Make Things Big on High-Res Screens in Windows Xp

I spent a lot of cash for the best, highest-resolution flat-panel LCD display on the market, but everything on the screen is too small. Did I waste my money?

THE FIX: Depends on how much you spent! But the good news is that you can make most things on your screen bigger to compensate for the tiny pixels. To make text bigger, right-click an empty area of your desktop, click Properties, and then click the Appearance tab. From the "Font size" drop-down, you can choose either Large or Extra Large, but for better results, click the Advanced button to enlarge specific elements (title bar, menus, tooltips, etc.) to your taste.

Start by clicking Active Window in the little preview window at the top of the dialog box(or selecting Active Title Bar from the Item list), and then choosing a larger number in the Size list in the second row (next to the Font list). Do the same for Inactive Title Bar, Menu, Message Box, Palette Title, and Tooltip.

Sharpen Blurry Text in Windows XP

The text on my screen is blurry. Do I need glasses?

THE FIX: If the manufacturer's logo on your monitor is also blurry, glasses might be a good idea. Otherwise, there are two things that can cause blurry text in Windows XP.

If everything on your screen is blurry, as opposed to just the text, your display may be set to the wrong resolution. If you have a flat-panel LCD monitor, it has a native resolution, which matches the number of the monitor's physical pixels. If your monitor's native resolution is 1024x768, for instance, and Windows is set to 800x600, your screen will have to interpolate that lower resolution, and the display will appear blurry. To fix the problem, right-click an empty area of your desktop, click Properties, and then click the Settings tab. Slide the "Screen resolution" slider until the numbers match your screen's native resolution, and then click OK. (See the next annoyance if this setting makes icons and text too small.)

Snappy Scrolling In Windows XP

When I scroll a folder in Windows Explorer or a web page in Internet Explorer, it acts "sticky," as though it needs oiling. I presume oiling my monitor is out of the question, but there's got to be a way to make scrolling snappier.

THE FIX: Microsoft calls this behavior "smooth scrolling," and fortunately, you can turn it off. For this, you'll need a Microsoft program called TweakUI (free, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx). Click the Explorer category on the left side of the window, and on the right side, uncheck the "Enable smooth scrolling" box. Click Apply when you're done.

To turn off smooth scrolling in web pages, in Internet Explorer select Tools Internet Options, and click the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the bottom of the Browsing section, uncheck the "Use smooth scrolling" box, and click OK.

Introduction

Some days I want to pick up my PC and throw it out the window. Other days, I fancy hitting it with a large, blunt object, or perhaps drilling through the CPU with a high-speed auger bit. Yesterday, I dreamt of small gray mice chewing through the power cable. But of course, the wanton destruction of electronic equipment can be rather expensive, not to mention a poor solution to the hundreds of everyday annoyances that evoke such feelings.

Windows XP frequently falls under the "You can't live with it; you can't live without it" category, and with good reason. Windows is an operating system, the underlying software that provides drivers, interface components, and communication services to the applications and games you use on your PC. Ideally, operating system software should be both omnipresent and invisible; like the air we breathe, it allows us to function but should never get in our way. Alas, it doesn't always work out that way.

Windows crashes. It interrupts our work with incomprehensible error messages. It bogs down under the weight of the software we pile on top of it. And it seems to make simple taskssuch as finding files, choosing default applications, and setting up a networkneedlessly complicated and hopelessly cumbersome. For these reasons and hundreds more, Windows is annoying.

The good news is that there are solutions to most Windows annoyances. Whether the solution lies in an obscure setting, an add-on program, or just a different way of doing something, most of what bugs us about Windows can be fixed. And that's what this site is about.