Everytime I try to do something that involves using the pointer on my laptop the screen zooms in to the point where the text is too small for me to continue working. I use Ctrl-0 or select zoom from the menu and zoom back out to 100%. This happens over and over again. I can't do anything with my new computer - surf the web, check e-mail, create/edit documents because I am continually shifted to new screen resolution that is impossible to read.

Your touchpad is probably a multi-touch touchpad that is capable of detecting more than one finger at a time. In fact most newer laptops have that these days. If it's too sensitive, it might detect presses when you aren't even touching it. Sometimes my palms are seen as two fingers and activate this "pinch to zoom" function.

Unfortunately this is not a control of Windows. The hardware manufacturer that builds the touchpads supplies the software that runs it (the driver). Some touchpad creators (like the Synaptics company) have really robust software that includes a control panel to adjust it in many ways, including this sensitivity and even some features like a Palm Check that tries to detect when it's not an intentional touch.

You'll have to talk to whomever built your PC or refer to the manual though because every company does it different. If you can post your PC name and model number here, I can try to look it up for you as well.