Screen Resolutions
"The more the merrier" is an old saying that goes for pixels too (within certain limits). If you can run windows with good speed and refresh rate then do so! Don't switch back because "Everything's gotten so small!" before you've tried it out. You never want to have a smaller desktop, and you'll get used to a bigger one in no time at all. And once you do, your old lower resolution desktop will seem claustrophobically small and you'll ask yourself how you could ever live with it. I know, on our P133 I think the resolution was set to 640*480 initially. Moving up to 800*600 was huge, and the vast spaces of 1024*768 seemed stellar ...
Another Dimension
Thought I'd mention this here, the dimensions of a normal screen are about 4:3, four units wide and three high, so resolutions with the same proportions are the popular ones. That's why people normally don't use resolutions between 640*480 and 800*600, they've got different proportions. Probably easier for the screens too in some way, but I don't know a thing about that so perhaps I should just keep quiet :-) ...
640*480
Lowest Windows resolution and the one used in safe mode. Every single icon occupies more space than your average car, and everything gets in the way all the time. If you try something higher and it works, you won't go back here unless you're forced to.
800*600
Much better! A bit more breathing space, and most web pages are made to work in this resolution and above. Huge improvement over 640*480, but you still won't miss it once you get a taste for something larger.
1024*768
This is what I'm currently used to working with in Windows, and nowadays I can use it with good results in FPS games too ... Sporadic driver cooperation has given me a look at higher settings working fine though, so I'm actively looking for a chance to move up further still ...
1280*960
Doesn't feel like too much of an improvement just when looking at the numbers, but it's in fact 36% more pixels to play around with (unless my calculator is lying of course :-) ...
1600*1024
Added on November 22, 2000
Another driver update, and now I'm suddenly able to go to this resolution instead of stopping at 1600*900. Refresh rate remains at a solid 60 Hz though, so it's not really an option ...
1600*1200
The current dream-mode. All the space I've ever wanted ... Probably need a larger monitor for it to work really well though ...
Refresh Rate
Heard of this? It's basically how many times per second the screen is redrawn, and you want it to be as high as possible. Low refresh rate means the screen will seem to flash and your eyes will get strained from watching it. 60 Hz (redraws per second) is only acceptable for low resolutions, I prefer my screen to be at least on 80 Hz or more for 1024*768. Setting your refresh rate to what you want in Windows can be a bit tricky unless your graphics card comes with some nice software to do the job. Refresh rates are available under display properties/settings/advanced/adapter (think those are the correct translations, using Swedish Windows you know), but they can be stupid. I've seen Windows decide to hide all options but "standard" and "optimal", both of those being 60 Hz, and the list always seem to display less modes than the screen and graphics card themselves support. More research (and a good refresh tweaker program, Powestrip won't do the job for me) is needed ...
