Adjusting Display a real pain

[Thurson05]

I just had my hard drive swept clean of Windows 98, which was then reinstalled, which fixed the problem of my screen freezing nearly everytime I used my PC. I had the work done professionally. All is well now, except the desktop icons, e-mail text and web-page text are huge. I've repeatedly clicked to Display, then Settings, and increased the resolution to the maximum. I then get a message saying I have to restart my computer so the changes take effect. But, the changes still don't "stick." What to do?

[Aurorus]

You can alter the restarting issue if you want.
Right Click on your desktop, then go to Settings
and click Advanced. Then in the General tab
you will see the Compatibility frame, select as the
option "Apply New color settings without restarting"
and click ok.

You should be able to change your display resolution
without restarting.

[Thurson05]

Aurorus, thanks for the tip, but the color isn't really the problem. The problem, as I described in my first posting, is that everything in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, and even the toolbar at the bottom of my screen, are extra-extra large. And even after following your instructions, I still had to restart my PC to try to make the increase in resolution "stick," but it didn't. And to add to the problem, "the printer cannot be found" even though it was working yesterday. Ever since I paid a shop last week to wipe clean the hard drive and reinstall Windows 98, problems keep appearing. Take care.

[Tom]

Aurorus,
Icon issue sounds like the settings on your 98 are for people with vision impairments. Suggest ctrl panel-display-displayproperties-effects tab. Uncheck "Use Large Icons", and click Apply. For the printer issue I usually find it was something I did, so I uninstall and reinstall to undo my actions.

[Thurson05]

Jintan, thank you for the suggestion, but it's me, not Aurorus, who needs the help. Any ideas on how to reduce the size of the content of Web pages and e-mail? Everything is so large. I unclicked "use large icons," but that only affected the desktop icons. Thanks, though.

I haven't changed a thing about the printer settings. I used it a couple of days ago. No problem. Suddenly today, it cannot be found. I had a similar problem with the modem after I had tech services at CompUSA wipe clean the hard drive and reinstall Windows 98. (It had become corrupted. No hardware problems were found.) The computer could not detect the modem. I took it back to CompUSA, which fixed the problem. Now, these other glitches are showing up.

Thanks for the help.

[Tom]

Sorry Thurson05. Web pages - goto View-Text Size. Choose a smaller setting. Don't kow what mail browser you use for suggestions there. Have you tried to reinstall the printer? Start-Settings-Printer. Use the Add New Printer wizard? 98 does get unstable with time but if you have a new install there might be something else corrupting things. I'n not one of the local pros here but since I've already interfered... How's about trying the web text change, letting me know what mail browser you use and give reinstalling the printer a shot and posting back.

[Thurson05]

Jintan, thanks for the suggestions. I did reinstall the printer, plus I went to HP.com and downloaded the latest driver. All is well, for now. Question: Does the printer automatically find the latest driver when I use the printer? A folder icon for the new driver was automatically placed on my desktop, but I don't see the driver under Printers.

I had already selected the smallest text size. Didn't change anything on the Web pages. They still look like they're set up for someone with extremely poor vision, like a large-print book. Most baffling.

Somehow, I seem to have fixed what was bugging me about Outlook Express, so that's OK.

Much thanks, again, for your help.