You will have to change the screen brightness to match the surrounding light environment. If you work in low light conditions, you will have to reduce the brightness of your computer or laptop screen to match the surrounding darkness.
At the same time, reducing screen brightness will also help save laptop battery and extend usage time. Reducing screen brightness will also help you reduce eye strain.
WebTech360 will help you with many ways to reduce screen brightness on desktop computers (PC) and increase laptop screen brightness.
In addition, if you are using a Windows 7 computer, and you want to adjust the computer screen brightness to protect your eyes and extend the laptop battery life, you can refer to the steps here.
Table of Contents
On a desktop computer (PC), you will not have function keys like on a laptop. You can only use function keys on keyboards that support function keys to increase or decrease brightness, which is usually very rare.
So usually you will have to adjust the screen brightness by using the hardware keys on the screen to increase or decrease the brightness. Or choose to change the screen brightness using Settings, select Search > Display Settings.
In the Display Settings window, you will see a slider at the very first item called Brightness and color , you just need to drag this slider to change the brightness of your screen.
Even though you can change the screen brightness without using the hardware keys on the computer screen, you still have to go through more steps than reducing the screen brightness on a laptop.
Although the hardware keys on the computer screen can be changed, the options will only lead to the Brightness item on the screen. You just need to select the up and down keys to move the selection to the Color > Brightness option to increase or decrease the brightness as desired.
Most Brightness options will be under Color and you should look there, some other monitor brands will have an icon with a .JPG file illustration.
Some high-end monitors will have a dedicated button to adjust brightness (on the front or side of the monitor). If your PC monitor doesn't have this button, try pressing the buttons and looking in each menu. Consult your monitor's manual for a quicker search.
1. f.lux:
The f.lux software is free, it helps you adjust the brightness on your screen and even automatically adjusts the brightness and color temperature of your screen according to the time of day to protect your eyes.
Download at: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n9kdphv91jt?hl=en-US&gl=US
2. Iris:
Similar to f.lux, Iris will offer more customization for users, including the ability to schedule brightness changes on the screen. Iris will have two versions, a free version with limited features, and a paid version with full features.
3. Gamma Panel:
Gamma Panel allows you to easily adjust the brightness, contrast, and gamma of your monitor. This software also helps you improve the visibility of text and images by adjusting brightness and contrast. Adjust gamma to help reduce eye strain when using the computer for long periods of time.
4. ClickMonitorDDC:
ClickMonitorDDC is a free and lightweight software that allows you to adjust various settings on your monitor directly from your computer. This includes controlling the screen brightness through software manipulation or you can also edit it by assigning a hotkey.
You can also adjust the contrast to help the image display more accurate colors, along with editing the color temperature to increase the overall color accuracy of the screen, color modes are also available for you to choose from.
Most laptop keyboards have brightness keys that allow you to quickly increase or decrease the brightness of your screen. These keys are usually located along with the F keys – F1 through F12 – or within the left and right arrow keys. To adjust your screen brightness, look for the corresponding icon – usually a sun or something similar – and press the keys.
These are usually function keys, meaning you have to press and hold the Fn key on your keyboard, usually located near the bottom left corner of the keyboard, at the same time while you press them.
If your laptop does not have a separate brightness key, see the following ways to adjust screen brightness.
Step 1: Click the Action Center icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to open it.
Step 2: On the Action Center control panel, click on the brightness tile as shown below to increase or decrease the screen brightness. If you do not see the brightness tile, click on the Expand button .
With recent versions of Windows 10 , the screen brightness slider in Action Center is located just below the features, usually at the bottom. Drag the slider to the left to decrease the screen brightness, and drag it to the right to increase the screen brightness.
Press the Windows+ key Ito open Settings and go to System > Display . Under Brightness and color , use the Change brightness slider . Moving it to the left will make the screen darker, while moving it to the right will make the screen brighter.
If the slider is not available, there are two cases. If you are using an external monitor, use the buttons on it to change the brightness. Otherwise, you need to update your display driver.
To do this, press the Windows+ key Xand click Device Manager . Expand Display adapters and then right-click your graphics card. Click Update driver and follow the wizard.
You can have different brightness levels depending on whether your computer is charging or running low on battery. To save battery power, set the brightness level to a dimmer when your computer is not plugged in.
To do this, press the Windows+ key Rto open Run , type control panel , and press OK. Go to Hardware and Sound > Power Options and click Change plan settings next to the one you selected.
Use the Adjust plan brightness slider to set the On battery and Plugged in levels . Once done, click Save changes.
In addition to the above ways to change screen brightness, you can also change this feature through Windows Mobility Center.
Step 1: Go to the search bar on windows and search for the keyword Mobility Center.
