Controlling the Display and Monitors with Windows Vista
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In this conclusion to a six-part series on personalizing Windows Vista, you'll learn how to control the display and handle multiple monitors. This article is excerpted from chapter four of
Windows Vista Administration: The Definitive Guide, written by Brian Culp (O'Reilly; ISBN: 0596529597). Copyright © 2006 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission from the publisher. Available from booksellers or direct from O'Reilly Media.
Controlling the Display
Sure, the Vista computer you’re using makes a lot of calculations and handles a lot of tasks that make modern life and business possible. But you don’t spend all day looking at the CPU and chipset, do you? Of course not. Humans stare at the monitor for feedback, and controlling what and how this output displays is a very important part of computer use. The last main section of this chapter deals with changing display properties.
Figure 4-28. Configuring a maximum number of Flip 3D windows
Changing Screen Resolution
One of the most critical factors that affects Vista display is the screen resolution. The screen resolution is defined as the number of pixels (picture elements) that are shown on the monitor, represented in a reading of the number (of pixels horizontally) × (by) the number (of pixels vertically).
Most monitors today have screen resolution capabilities of at least 1,024 × 768, with fallback settings of 800 × 600 and 640 × 480. Higher-end monitors can use resolutions of 1,280 × 1,024; 1,600 × 1,200; and even 2,048 × 1,536. The higher the screen resolution, the more screen area the user sees. Users who work with a lot of open windows tend to gravitate toward higher resolutions.
There’s a trade-off however. At higher resolutions, text becomes smaller and harder to see, especially for those with vision problems. For those with perfect vision, high resolutions create tiny, tiny, tiny text, which in turn can lead to eyestrain, eventually leading to vision problems (capital I irony, huh?). Fortunately, this book gives you the tools to adjust text size, which is just one of the reasons it’s so good (even though a rather mundane discussion of screen resolution contains valuable information that will help you get the most out of your computer).
To adjust Vista text size, use the Personalization Control Panel application and then click the “Adjust font size (DPI)” link on the list of tasks to the left. Flip to Chapter 15 for the specific instructions.
At any rate, there is no ideal screen resolution; it’s just whatever works best for the individual user and what kind of work she wants to perform. One thing’s for sure, though: using a higher resolution requires more hardware horsepower than using lower resolutions, including both the display adapter and the monitor itself.
Also affecting computer display is the color depth, which represents the number of colors that can be simultaneously displayed. Color depth can range from 16 colors for standard VGA monitors to 4 billion simultaneous colors for most monitors in use today (4 billion = 232, or 32 bits’ worth of distinct colors). And as you might guess, higher color depths place higher demands on computer hardware. A video card capable of 32-bit color depth at one screen resolution may be capable of only 16-bit depth at a higher resolution. In other words, the two performance benchmarks are interrelated.
At installation time, Vista tries to detect the video adapter and monitor, and then configures the screen resolution and color depth at optimal settings. Moreover, there are fallback settings, such as installing a “generic Plug and Play” monitor, used in case hardware drivers cannot be found.
After Vista installation or after a hardware/driver update, you can change both screen resolution and color depth from the same dialog box. Here’s how:
- Open the Personalize application in the Control Panel by right-clicking the desktop and choosing Personalize. Follow the Display Settings link.
- In the Display Settings dialog box, choose the monitor you want to configure if multiple monitors are detected.
- As shown in Figure 4-29, use the Resolution slider to specify screen resolution, and use the Colors drop-down menu to specify color depth.
- Click OK to apply your changes and exit.
Figure 4-29. Changing screen resolution and color depth
Besides setting the optimal screen resolution for the particular user and work tasks, another important setting is the monitor’s refresh rate. A high refresh rate can improve your comfort level when you’re sitting in front of a computer all day.
Next: Changing Display Refresh Rate >>
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 This article is excerpted from chapter four of Windows Vista Administration: The Definitive Guide, written by Brian Culp (O'Reilly; ISBN: 0596529597). Check it out today at your favorite bookstore. Buy this book now.
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