I need to buy a new monitor, but all I see that supports resolutions above 1024x768 are widescreen monitors.

All widescreen monitors are able to be changed to the 4:3 and 5:4 resolutions and just have the black or gray bars on the sides right?

In a word..."no". LCD monitors will almost always only work correctly in their native resolution. They'll fill the screen in any other resolution, but everything will appear distorted.

I miss the days of trying to fit a 500-pound monitor onto an IKEA desk.

You're probably not in the Greater Toronto Area, so this is likely only of use for the sake of gathering model numbers, but there are fullscreen monitors available. Anything on that page that isn't described as "widescreen" is fullscreen.

I'm glad I didn't go ahead and get the widescreen when I was unsure. Thanks

That store has some great prices. Hopefully I can find that kind of deal at a store in the city.

I can't wait until I get a new monitor. Mine is a probably only a few years old, but it is pretty blurry, especially on the far left side. It's sometimes hard to tell the parentheses from the curly braces, and this is in 800x600 resolution.

You'll benefit so much by having a new monitor, not just on your eyes but on space if you're finally getting rid of your CRT monitor. In regards o the widescreen scenraio I don't know where you've seen those for a 4:3 ratio, should be 16:9 and most of them support a 1280x800 reslution usually.

My laptops widescreen and uses that resolution. I'd recommend having a good browse before buying or upgrading but I'd at least have a look at eBuyer. Always bought my bits of PC kit from there and never been disappointed