Getting colours to display properly in Windows 95.

Hardware/Software related problem
Question Sent to us Thursday July 29, 1999.
Q. Why is it that I never seem to be able to display all the necessary colours for a game, or pictures on the internet, to look good on my screen.   When I am running DOS based games, all colours seem to be there, but not when running Windows programs, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Word.  How can I get all the colours?

The Windows 95 Display Property Settings Dialog Box will allow you to modify many importang display settings.

A. Since almost all conventional (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors built in the last decade or so are capable of displaying an unlimited amount of colours, the actual number of colours a monitor can display depends on the Video Card you are using, as well as the way your Operating System is configured.  Where the Video Card is concerned, the amount of memory it has will determine the maximum number of colours your screen can display at any given time.  For instance, a video card that has 512 KB of memory will be able to display a maximum of 256 colours, at a resolution of 640X480 pixels.  As you raise the resolution of your screen (to do press the Start Button, go to Settings and then Control Panels, and use the Display Panel to adjust this property), your video card will be able to display less colours, but more information on your screen.   This means that if you don't have much video memory (512 KB for instance), you might want to use a lower screen resolution in order to get more colours to display.   A video card with 1 megabyte of memory will be able to display 24-bit colour (often referred to as millions of colours), at the lowest resolution, and less if your raise it.   However please note that unless you are a graphics professional, and spend lots of time looking at pictures on your screen, the difference between thousands of colours (16-bit video), and millions of colours (24-bit) will probably be indistinguishable.   However, if you do not have the proper video drivers installed, you may not be able to fully take advantage of the colours that your video card could be displaying.  Try running the "Add Hardware Wizard" in the Windows 95 control panels to install the proper drivers.  It may also be that you didn't tell your computer you wanted more then 16 colours.  Try going to the Settings Tab of the Control Panel's Display Property's to see if you can raise the number of colours.