laptop screen resolution options

I'm new to laptops.. just picked up a Latitude c840.. It appears the native resolution is 1600 x 1200.
Now I don't like how small things are and web pages that are far over to the left. I prefer a different resolution like I do on my desktop which is set at 1024 x 768. But when changing the laptop resolution it shrinks the entire desktop and leaves a large black border on all sizes except the 1600 x 1200. I know in the past when I have discussed screen size people have had strong opinions why they like the higher res... but I personally don't. I want the majority of web pages to fill the screen and just everything bigger... So how can I make this change on a laptop.. I update the video driver.

 

There might be a bios setting for something like a "stretch screen" option.

 

up the font size in the your web browser that should help
your best off running LCD screens at the native res(ie highest) or they can look blurry etc.

should have checked this sort of thing before buying really and buy one with a lower res screen
no point having a good quality high res screen if you end up running at a low res

 

If you want to make everything bigger... right click on desktop -> personalize -> display -> change settings to medium or even large(not advisable).

P.S. You can past "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display" line(without quotes) into file browser to get to the screen settings faster.

P.P.S. You can also play with "Set custom text size (DPI)" option for even larger DPI scale

 

running xp

 

Have not actually bought it yet.. and if I do it's only $75 from a friend. I don't care if the quality drops a little if things are bigger

 

Oh, I'm somehow missed a type of laptop and just assumed that it runs on W7... still you can change DPI in XP too.

 

always run an lcd panel at it's native resolution. Anything else invites distortion

The correct way to do this is to use your program/OS options to increase the 'size' of what you see on screen. Increasing the zoom options in your browser or office suite, increasing the default DPI settings in the OS, etc, etc.