Make the Most of your Monitor and Graphics Card - Part 2
This time, David Dorn shows you how to change the resolution and colour depth of your screen and desktop - a very useful skill!
As we discovered in the first part of this series, the default onscreen resolution for Windows 9x is a paltry 640x480, in 256 colours (Win98 - Win95 is 16 colours). That's not an awful lot of desktop space to work with, and, even on a 15 inch monitor, is not making the best use of it, or your graphics adapter.
So, how do you go about changing resolution and colour depth? It's easy - just follow these simple steps:
Step 1
Right click on your desktop, and up will pop the menu. You need to select "Properties" at the bottom, and click on it, which will bring up the Desktop Properties Window
Step 2
As you can see, there are seven tabs. The one we want is on the top row, furthest right - the "Settings" tab. Position your cursor over it, and give it a click!
Step 3
OK - This is where we can make some changes. There are two areas of this tab that we're interested in. One - at the bottom left - controls the number of colours your monitor will display and the other, to its right, controls the resolution of the display.
Step 4
This is where you set the number of colours you want displayed onscreen
Step 5
Just to the right lies the resolution slider. As you can see, my desktop is set to 1600x1200 - don't try this at home unless you're using a BIG monitor! You can slide this to a setting that suits you and your monitor - see the previous instalment for some advice on reasonable resolutions, but aim at 800x600 as a minimum
Step 6
OK - now that your monitor is set to display 1024x768 in 24 bit colour (or whatever you've chosen), let's take things one step further. Windows 9x has the ability to change resolutions "on-the-fly", but you've got to set it up to do this. Click on the "Advanced" button on the "Settings" tab, and this set of tabbed pages will appear. Make sure that the middle radio button in the bottom section is clicked and then...
...make sure that the "Show settings icon on task bar" check box is ticked. When you've finished, you see, you will be able to right-click the little monitor icon in your task bar, and change resolutions as the fancy takes you - it's invaluable.
All that remains for you to do now is to click "OK" and then "OK" again, and your system will set itself up to its new resolution and colour depth. If it hasn't already been done at install time, you may be prompted to restart your machine. If it has, you'll be asked to wait a wee while until your system adjusts to the new settings. And that's all there is to it - it's as easy as that!.
