Recently, possibly following updates from Microsoft, the size, or rather the shape of my folders has become more oblong.
A good example is the Control Panel (in category view) of Network and Internet Connections. Everything used to fit in the folder view, now it opens with a slider down the right side.
Has this happened to anyone else? Is there a way to set the display size in some options panel?

It sounds as if your resolution settings have changed. What are they set at? Do images and text look distorted too?

Tell us about your hardware and version of Windows.

Resolution is 1024x768, and this has not been changed since Windows re installation in early Feb.
My monitor is a Samsung flat panel (not widescreen), other hardware, CPU is Pentium D925) 3.0Gb, RAM 1Gb, sound card is Realtek High Definition Audio (is this AC 97 compatible? Off topic but I need to know this). Motherboard is Gigabyte-81945GZME-RH. How much other info do you need?
Oh yeah, Windows is XP SP 3

Do images and text look distorted too?

Nope all these look normal, sorry, not at my best communication wise this evening.

Can you provide a screen shot?

Have you scanned for malware?

A screenshot, I'll try ...
Cut and paste does not work, do I have to do this via a third party URL like Photobucket?

Either that or go to an advanced reply box and use "manage attachments" and attach it.

Here is a screen shot of the dialog box from Control Panel. You can see the slider on the right hand side which is a result of the resizing of how my folders are now opening.

And here is what mine looks like:

So is this just some "new" look for Windows?