Computer Knowledge Needed

The fact that the Start button is off screen is an odd one, usually it's difficult to put that "off screen". My bet is that the monitor itself has had its buttons played with, not the software. Look for a "menu" button or something similar, and try to change the vertical size and horizontal size (and/or position) and move things around. Some monitors have buttons for directly changing image size or position. BTW: is the Windows boot-up screen really big, too (before the login)? If so, that would confirm the monitor being tinkered with.

(I just tried - I can't move it off screen at all, and I've been a Windows software developer for about 10 years.)

For my kids, we've given them their own logons (no password), and when the computer flips to screen saver, it makes you pick your logon. The kids' logins are "user" level and can't change the computer in any way at all. This wouldn't solve your monitor issue, but would save you grief in the future.

oh yeah... I've had this too... If you don't shut down the game properly it'll stay stuck in the large mode.. try playing again and shut down the game completely. Also try shutting down the computer and restarting.. if you hold the on off button for 10 secs it'll shut down. good luck.. I know it's soo annoying!

First off, you can teach your kids how to properly close down a game, that will help immensely. It is annoying to want to use your own computer and have kids bugging you (I have a 5 year old at my shoulder as we speak!) But it also is a good way for them to learn about computers. ANYHOOO...
You can right click on your desktop anywhere on the screen, a box will pop up with some options, at the bottom it will say "properties", click on that and another box will pop up with "Themes, desktop, screensaver, appearance and settings" on it. Click on "settings", a box will appear it will have a slide bar so you can change the screen resolution and also has a color quality box.
Do NOT just restart (push the button) your computer without shutting things down unless it is absolutely frozen! Going through start menu and restarting it is fine but hard stopping it is not good for your computer in the long run.

First of all if you restart the computer it will usually reset itself to the original settings. If that doesn't work you need to rightclick on your screen to get a little menu that has "properties". Click on that and you can choose your screen resolution to however you want it in settings. 800x 640 is the lowest and is kinda normal, the higher you go the smaller the icons will look. You can also go into the "advanced" settings from there to change your settings further.

If no one has told you left click on the line that you can see just about the bottom. It should look like a double arrow when it lands on the line. Keep your finger depressed on the left click on the mouse and move the line up. It will reposition your task/start bar up higher. Boy haven't my son done that to his computer. One time it was so big it took up 70% of the screen. He pulled it too far up. Good luck! To change the display screen - go to START then CONTROL PANEL find DISPLAY and change your size settings for the desktop icons.

Try this:
Right-click on the desktop.. Select View .. Then choose a new icon size, I'm assuming either small or normal or something. Or it might be Zoom Out, as your view seems to have zoomed in.

You need to go to your control panel. If you have a "windows icon" on your keyboard (near the control and alt buttons towards the bottom left), that will pull up your task bar. Go the "start" and to "control panel". You should have a "display" choice. Click on that, then on the "settings" tab. Depending on how old your computer is, you should change the "color quality" to "highest (32 bit). You may have to change the "color resolution" to a higher setting as well. Click apply and it will tell you that it is going to resize your desktop. That should fix your problem. I have to regularly change this for different computer games my girls play. Some have to have lower color quality than others. good luck!