Having the wrong screen resolution or colour depth for your monitor can be very frustrating. If your screen resolution is too high you may find it difficult to read whats on your screen or locate specific icons. If the screen resolution is too low you might find dialogue boxes big and blocky or cut short. Changing the screen resolution and colour depth on your computer is easy. The method described here changes the screen resolution on your Windows XP PC through the control panel, you may find it just as easy to right click on your desktop and select properties. A new screen will open up and the very last tab on the top of that screen will be Settings. Click on Settings and you will see the same properties screen described on Page Two of this tutorial.

To change your screen resolution via the control panel click on your start menu, usually located on the bottom left hand corner of your desktop.

When your start menu opens up you will see control panel on the right hand side of the menu usually about the sixth one up from the bottom. If you have a view applied to your start menu you may have to click on settings to locate control panel. Click on Control Panel.

You may either have Control Panel in Classic View or Category View. If you see icons rather than categories click on Switch to Category View on the top left hand corner of the screen to return your Control Panel to the default view.

With Control Panel in Category View the Control Panel is simplified rather than having a large number of icons. Category View groups these icons by type and can simplify navigation to the settings you want to change.

With Windows XP's Control Panel in category view you will see Appearance and Themes as one of the categories. Click on Appearance and Themes.

Appearance and Themes offers a number of choices to alter the appearance and feel of your computer. Choosing a screensaver and changing the desktop background are amongst the options available in this section of the control panel.

Under the Pick a Task heading you will see four choices with the last option being to Change the Screen Resolution.