So you're wondering why this "changing system setting" is such a big deal...
Changing your system setting can be a very valuable process. For a couple reasons:
| 1.) You get full use out of your video card. |
| 2.) Overall, your computer looks nicer. |
| 3.) When you surf the internet colors seem brighter, and the screen less cluttered. |
What happens when you change your system settings?
When you change your screen resolution, the screen becomes more smaller and you can fit more onto the screen at once. What your computer does is add more pixels onto the screen output and as a result, your screen seems less cluttered. We recommend that you view not only our page but the rest of the Internet with an 800x600 or higher screen resolution. Most people nowadays use an 800x600 screen setting.
When you change the color depth, the computer adds more colors to the system palette. What does that mean to you? That means that you can enjoy up to 32 million colors on the screen simultaneously! Most people, when they get their computers, start out with a 256-color setting. That's not good to view more recent Internet sites with (including ours), we recommend that you have at least 16-bit color (which is actually 65 thousand colors) to view our site and others with. Here is a table that states what the computer says as color and how many colors it actually is.
| 16-color | The computer will only display 16 colors simultaneously, if you've ever experienced Windows in "safe mode" then you've seen 16-colors used. Make sure NOT to confuse this with 16-bit color. |
| 256-color | The computer will display 256-colors. When using Netscape to surf the internet, it will actually make its own palette of 216 colors. Making your web-surfing experience even less visually enjoyable. |
| High Color (16-bit) | Not to be confused with 16-color, 16-bit-color will display 65 thousand colors simultaneously. Great for 'net surfing. |
| True Color (32-bit) | This isn't as common in all computers as in the High Color (16-bit) however this extremely powerful setting handles millions of colors simultaneously. If you have this setting, then your computer can probably also handle high resolutions. |
The first thing you can do to take advantage of your new settings:
The Microsoft font smoother is a utility that can be downloaded for free from Microsoft's web site. The font smoother is designed to smooth the edges of your fonts so they don't appear so blocky. Its a great utility and available here: The Microsoft Font Smoother
If you're interested in changing your system settings then click here for a tutorial.
If not, then click here to return to "Determining your Screen Resolution".