LCD display blurred and "watery": how to debug

What windows does or doesn't do is of no value, it is a different OS with different support.

Can you give the output of:

sudo lshw -C display

Thanks

And another thing: Is the display connected to the computer by a DVI or a VGA connector.

With VGA connectors my old LCD monitor did have a way to tell it at which time inside a pixel it has to sample the input signal to get this pixel's color. If the wrong amount of time is chosen here - the monitor might look at its input signal to get the color of the current pixel in between two pixels which makes the image watery in the horizontal direction.

Normally an LCD monitor looks at the video signal it gets from the computer carefully every time it detects the computer uses graphics mode that is new to it - and automatically chooses the right settings. But if the video mode another operating system is using is too similar to that ubuntu uses the monitor might *think* it recognizes the old signal, and not adjust properly to the new one.
But all monitors I know have a way to tell it to automatically readjust to this mode or to change the timing manually or something like that.

Using the DVI connector it doesn't have to decide at which point of time the voltage at its input corresponds to a pixel's color, though: DVI is a digital signal that is much easier to handle. And if a DVI signal is disturbed nonetheless the result *really* looks weird.

AP: output of lshw -C display:

 *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 12
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:33 memory:fb800000-fbbfffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff(prefetchable) ioport:dc00(size=8)

Peter, it's a VGA cable. I'm interested in what you say and I had intended to start using DVI sometime soon: maybe it's now. But the fact that Win displays perfectly has, pace parsnip, surely got to show that the existing monitor at least tolerates the existing cable. They've been in use for a year or so on a different machine, which ran Fedora perfectly.

Thank you for prompt replies ...

Fedora running differently IS of value, it is the same OS, Linux.

try:

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

add this code:

Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier "X.org Configured"
 Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Monitor0"
 VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
 ModelName "Monitor Model"
        HorizSync 30.0 - 80.0
        VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Card0"
 Driver "intel"
 VendorName "Intel Corporation"
 BoardName "Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Screen0"
 Device "Card0"
 Monitor "Monitor0"
 SubSection "Display"
  Viewport 0 0
  Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
  Depth 1
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Viewport 0 0
  Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
  Depth 4
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Viewport 0 0
  Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
  Depth 8
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Viewport 0 0
  Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
  Depth 15
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Viewport 0 0
  Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
  Depth 16
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Viewport 0 0
  Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
  Depth 24
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Save the new file and reboot, may help

Did that; no change, I'm afraid. It's perplexing: everything on the screen looks as if it has an interference fringe round it, slightly smeared out.

I feel that if I'd installed Ubuntu with this monitor in place that the right configuration might have been automatically generated. Is there a way of forcing that part of the install again? I've ordered a DVI-D cable to see if that helps, but the fact that Fedora worked OK with this monitor suggests it won't.

Well, I stand corrected and Peter was right. I swapped to a DVI-D cable and the display is now as sharp as can be. Thank you both very much for your prompt responses and helpful information.