42 Using the Display
You can enhance the legibility of text and change the appearance of images on the screen by adjusting
display resolution. As you increase resolution, items appear smaller on the screen. In contrast, lower
resolution causes text and images to appear larger and can benefit people with vision impairments. To
display a program at a specific resolution, both the video card and the display must support the program,
and the necessary video drivers must be installed.
NOTE: Use only the Dell-installed video drivers, which are designed to offer the best performance with your Dell-
installed operating system.
If you choose a resolution or color palette that is higher than the display supports, the settings adjust
automatically to the closest supported values.
To set the display resolution and refresh rate for your display, perform the steps in the following section
that corresponds to the operating system your computer is using.
Microsoft® Windows® XP
1
Click
Start
Settings
Control Panel
.
2
Under
Pick a category
, click
Appearance and Themes
.
3
Under
Pick a task...
, click the area you want to change, or under
or pick a Control Panel icon
, click
Display
.
4
In the
Display Properties
window, click the
Settings
tab.
5
Try different settings for
Color quality
and
Screen resolution
.
NOTE: As the resolution increases, icons and text appear smaller on the screen.
Microsoft Windows Vista®
1
Click the Windows Vista Start button, , and click
Control Panel
.
2
Under
Appearance and Personalization
, click
Adjust screen resolution
.
3
In the
Display Settings
window, under
Resolution
, slide the slide bar to the left/right to
decrease/increase the screen resolution.
4
Click
How do I get the best display?
for further instructions.
If the video resolution setting is higher than that supported by the display, the computer enters pan
mode. In pan mode, the entire video image cannot be displayed at one time, and the taskbar that usually
appears at the bottom of the desktop may no longer be visible. To view the parts of the video image that
are not visible, you can use the touch pad or track stick to "pan" (or move) the image up, down, left, and
right.
NOTICE: You can damage an external monitor by using an unsupported refresh rate. Before adjusting the refresh
rate on an external monitor, see the user’s guide for the monitor.