Step 2: Click to select and open Windows Mobility Center.
Step 3: Adjust the screen brightness with the slider in the Display brightness section on the window that appears.
Reducing brightness can help extend battery life. Windows 10 has a battery saver feature that automatically reduces brightness when turned on.
To enable this feature, press the Windows+ key Ito open Settings and go to System > Battery , scroll down to Battery saver settings .
Check Turn battery saver on automatically if my battery falls below and use the slider to adjust the battery percentage level you want the feature to turn on automatically.
Finally, check Lower screen brightness while in battery saver .
Ideally, your screen brightness should match the ambient light. One way to ensure this is to have the brightness automatically change based on the ambient light.
This feature is only enabled if your device has a brightness sensor. To enable it, press the Windows+ key Ito open Settings and go to System > Display . If you see Change brightness automatically when lighting changes , toggle it to On. If you can't see this option, you don't have a sensor.
An even better way to adjust this is through the Control Panel as you can set it depending on your power plan. Refer to section 4 for how to do this.
Here are two quick shortcuts to adjust brightness settings:
Windows+ key A). Use the brightness slider to adjust. The further to the right, the brighter the screen.If you don't see the icon, press the Windows+ key I, go to System > Notifications & actions > Edit your quick actions and click Add > Brightness > Done .
Go to the project on GitHub , download the file and open it. It will automatically go into the system tray. If you want it to stay there, right-click the icon and select Run At Startup .
You can also use the all-powerful PowerShell to change your screen brightness in Windows 10. Open PowerShell by typing “powershell” into the taskbar search field, then clicking Windows PowerShell.
To change the brightness, enter the following command:
(Get-WmiObject -Namespace root/WMI -Class WmiMonitorBrightnessMethods).WmiSetBrightness(1,**brightnesslevel)Replace brightnesslevel with the percentage (%) value you want for your screen brightness, from 0 to 100. For example, to set the brightness to 70%, enter the following command:
(Get-WmiObject -Namespace root/WMI -Class WmiMonitorBrightnessMethods).WmiSetBrightness(1,70)
As soon as you press Enter , the brightness will be adjusted to your preference.
You can set different screen brightness levels on your laptop or tablet based on whether you're plugged in or not. For example, you can set it to a high brightness level when you're plugged in and a lower brightness level when you're on battery. Windows will then automatically adjust your brightness.
To adjust brightness this way, open Control Panel . Select Hardware and Sound > Power Options and click the “Change plan settings” link next to the power plan you’re using. You’re probably using a Balanced power plan .
Configure different screen brightness levels for “On battery” and “Plugged in” in “Adjust plan brightness” . This setting is tied to your power plan. You can configure different screen brightness levels for different power plans and switch between them, if you want (although this isn’t really necessary).
You can also automatically adjust your display's backlight based on how much battery your laptop or tablet has left. On Windows 10, you can use the Battery Saver feature to do this. Open the Settings app , select System > Battery .
Make sure the “Lower screen brightness while in battery saver” option is turned on, then select the percentage you want Battery Saver to use. When Battery Saver activates at that level, it will dim the backlight and save you power. By default, Battery Saver will kick in when you have 20% battery left.
Unfortunately, there's no way to adjust the exact brightness level that Battery Saver will choose. You can also manually enable it from the battery icon.
Many modern laptops and tablets have an ambient brightness sensor, which works similarly to the sensors found on smartphones and tablets. Windows can use this sensor to automatically increase screen brightness when you’re in a bright area and decrease brightness when you’re in a dark room.
This is convenient, but some people find it annoying. It can automatically dim or brighten your screen when you don't want it to, but you may want to manage brightness manually with the settings above.
To enable or disable this feature on Windows 10, open the Settings app , select System > Display . Turn on or off the “Change brightness automatically when lighting changes” option . You’ll only see this option if your device has an ambient brightness sensor.
You can also change this setting through the Control Panel. Open the Control Panel , select Hardware and sound > Power Options , click Change plan settings next to the power plan you're using, and click Change advanced power settings .
Expand the Display section here, then expand the Enable adaptive brightness section . The options here let you control whether adaptive brightness is used when you're on battery or plugged in. For example, you can turn it off when you're plugged in and turn it on when you're on battery.
If your computer has a video card, you will have another way to adjust the screen brightness. With this method, you use the video card control software to adjust your screen to be bright or dark. Depending on the type of video card you use, there will be different software.
With NVIDIA graphics cards, you will have NVIDIA Control Panel or GeForce Experience software. Meanwhile, with AMD graphics cards, you will have AMD Radeon Software or Catalyst Control Center software.
Each software will have a different interface, but you just need to find the adjustment section with Brightness and make changes to your liking.
