What is my screen resolution and how do I change it?
Screen resolution means the number of pixels displayed on your computer screen. This affects the amount of information that can be displayed on your screen.
For example, a 1280 x 1024 display has 1280 pixels from side to side and 1024 from top to bottom.
The higher the resolution of your screen, the more information can be displayed. You may imagine that as your resolution increases, it’s like zooming out of the screen, so any open windows look smaller but you can see more of them.
How can I tell what my current screen resolution is?
You can find this information via your settings (see below) or visit http://www.whatismyscreenresolution.com.
How to change your screen resolution
Windows
Go to Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Themes > Display
Slide the slider labelled “Screen resolution” left to make the resolution less, and right to make it go higher.
Click OK to save your changes
You may be asked if you wish to restart your computer. This is not necessary for your changes to take effect.
Mac
Go to Apple > System Preferences > Display
From the list of Resolutions, choose the value you want
Close the Display window
My screen seems to only go to 1280 X 1024, is it possible to make it even bigger than this?
Hi Becky,
My screen also only goes this far! The screen resolution you can have depends on your computer’s graphics card and also on your monitor, so this is where this limit is coming from.
Claire