Get the most out of your display!

Whenever I am working on a public computer, I always hate it when the monitor has a terrible resolution, refresh rate, or has black gaps on the edges! You may have this on your own computer and not even know it! Here is a step-by-step way on how to get the best out of your display!

1. Right-click the desktop

2. Click Properties

3. Click the Settings tab

4. On the screen resolution tab, adjust the slider to your monitor. Most modern monitors tell you the "native resolution" for your monitor in the user's manual, if yours does, set it to the native resolution. If you lost the manual, threw it away, never got one or whatever, use this table to help you out (you might need a tape measure, measure from corner to corner):

• 15 inch monitor: 800 by 600
• 17 inch monitor: 1024 by 768
• 19 or 20 inch monitor: 1280 by 1024

5. Click Apply and your monitor should go blank and then you should see a pop up that asks you if you want to keep it (Don't panic if your screen goes blank and doesn't come back! Just wait a few seconds and the screen will come back in the original resolution.) If the screen looks fine, click Yes, if it looks stretched or compressed, click No.

6. Now look for the color quality box. Set it to the highest bit it will go to. (Most modern monitors are 32 bit, some are 24.) If it is already at the highest, then don't change it.

7. Click Apply.

8. Now click the Advanced button.

9. Goto the Monitor tab. You should see a box that has the refresh rate your monitor is set at. (If you don't see it, try under the Adapter tab.)

10. Make sure the "Hide modes that your monitor cannot display" box is checked, if you can check it, and set the refresh rate to the highest it can go. (CRT monitors usually go up to 85-100Hz, flat panel monitors go up to around 75Hz.)

11. Click Apply and your monitor should go blank and then you should see a pop up that asks you if you want to keep it (Don't panic if your screen goes blank and doesn't come back! Just wait a few seconds and the screen will come back in the original refresh rate.) If the screen looks fine, click Yes, if it looks garbled or weird, DO NOT PRESS ANYTHING and wait for it to return.

12. Now close the boxes, take it back to the desktop.

13. Look at the actual monitor. You should see some buttons besides the power button. (If you have a flat-panel monitor, you might see a button labeled Auto, press it, wait, then you are all done!) Find a button that says menu, or something similar. (If you don't see a menu button, chances are you have an old CRT monitor. It is kinda complicated to explain those, so i would just leave it alone.) In the Menu box that pops up, use the arrow buttons on your monitor (the mouse won't work) and see if you can find a choice that says Auto or Auto Adjustment or something similar. Push the Menu button again, or if your monitor has an Enter button, push it instead, and wait, then find an Exit choice and exit the box. If there is no Auto Adjustment feature, then just exit the box by finding an exit choice.

14. You're Done! Hopefully, your monitor looks better than before, or maybe your monitor was already set up right!

*Tested on Windows XP, should work with 98, ME, 2000