The Microtek 710S is an LCD screen with 1280x1024 native resolution.
1280x1024 has a 1.25:1 aspect ratio, and
1024x768 has a 1:33:1 aspect ratio
Since your screen's resolution is not the same ratio as what Windows knows your monitor to be, that is going to distort your images.
It would behoove you to set the actual screen resolution to the native resolution of the LCD screen. The reason is that way Windows "knows" exactly where one actual pixel ends and the next starts. Without setting it that way, Windows will "smudge" the image and especially text characters as the pixel on/off would not be where the pixels actually start/stop. In other words, you will notice that the crispness of fonts (fonts show the problem more easily than graphics) will be not as crisp as you should see.
Now I know you have said that having your screen resolution adjusted to 1024x768 (instead of the better native resolution of 1280x1024) and that "This resolution gives me the optimal size for text."
But, please believe me, that is not OPTIMAL. It is only a size that you are more comfortable in reading text at.
There are more, and better ways of adjusting your screen fonts to a more pleasant viewing size, and screwing around with the Windows setting for screen resolution is the least better way to do it!
Not only are you not noticing that the fonts are blurry, but because of the different screen aspect ratios, the images are being distorted.
Here is a better way of adjusting your screens magnification, and keeping everything else in line.
1st) get your Windows screen resolution set to the native resolution of your LCD screen (1280x1024), then
2nd) adjust the magnification of your overall screen with ONE SETTING, by:
a) right-click an empty area on your desktop, and select [Properties]
b) select the "Settings" tab
c) click on the [Advanced] button
d) on what may be called the "General" tab (your driver may call it something else) look for the display's "DPI setting." It will probably already be set to "Normal size, 96 DPI"
e) change that DPI setting to "Large size, 120 DPI" (or Custom setting, if you want to play with other numbers).
That DPI 120 setting should give you nearly identical character magnification that you had before, with NO blurriness, and NO aspect ratio distortion.
It really is best to do it this way.
(Sure, you could play around with the Windows desktop individual font sizes and types to tailor specific area changes, but adjusting the overall screen DPI setting is a one-stop-shopping solution to get all fonts changing in appearance on the screen.)
By the way, adjusting the DPI setting does not usually affect the graphic sizes, since most webpages use the screen pixels of the screen to display graphics. Not all webpages will be like that, but most.
Last point, there is one more setting you could use to really clarify the display of fonts. This does not alter the graphics, at all. That setting is called using "ClearType"
The setting is found at the (right-click an open area of the desktop) Display Properties, click the "Appearance" tab, [Effects] button, and make the setting: "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" to "ClearType"
You can read more about ClearType, the hows and the whys, at:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypeInfo.mspx.
Plus! there is a real nice on-screen ClearType "tuner" there that will allow you to adjust for some slight screen differences that some LCD panels have from the others.