Again, thanks for the suggestions . . . but nope! my desktop looks nearly the same. When I log on, however, the windows vista icon ( the one that circles around as the profile begins to load) looks odd - not smooth. My icons in the task bar look the same way. When I open programs, even the tabs on the internet look the same way, odd, big, and not smooth. Things just look like the "safe mode" appearance. But the screen resolution has not changed. Nothing I did in the advanced properties helped either. What on earth could it be? The computer still works, but the visual is terrible.