How Can Windows XP Users Improve Their Screen Visibility?

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Users have shared a method for enhancing screen readability on Windows XP, particularly beneficial for those over 40. By navigating to Control Panel, selecting Accessibility Options, and enabling High Contrast with an extra-large display setting, users can significantly enlarge text and icons for better visibility. This adjustment has sparked discussions about the visual experience on different operating systems, particularly comparing Windows and Mac. Some users noted that the display on Windows can appear pixelated or stretched, while others praised the aesthetic of Mac displays. The conversation also touched on the ease of customization on Macs versus PCs, with some users expressing frustration over the complexity of Mac controls. Overall, the thread highlights the importance of accessibility features in improving user experience, particularly for those with vision challenges.
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I discovered this way people with Windows xp can turn everything on your screen into a beautiful, large, easy to read format. This will be of particular interest to those of us past 40 whose vision isn't what it used to be.
Click Start->Control Panel->Acessibility Options->Display
Here, put a check in the box next to Use High Contrast, then click the Settings button next to it.
From the drop down menu below choose Windows Standard (extra large). Then click OK. That window will dissappear and you're back at Accessibility Options. Here, you click Apply down at the bottom, and suddenly everything on your screen is gigantically large and legible.
 
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Geez, it feels like you're shouting at me with this display. In fact, I have to switch to a 'size 1' font in order to keep from shouting, myself. And I'm definitely going back to PF Classic - those eyes are just evil in this large display mode.
(And I thought you were talking about the effect of flatulence on eyesight. :redface: )
uhh :rolleyes: you wouldn't happen to remember what display I had before I tried your experiment, would you?
 
Last edited:
BobG said:
uhh :rolleyes: you wouldn't happen to remember what display I had before I tried your experiment, would you?

No, sorry. I didn't make a note of the original setting.

I also downgraded a bit. From extra large, to large.

I tried a few others out and it is rather like having a couple dozen PF skins to choose from on your own PC. Right now I'm writing from Pumpkin, large.
 
Actually, the new PF skin looks very good with an XP style olive green display. (I've been using the Window's classic display, and, naturally enough, the PF classic skin - it's hard to change).
 
Poor PC victims :frown: .
It's a 3-click option on a Mac. :-p
 
BobG said:
Actually, the new PF skin looks very good with an XP style olive green display. (I've been using the Window's classic display, and, naturally enough, the PF classic skin - it's hard to change).
I don't see any olive green. There are some weird colors, though.
 
Danger said:
Poor PC victims :frown: .
It's a 3-click option on a Mac. :-p
Yeah, but can you turn your hourglass into a dinosaur like I did last night?
 
We don't have that stupid hourglass either. Just to show you how more advanced Macs are, we use a little clock. :-p
 
Danger said:
Poor PC victims :frown: .
It's a 3-click option on a Mac. :-p
And the new skin looks better on Mac too!
Danger said:
We don't have that stupid hourglass either. Just to show you how more advanced Macs are, we use a little clock.
And the Spinning Pizza Wheel of Death!
 
  • #10
Chi Meson said:
And the new skin looks better on Mac too!
Can't comment on that. I still haven't been home since this was changed. I can hardly wait.
 
  • #11
Danger said:
Can't comment on that. I still haven't been home since this was changed. I can hardly wait.
Better clarify:
The skin looks better on MY Mac (iMac G4) at home than it does on my PC (generic pentium 2 with Windows 2000) at work.
 
  • #12
Danger said:
We don't have that stupid hourglass either. Just to show you how more advanced Macs are, we use a little clock. :-p
And can you change your little clock to a dinosaur?
 
  • #13
From an evolutionary standpoint, that would be a step backward. Why would I? :-p
I'm pretty sure that with the right software, I could change it to Sandra Bullock if I wanted to. :-p
 
  • #14
Danger said:
Poor PC victims :frown: .
It's a 3-click option on a Mac. :-p
OMG WTF? an option... on a mac?? Since when do they have options on macs?

Honestly though, I hate how little options there are with macs... \

EDIT: Is the clock you are talking about a timer or just a clock? Because, an hourglass is obviously a timer, but a clock just tells time, -pfft- which wouldn't make sense, and would prove that macs suck :biggrin:
 
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  • #15
Danger said:
From an evolutionary standpoint, that would be a step backward. Why would I? :-p
So, you're telling me in Canada it's the general consensus that clocks evolved from dinosaurs?
 
  • #16
zoobyshoe said:
So, you're telling me in Canada it's the general consensus that clocks evolved from dinosaurs?
no, hour glasses evolved from clocks


or somthing ike that
 
  • #17
Whoa! I just had a simple localized brain seizure!
 
  • #18
moose said:
OMG WTF? an option... on a mac?? Since when do they have options on macs?
When was the last time you used a Mac? 1960?

