Try a new resolution

French painter Georges Seurat was ahead of his time. He painted whole landscapes out of tiny, individual dots. More than 100 years later, computer monitors follow the same principle. Everything on your monitor is made up of thousands of small dots of shade and color known as pixels.

The size at which text and graphics appear on your screen is determined by the number of pixels you select for your monitor, which is also known as the resolution. Your monitor's resolution measures the number of pixels across your screen by the number of pixels down—usually 640 x 480, 800 x 600, or 1024 x 768. If you choose a high resolution, elements will appear smaller on your screen, but you'll see wider and farther down a page without scrolling. Conversely, at a low resolution things will look larger, and you won't see as far across or down a document. It's easy to change the screen resolution, so you can experiment to see which setting works best for you.

Reaching a resolution
If you're comfortable when you look at your screen, your monitor's resolution is right for you. If, however, you have a hard time seeing words or icons on the screen, you might be more comfortable setting your desktop to a lower resolution, which will make everything larger. If you look at your computer and feel like you’ve landed back in nursery school, you might want to switch to a higher resolution to shrink things down to their normal size.

Here's how to change your screen resolution:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel window, click the Display icon, and then click the Settings tab.
3. In the Screen area, move the slider left or right with your mouse. (Left will give you a lower resolution; right, a higher resolution.) When you’ve reached the setting you want, click Apply.
4. The Display Properties dialog box will appear and explain that your monitor may flicker. Click OK ito continue.
5. If you like the new settings, click Yes to keep your new settings. If you don’t, click No and your old settings will return.