Excessive Screen Size

A friend asked for help with his Windows 98se laptop. Trying to help using the telephone got nowhere. His problem is that any screen he bring up is too large. For example the screen which results from right clicking the desktop and then clicking properties brings up the Display Properties screen. He can not click apply for any adjustments made there because he can't get to "Apply" or "OK ". This condition exists for other screens, they are too large.

I tried having him adjust the screen area to 800 x 600 pixels and other smaller and larger sizes but these adjustments had no effect. I need some words of wisdom to help him because everything I suggested failed.

 

Tell him to try this. When he gets the display properties up change the settings to what he wants and then press on the alt and spacebar keys at the same time. Release them and press enter. Now he should be able to move the display properties window up or down using the up and down arrow keys. When he gets it where he can see the apply button press the enter key again and it should stay there. He should then be able to click on the apply button and hopefully get things straightened out.

One more thought. Has he tried restoring a previous registry? Boot to a dos prompt and type scanreg /restore and then choose a cabfile in the list that predates the problem (assuming there is one). If there is a registry backup there that predates the problem doing this should fix it.

 

Zander,

Your first suggestion, alt plus space bar and then enter only produced a drop down menu with Move and Close on the screen. The arrow keys had no effect for screen movement. This applies to his laptop and my desktop. It's a neat idea if it could be made to work.

The scanreg /restore had some effect but the screen appeared distorted and information was off the right side of the window. He finally told me that he had loaded a program before his trouble started. I had him uninstall the program and everything got back to normal.

Thank you for your ideas, he and I appreciate your interest.

 

Glad he got it fixed. As to my first suggestion, after you use alt+spacebar the menu you mentioned is displayed. You have to then select move by using the arrow keys (though it should be selected by default). Anyway, after choosing move (it will be highlighted) then use the enter key to select it. Your cursor should change to a four way arrow. Once you've done this you should be able to move the window with the arrow keys. After moving the window to where you want it, use the enter key once again to make it stay there. Give it a try again and see. It can be handy to know at times like these.

 

Zander,

You are exactly right. Excuse me for not carrying the Move method farther. About a year ago I had exactly the situation I described in the first post and I'm not sure how I resolved it. The method you gave would have been useful then and I'm sure to use it in the future. Thank you again