Honestly though, I hate how little options there are with macs...
Actually they love to serve the disabled persons, whether vision, hearing, or typing...

EDIT: Is the clock you are talking about a timer or just a clock? Because, an hourglass is obviously a timer, but a clock just tells time, -pfft- which wouldn't make sense, and would prove that macs suck :biggrin:
Depending on what system it one uses, it can be a number of things. Mac OS systems used a stopwatch. Mac OS X systems use a pretty swirling vortex of colors... I like it.
 
  • #19
moose said:
OMG WTF? an option... on a mac?? Since when do they have options on macs?

Honestly though, I hate how little options there are with macs... \

EDIT: Is the clock you are talking about a timer or just a clock? Because, an hourglass is obviously a timer, but a clock just tells time, -pfft- which wouldn't make sense, and would prove that macs suck :biggrin:
When's the last time you used a Mac? There are quite a few options, and surprisingly, they're in more logical places than on a PC. I haven't tried viewing PF from a PC since the new skin was installed, but based on the screenshots people have posted from PCs running Windows XP, it really does look a LOT better on a Mac. When I logged into PF once from the lab using first IE, then Firefox on Windows XP (with the classic skin), I honestly don't know how people don't gouge their eyes out using any browser in Windows...it was painful to look at that giant, pixelated, stretched-out looking text. It wasn't just PF either...all websites looked hideous on Windows.
 
  • #20
Moonbear said:
When I logged into PF once from the lab using first IE, then Firefox on Windows XP (with the classic skin), I honestly don't know how people don't gouge their eyes out using any browser in Windows...it was painful to look at that giant, pixelated, stretched-out looking text. It wasn't just PF either...all websites looked hideous on Windows.
That wasn't windows. The default settings in windows make everything very tiny. Now that I've found the gigantic version, it is still neither stretched out, nor pixilated. (It does seem kind of like shouting, though.)
 
  • #21
Mk said:
Mac OS X systems use a pretty swirling vortex of colors... I like it.
AKA "the Spinning Pizza Wheel of Death."

If an application stops responding this swirling colorful wheel never stops. Luckily with a Mac, you can just quit that application & avoid an entire shutdown.

I luv my Mac.:!)
 
  • #22
What is it with mac users liking macs. PCs have a double buttoned mouse and a superior keyboard and touchpad. I never know when to press the fn, ctrl, alt or apple key with a mac to get something accomplished: a PC you control with one hand, a mac you need two (and you CAN force quit a single application with a PC).
 
  • #23
Monique said:
What is it with mac users liking macs. PCs have a double buttoned mouse and a superior keyboard and touchpad. I never know when to press the fn, ctrl, alt or apple key with a mac to get something accomplished: a PC you control with one hand, a mac you need two (and you CAN force quit a single application with a PC).
If you got to ask, you'll never know.
 
  • #24
Monique, you sound like a virgin who insists that plastic is best. :-p
 
  • #25
I just want to completely divest myself from that last remark!:eek:
 
  • #26
Coward...
 
  • #27
Monique said:
What is it with mac users liking macs. PCs have a double buttoned mouse and a superior keyboard and touchpad. I never know when to press the fn, ctrl, alt or apple key with a mac to get something accomplished: a PC you control with one hand, a mac you need two (and you CAN force quit a single application with a PC).
All new macs are being sold with the 4-button mighty-mouse now (that's why you had such a hard time finding a cheap mouse from Mac, they stopped selling the one-button ones, and are only selling their new fancy one).

zoobyshoe said:
That wasn't windows. The default settings in windows make everything very tiny. Now that I've found the gigantic version, it is still neither stretched out, nor pixilated. (It does seem kind of like shouting, though.)
Huh? It was most definitely windows I was using, and the default settings because I hadn't touched anything at the time...just started out with the default settings when I set up my user account on it...I played around after that to adjust the screen resolution, and that helped some, but I haven't been back on that computer since then. Both IE and Firefox looked the same way, so it wasn't the browser.
 
  • #28
Danger said:
Monique, you sound like a virgin who insists that plastic is best. :-p
Chi Meson said:
I just want to completely divest myself from that last remark!:eek:

I don't :-p
 
  • #29
Moonbear said:
Huh? It was most definitely windows I was using, and the default settings because I hadn't touched anything at the time...just started out with the default settings when I set up my user account on it...I played around after that to adjust the screen resolution, and that helped some, but I haven't been back on that computer since then. Both IE and Firefox looked the same way, so it wasn't the browser.
My default settings are tiny. Everyone here looks like they are whispering. Even when I put it on the "high contrast" setting, it is still neither "stretched out" nor "pixilated", just in-your-face large. My resolution is 1280X800 pixels. As I type this (I'm back in the default setting) I can peer in closely and see that each letter is only one pixel wide.

I can't explain what was happening on your screen but it's not inherent to windows xp.
 

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