At higher resolutions, items appear sharper. They also appear smaller, so more items fit on the screen. At lower resolutions, fewer items fit on the screen, but they are larger and easier to see. At very low resolutions, however, images might have jagged edges.

CRT monitors generally display a resolution of 800 × 600 or 1024 × 768. LCD monitors can better support the higher resolutions. Whether you can increase your screen resolution depends on the size and capability of your monitor and the type of video card you have.

Windows Vista

1.	Open Display Settings by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, clicking Personalization, and then clicking Display Settings.
2.	Under Resolution, move the slider to the resolution you want, and then click Apply.

Notes When you change the screen resolution, it affects all users who log on to the computer. When you set your monitor to a screen resolution that it won't support, the screen will go black for a few seconds while the monitor reverts back to the original resolution

Windows XP

First right-click on the desktop and then left click on Properties from the menu that appears.

The display properties dialogue box will appear as shown in fig 1.1 below, click on the settings tab at the top right of the box. 

 

The areas worth noting are:

Screen Resolution
This slide bar is what you use to change the resolution, the options you have will depend on your graphics card and monitor, but the standard options are 800x600, 1024x768 and 1152x864.

Normally the default (in XP) is set to 800x600 which means the display will be 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels high.

Color Quality
This pull down box will contain the current colour options available, again this will depend on your grahics card and monitor, for best results select the highest option available.

Changing the Resolution
To change your resolution simply slide the bar along to the resolution of your choice and then click the Apply button.

After clicking Apply your screen will resize to the new resolution and you will be presented with a confirm dialogue box (see left), if you are happy with the way your screen looks then simply click Yes, if you would like to try a different resolution click No.

When you have finished simply close the Display properties box.

note: It is best to use your PC for a while in the new resolution to see if it is suitable for you.