About Screen Resolutions
As technology has developed things like resolution standards have changed. The old standard for screen resolution was 800x600 but technology improvements have meant that larger sized monitors have become cheaper, and it is quite common now for standard home computers to have 17 inch monitors and use 1024x768 as the default screen resolution. 17 inch monitors don't tend to look very good in 800x600. The reason for this is because the screen is larger, and each of the individual 800 x 600 pixels also appears bigger which leads to graphics looking a little rough and crude. People with larger monitors (and even those with 15 inch monitors) are now finding that higher resolutions make their screen displays and graphics look much better and cleaner.
Web designers and graphic artists are starting to design more for 1024x768 these days because it's a much easier resolution to design for, and more and more people have larger monitors and is now becoming the most widely used resolution. If your monitor is still set to 800x600, you may come to a page and find that you're not able to view it all at once on your screen and will have to scroll sideways, also some of the graphics may not appear all that crisp which leaves you aesthetically disadvantaged which is a shame as aesthetics make up a big part of a pleasing Internet experience.
Screen resolution may be something you have not given much thought about or in fact didn't even know anything about at all. It's one of those things you won't notice or appreciate until you try and you should take some time to play with your resolution settings. It's easy to do and you may be amazed at the difference, especially in the aesthetic quality of our character products which now are all being designed at a resolution of 1024x768. Characters will also look good at higher resolutions if your system settings allows it but the characters will also become smaller at higher resolutions.
Changing Your Resolution Under Windows
1. Simply go to your desktop and right-click on some free space.
After you've done this, Windows will ask you to confirm that changing your resolution is indeed what you want to do. After you've clicked "Ok" again, your monitor will flick off for a few seconds and then pop back to life again at the new resolution. It may take a short time to get used to the higher resolution but once you have used it for a short period you'll find it rather difficult to go back to the lower quality of the 800x600 resolution. If the text or font size seems too small for you at this resolution, this can also be adjusted separately under the "Appearance" tab.
2. Click on "Properties" near the bottom of the menu. A Display Properties box will pop up.
3. Select the "Settings" tab in the Display Properties box.
4. Use the little slide bar to adjust desired screen resolution or until it reads 1024x768 and then click "Ok".