Windows 7 has a ring of unused pixels

I just installed windows 7 yesterday. It feels great -- but there are a few problems I'm having. One of those is this odd little ring of unused pixels surrounding my screen.

I use a CRT monitor. Because of this, i can see the area where there are pixels and where there's just "the darkness of space." (I'm using layman's terms, i know, but i don't know how else to describe it.) Between "the darkness of space" and my windows 7 desktop, there's a darkened ring of about twenty pixels.

Now, i would resize my monitor, but two things are preventing me from doing that.
1. The general pixels size on my monitor would become larger from moving unused pixels off of the screen.
2. My windows XP installation uses all the available pixels on my screen, and resizing it would (probably) screw up my windows XP screen.

Is there a tweak of some sort to get windows 7 to use all the pixels available to it, or is this a problem what lies in my graphics card or drivers?

Intel Pentium 4, 2.66ghz
Nvidia 7300GT
CRT monitor, hp Pavilion mx70
1024 x 768 resolution

Did you install nVidia's up-to-date graphic drivers? It would be my first bet.

Actually, the problem occurred specifically with the new drivers. I found a solution, though. I fumbled around for an hour until i found that if i resett the refresh rate on my monitor, it fixes the problem.

My guess is you've got your XP and 7 refresh rates different (say 60hz and 72)

Whatever you choose to make them, just keep them the same and you shouldn't have any problems. Just don't exceed the refresh limits of your monitor.

It's the image scaling options in your video card's control panel.

At least it is for AMD/ATi cards.
See attachment.

0% is full screen scaling (no ring of unused pixels).