Unfortunately, it is possible that your monitor, video card, or other parts of your system may not support the solution below, but let's hope that's not the case...
Solution: Reset your video driver to 256 color or higher
In Windows 3.1, In the MAIN program group, open WINDOWS SETUP. Click on
the OPTIONS menu pick, then choose CHANGE SYSTEM SETTINGS. Drop down the DISPLAY
box, and choose an appropriate driver that says '...256 colors...'. You may be required
to insert a driver diskette (that should have come with your video card), or your Windows
diskettes, and to reboot your PC.
In Windows 95, Choose START / SETTINGS / CONTROL PANEL. Double click on the In the MAIN program group, open WINDOWS SETUP. Click on the DISPLAY icon, then choose the SETTINGS tab. Drop down the COLOR PALETTE choices, which about half-way down on the left. Choose something higher than 16 colors... I'm currently using 'High Color (16 bit)', and that looks good. Note that 16-bit color is very different from 16 colors. 16-bit color can give give 2 to the 16th power (65,536) colors. Because I use a 800 by 600 pixel desktop area (which is controlled by a widget just to the right of the 'Color' setting), Windows 95 would not let me try 'True Color (24 bit)'. I suppose this is a function of my video card. Windows 95 is supposedly smart enough that you cannot choose a setting your video card can't support, but I'm not convinced... You may be required to insert a driver diskette (that should have come with your video card), or your Windows 95 diskettes or CD, and to reboot your PC.
Other General info
If you don't have a color monitor and a graphic WWW browser, you're just SOL
(tech lingo, for 'Sorry, old landlubber'). This is probably not the case, or your
wouldn't have gotten as far as seeing this page.
The numbers such as '640x480' are specifying the number of pixels (color dots) to be displayed on the screen (e.g., 640 across the screen by 480 down). 640x480 is a 'regular' screen size, and 800x600 is a 'compressed' screen size that will cause things to be smaller and more to fit on the screen.
The key to your PC's color capabilities lies much more with the video card you have than with the monitor. The driver software that this section discusses drives the video card. If you cannot get your driver set to more than 16 colors, it is possible that either (a) your video card simply can't support more, or (b - more probably) that you have the wrong driver installed. Windows 95 reduces the possibility of this error, but does not eliminate it. With Windows 3.1, it is not uncommon to find that a 'generic' driver has been chosen, rather than the specific driver for your video card. That limits your capabilities. To correct this, you must (a) obtain the driver and (b) install it.
(A) Obtaining video drivers
The video driver software you need may be on