Changing Windows XP Display To The Widescreen Mode

Using a wide screen monitor for your computer can be enthralling if you use your computer mostly for viewing pictures and watching movies and videos. Viewing in wide screen mode allows the users to see more things together with the additional horizontal space. The Windows XP operating system supports wide screen monitors but its default resolution is designed for non-widescreen monitors. This may make the view vertically squashed when you are using a wide screen monitor. To get the optimum viewing experience with a wide screen monitor, you will have to make some changes in the display settings. This can be done through the Control Panel. The Windows help tips explained below will help you to make the make the necessary changes in the display settings.

Instructions

• Turn on the computer and wait until the operating system loads completely. Log into the Administrator account in the computer, click on the Start button on the bottom left hand corner of the screen. This will open the Start menu. 
• From the Start menu, select Control Panel to open up a file explorer window. If the specific category files are hidden, click on the Appearance and Themes button followed by Change the Screen Resolution. If the category files are not hidden in the first place, click on the Display icon to open up an options window. After that, click on the Settings tab.
• You will be able to locate the screen resolution-sliding bar at the mid-left of the menu. Move the cursor to this bar. Watch the rectangle marked 1 in the preview pane located above the sliding bar and move the marker to one of the widescreen resolution settings. 
• After performing the above steps, click on the Apply button, wait until the computer screen blacks out, and reset to the new widescreen settings. After the flicker, the computer will adjust to the new settings.

If you follow the above steps carefully, you will be able to make the necessary changes in the display settings of your computer for optimizing the display for a wide screen monitor without any errors. If you have any doubts on any of these steps, you may refer to the Windows help module provided in the official web site of Microsoft or contact the Microsoft support phone number.