Contrast issues

The contrast on my computer is really smurfed up. It's really, really, sharp colours that are ridiculously harsh on your eyes. For instance, the grey dock at the bottom of the screen in Windows XP Classic is almost white.

All my settings are normal, 1024x748 (or whatever, I don't know the exacts), 32Bit TrueColour, etc. etc. It's not set in the Appearance tab to be high contrast.

Whenever I open something (ie. Zsnes) the contrast is normal, it's only when I'm fiddling around in windows.

Any suggestions as to why this is?

Your video driver (or another desktop related program) may have the Gamma setting up too high. If your video card has a control panel, see if there's a gamma setting and lower it.

Or, it could be that the contrast on your monitor is set up too high for that specific resolution.

A-ha! It was the video-driver. Thanks alot!