windowed mode problems

I sent a pm about this but it was not answered & I need an answer, so I will post it right here & now:

The good news is my new monitor arrived today. The bad news is, it's a
small 15' one, and I can't make my icon smaller, therefore, I cannot
play my game in windowed mode, and therefore cannot use irc chat! You
don't know how angry that makes me!
I mean I have tried EVERYTHING! I set the resolution to "more", should
I have the color quality on 16 bit or 32 bit? So how do I get my icons
smaller, so that I could once again do irc while playing the game? I
could do it w/ my old monitor when it used to work, but why not this? I
do not get it!!!! I am afraid to fiddle w/ the General tab under
Advanced:

I
don't know how to use that, I am afraid I will mess up my computer!
What do I do? What is the solution? HOW do I make this work?