Besides the methods available on your computer, you can also use third-party software to adjust the brightness of your computer screen. Screen brightness adjustment software is often designed so that you can easily adjust, create shortcuts...
You can refer to one of the following software:
Twinkle Tray allows you to easily manage the brightness levels of multiple displays. While Windows 10 & 11 have the ability to adjust the backlight on most displays, it typically doesn’t support external displays. Windows also lacks the ability to manage the brightness of multiple displays.
The app adds a new icon to your system tray that you can click to instantly access the brightness levels of all compatible displays. These brightness sliders can adjust one or all of your displays at once.
Twinkle Tray will automatically adjust its appearance to match your Windows version and color preferences. Additional options are available to choose the style and theme of your Windows version of choice.
Twinkle Tray offers a wide range of options and features to suit your preferences. All of them are 100% free. Notable features of this tool include:
Twinkle Tray uses DDC/CI and WMI to communicate with your display. Make sure you have the appropriate option(s) enabled on your display for it to work with Twinkle Tray. Twinkle Tray is available for download from the Microsoft Store or as an installer from GitHub (recommended).
Desktop Lighter is a software package that allows users to easily adjust the brightness of their computer screen. This tool can be useful in low-light situations or when a screen that is too bright can be distracting to others. It is also a great idea when reading large blocks of text, as your eyes can get tired. The program is completely free to download.
One of the main benefits of Desktop Lighter is that you don’t have to go into the Control Panel to manually adjust your screen brightness. An icon will be found in the toolbar at the bottom of the page. Clicking on this icon will open a window that shows a slider. Users will simply move this bar left or right to adjust the screen brightness.
Desktop Lighter offers two additional options. It can be pre-set to work with a hotkey. Another option is to enlarge the entire window for better readability. Many believe this was created for people with visual impairments. The package is freeware, so you don’t have to pay anything to download and install it.
Most of these software are very easy to use, you just need to download, unzip (if it is a compressed file), then run the installation file (usually .exe). After installation, you can immediately adjust the brightness of your computer screen.
Computer brightness issues are often related to display drivers and other power settings that you may or may not know about.
If Windows won't let you adjust the brightness on your PC or laptop, these are the first two areas to check besides trying the usual common fixes like restarting your computer or updating Windows .
While updating Windows will help install the latest driver that may be pending, there are also other solutions you can try to see if that helps you regain control over your screen brightness.
Refer to the article: Fix the error of not being able to adjust screen brightness on Windows 10 for more details.
Why is my laptop screen so dark?
Anything from a faulty display driver to a faulty monitor can be the cause of a dim, dim screen. However, the most common reason is an incorrect display brightness setting in Windows 10. But before you start increasing your screen brightness, take a look at the ambient light and any sources of glare (sunlight is the main source of ambient light during the day).
Try changing your position to test the impact of ambient light on your screen. Additionally, anti-IR/anti-UV films may reduce brightness by creating color.
Is low computer brightness better for your eyes?
As a simple rule of thumb, remember that the brightness of your device should be equivalent to the light around you, so that the brightness of both light sources is similar. This will blend them together and cause the least harm to your eyes.
In particular, when using a monitor for work, you will often compare paper documents with documents on the screen, so by adjusting the brightness of the screen to the brightness of the paper under the light, you will reduce eye strain, making this an effective measure against eye strain.
What is the best brightness for a computer?
For most situations – like typical office conditions – setting the brightness to 60 is fine. However, you can adjust the brightness lower if it's getting dark outside, or increase it if it's too bright outside – for example, if you're working outside in the summer or in a really well-lit room.
On a laptop, what percentage of brightness is best for the eyes?
Most people are comfortable with a contrast set between 60 and 70%. Once you have the contrast at the right point, you can move on to the brightness setting. The goal here is to have the light coming from your monitor be similar to the light in your workspace.
How to increase screen brightness on Mac laptop?
To adjust your MacBook's screen brightness, go to the Apple menu and choose System Preferences > Displays , then click Display , and use the brightness slider to adjust your screen brightness.
How to reduce screen brightness further on laptop?
To lower the brightness setting below the lowest setting on your laptop, you’ll need a third-party app, such as Dimmer, PangoBright, or CareUEyes. These programs are useful if even the lowest brightness setting is causing you eye strain.
How to fix screen too dark even though brightness setting is high?
If your screen is too dark, even at maximum brightness, there are a few troubleshooting steps to try. Try uninstalling and reinstalling your display driver: Go to Device Manager , select Display driver , right-click your driver name (e.g. Nvidia), select Uninstall and follow the prompts. Restart your computer to reinstall the driver. Another option is to update your system's BIOS .
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