Trouble with icons and headers

I have windows 98 2nd ed. My problem started after defragging. After I restarted my computer it still stayed in safe mode. I tried to fix it in customize my desktop under settings. That is when the problem started. I got the message that I need ed 256 colors 8-bit. I tried the 256 colors and restarted my computer. This was wrong so I tried all settings and finally settled on high color 16bit. Not perfect but colors are close but icons and text are too large. I know the answer must be simple but I don't know it. Please help.

 

Have a look in display properties>Settings.
Look at the slider for ScreenArea. If it's at 480x600. that's it. Slide it to the right to the next notch. See if that is any better.

 

Thanks Mosaic1, but that does not work. I tried moving it 2 notches and they both made the whole desktop smaller.

 

What are the numbers please?

 

640x480, 800x600, 1040x768, I have it on 640x480

 

That's the problem.
Try it at 800 x600

 

800x600 and 1040x768 make the desktop only a portion of the screen. I need to try something else.

 

If the problem just happened in the last 3 or 4 days you can restore a previous registry. To try this, go to start>shutdown>restart in MS-DOS mode. At the c:\windows\> prompt enter:

scanreg /restore

select a prior started registry from one of the first 4 you see. There is a 5th one (hidden) if that is the only one which predates the problem, cancel out and ctrl -alt -del to restart windows. To restore that one requires a little more work. It will be overwritten if you select anything else.

A registry dated on the day of the problem can be selected, since the dates represent the registry on the first boot of the day.