Window xp homepage is not visible

Hello,
yesterday i was troubleshooting with a window xp. bcuz i wanted to view a movie in window media player. i was able to listen to the movie but i could'nt view the movie, all i was able to see it was a pitch black screen. The instruction given to me from the help and support was to to go control panel under appearance and theme to choose setting tab, properties, advanced and monitor and changed the resolution to 640 to 480 pixel, medium 16 colors. the minute i did that it ask to restart the computer and when the computer log in i was able to see the message window xp and logging and then after all that log in all i am seeing is pitch black as my homepage. i was seeing before all my icon now is nothing. question can i be able to rebooth this computer with a window vista recovery cd.