Lower Your Computer's Brightness

• 1). Look for buttons on your computer to manually lower your display's brightness. On a desktop machine, these will probably be marked with a sun logo on the front of the monitor. On a laptop, look for them near the top of the keyboard. If you cannot find them, skip to Step 3.
  
  
• 2). Press the button on the left side to lower your display's brightness. This will soften your white background, but it may also make your computer display too dim to read. If it does, restore it to its former brightness and skip to the next section.
  
  
• 3). If you cannot find the buttons, open the Windows Control Panel from the "Start" menu. Select "Power Options" (Windows XP) or "Display Options" (Windows Vista and Windows 7) and then "Adjust Display Brightness." Move to slider to the left to lower the brightness.
  
  

Change Your Background

• 1). Open the Windows Control Panel from the "Start" Menu and click "Appearance" (Windows XP) or "Display Options" (Windows Vista and Windows 7).
  
  
• 2). Select the option to change your desktop background.
  
  
• 3). Choose a new background. Windows automatically comes with a selection of backgrounds, but if you wish to simply use a softer white background, search for "soft white desktop background" or even "cream desktop background" in Google. Download the image and click "Browse" in the Control Panel window to select it.
  
  
• 4). Click "Preview" to ensure your background looks the way you want it.
  
  
• 5). Click "OK" and exit the Control Panel when you are satisfied.