Change screen colour?

Every monitor should have colour controls, much like a television has. It's just a matter of working out the buttons for the particular monitor.

Wilso, I've got controls for vertica/horizontal etc. and a control for lighter/darker but lighter or darker the colour is still "washed out"

Colour, brightness, contrast. For the most part these should take care of it, unless there's something wrong with the monitor. Some monitors can be quite difficult to work out exactly how the controls work, but as Monger said, it doesn't seem like you should be messing with the software.

I did have a monitor (at work) that had trouble with the colour because because one of the pins on the plug was bent over. You may want to check that.