HP LCD Widescreen question?

[hearrean]

I just purchased a HP W2207 LCD widescreen monitor to replace my smaller HP 19" LCD. It's max resolution is 1680 X 1050 & I can't remember what it's native resolution is unless max & native means the same thing. It came with software to help adjust the monitor's settings, etc. The software recommended a higher resolution which I activated which make my desktops icons very small. FYI: The monitor does have a DVI-D connection. I had also just installed a Radeon HD 3850 video card which has DVI so I have my monitor hooked up to my HP computer via the DVI on the graphics card. When I set the monitor resolution to the recommended, everything (printing, fonts, etc) is so much smaller but fairly crisp. However the image does not fill the entire screen. If I lower the resolution, the image fills the screen, but everything looks stretched.
Can anyone tell me what I may be doing wrong, if anything?

Ken

[shadowpr]

Try setting it to it's max.

If the desktop won't take up the entire screen, then use the monitors menu to expand the viewing area.

If fonts and everything looks too small, you can try to adjust the dpi (should be in the display settings).

[pam123]

1680 x 1050 is the native resolution for that LCD.

What drivers do you have installed for the video card and did you get any drivers for the monitor?

[hearrean]

Yes, I installed the software that came with the monitor which included the drivers. I also installed the drivers that came with the new video card. (FYI: For some reason, I noticed that the new Radeon video card's software came with audio drivers as well which I thought was strange; I did not install those as I didn't see a need).
What I have done is the following: I right-clicked on the desktop, selected the "Appearance" tab & then changed the Font Size to "Large." I then selected the "Effects" button under "Appearance" & selected "Use Large Icons." The only thing I haven't done is to go to the Settings tab & then click the Advanced button & change the DPI setting which is currently set at 96 DPI. I wasn't sure what that would do or if the other things I did do were safe. My doing those other couple of things did enlarge & help the reading of the fonts, etc. somewhat, but not a great deal.
Now I realize I can change my screen resolution back to something lower, but it seems that would defeat the entire purpose of my getting the larger widescreen monitor. Doing that also worsens the sharpness of the icons, etc. Truth be known, my settings may be at the optimum/proper settings. It's just that I have nothing to compare to & everything is so much smaller than before. My wife is also complaining about everything being smaller & harder to read. I'd hate to have to change resolutions each time I'm on the computer & then back whenever I get off the computer.

Ken

[shadowpr]

You can set up two different user profiles.

Try playing with the dpi settings too. See if you can get it to where you would like.

I would advise against setting the resolution to anything other then the native one.