8 ways to adjust the brightness in Windows 11

One of the things every computer user does relatively regularly is to adjust the brightness of the screen. That’s true for Windows 11 users, too, as many want to either increase brightness on their laptop to see better in bright light or reduce brightness to lessen the burden on their eyes during the night. Regardless of your reasons, here are eight different methods to change brightness on Windows 11 computers, laptops, and tablets:

Contents

1. 1. How to adjust brightness in Windows 11: What’s the brightness shortcut key?
2. 2. How to change the brightness in Windows 11 using the physical buttons found on your monitor
3. 3. How to adjust the brightness in Windows 11 from the quick settings
4. 4. How to increase or decrease the brightness in Windows 11 from the Settings app
5. 5. How to change the brightness in Windows 11 using the Windows Mobility Center
6. 6. How to increase or reduce the brightness in Windows 11 from PowerShell or Terminal
7. 7. How to adjust the brightness in Windows 11 by enabling Battery saver
8. 8. How to change the brightness in Windows 11 by switching the Power mode of your laptop or tablet
9. How do you change the brightness on your Windows 11 PC, laptop, or tablet?

1. How to adjust brightness in Windows 11: What’s the brightness shortcut key?

The easiest and fastest way to reduce brightness in Windows 11 or increase it is to use a keyboard shortcut key. Of course, this can be one key only, but usually, on most laptops, it’s a combination of two keys that you need to press simultaneously in order to change brightness. For example, on our ASUS ROG Strix G17 G713, we have to press Fn + F7 to reduce brightness in Windows 11 or Fn + F8 to increase the brightness of the laptop’s screen.

How to adjust brightness on an ASUS ROG Strix G17 G713

On another laptop we have, an HP Spectre 13t, we can use the F2 and F3 keys to adjust the brightness in Windows 11.

How to adjust brightness on an HP Spectre 13t

If you use a Surface Pro device equipped with a type cover, you can use the brightness shortcut key Fn + Del to increase it or Fn + Backspace to reduce brightness.

How to adjust the brightness on a Surface Pro tablet

Different laptops and tablets from different manufacturers use other brightness shortcut keys. The idea is that you need to look on your device’s keyboard for the two keys that have a brightness character printed or etched on them.

Unfortunately, you don’t get such keys on desktop keyboards, as each monitor has its own brightness settings. Read the next chapter of this tutorial to see how to change the brightness on a standalone monitor.

2. How to change the brightness in Windows 11 using the physical buttons found on your monitor

Many monitors have built-in physical buttons that allow you to reduce or increase their brightness, contrast, colors, and other settings. You can usually find these buttons on your monitor’s bottom front, sides, or back. However, if you can’t find the brightness buttons, your monitor might require you to navigate its settings to find the brightness controls. If that’s the case, either browse your monitor’s settings menu until you find them or check its user manual to find out where they are placed.

For example, on an ASUS ROG Strix XG32VQ monitor, changing its brightness requires using its joystick to navigate to the Color > Brightness menu, like in the picture below.

How to adjust brightness using the monitor buttons

3. How to adjust the brightness in Windows 11 from the quick settings

Windows 11’s quick settings allow you to easily change the brightness of your laptop or tablet. To do so, start by clicking or tapping on one of the system icons (Wi-Fi, Volume, Battery) from the system tray. Alternatively, you can also use the Win + A keyboard shortcut.

Open Windows 11's quick settings

This opens Windows 11’s quick settings panel where, among other things, you can also find a brightness slider towards its bottom. Drag the slider to the left to reduce brightness in Windows 11 or to the right to increase the brightness of your laptop or tablet.

The brightness slider from Windows 11's quick settings

4. How to increase or decrease the brightness in Windows 11 from the Settings app

Another way to adjust brightness in Windows 11, although slightly more time-consuming, is available in the Settings app. Open Settings (Windows + I) and, on the System page, click or tap on Display.

Navigate to Windows 11's Settings > System > Display

On the Display page, use the Brightness slider under “Brightness & color” to “Adjust the brightness of the built-in display.” Drag the cursor to the right to increase the brightness of your laptop’s screen, or drag it to the left to reduce brightness in Windows 11.

How to adjust brightness from Windows 11's Settings

TIP: If your Windows 11 laptop or tablet also has light sensors, you might get an additional option here, letting you automatically adjust brightness depending on how bright or dim your environment is.

5. How to change the brightness in Windows 11 using the Windows Mobility Center

Although it’s an old tool coming from earlier versions of Windows, you can also use the Windows Mobility Center to adjust the brightness in Windows 11. First, find the Windows Mobility Center by searching for it: type mobility in Windows 11’s search, and then click or tap on the appropriate result.

Open the Windows Mobility Center in Windows 11

Then, in Windows Mobility Center, use the Display brightness slider to reduce or increase the brightness of your laptop.

Using the Windows Mobility Center to adjust the brightness in Windows 11

6. How to increase or reduce the brightness in Windows 11 from PowerShell or Terminal

This method is for all the command-line aficionados. First, fire up Windows 11’s Terminal or PowerShell. Then, type or copy & paste the following command:

(Get-WmiObject -Namespace root/WMI -Class WmiMonitorBrightnessMethods).WmiSetBrightness(1,brightnesslevel)

Before hitting Enter on your keyboard, make sure you replace brightnesslevel with the percentage value you want for your display’s brightness. For example, if you want to change the brightness to 70%, run:

(Get-WmiObject -Namespace root/WMI -Class WmiMonitorBrightnessMethods).WmiSetBrightness(1,70)

How to adjust the brightness in Windows 11 from Terminal or PowerShell

The brightness is then instantly set by Windows 11 according to the percentage you specified.

7. How to adjust the brightness in Windows 11 by enabling Battery saver

One of the main energy-saving options of any laptop, tablet, or mobile device is the decrease in screen brightness. And, the fastest way to save energy on a Windows 11 device is to enable the Battery saver operating mode. You can easily find it in the quick settings panel, which you open by clicking or tapping on one of the system icons from the right side of the taskbar or by pressing Win + A on your keyboard. Then, click or tap the Battery saver button.

The Battery saver button from Windows 11

As Windows 11 is configured to reduce the brightness by default when the Battery saver is on, you should immediately see how your screen dims.

8. How to change the brightness in Windows 11 by switching the Power mode of your laptop or tablet

Another useful way of saving energy, especially when on a laptop or tablet that runs on battery, is to change its power mode. The most energy-consuming power mode in Windows 11 is the Best performance mode. However, the more energy-saving Best power efficiency power mode helps your device stay on longer even if it runs on batteries. And, some of the things it can do is automatically lower brightness and enable Battery saver when a certain threshold is reached, like when your battery has only 20% left.

So, an excellent way to reduce brightness in Windows 11 is to enable a more energy-efficient power mode. To get to the power modes quickly, right-click or press and hold on the battery icon from the system tray, and click/tap on “Power and sleep settings.”

Opening Power and sleep settings in Windows 11

The previous action opens the Settings app and takes you to the System > Power & battery page. There, select “Best power efficiency” from the dropdown list next to Power mode.

Changing the power mode of Windows 11

That’s it!

How do you change the brightness on your Windows 11 PC, laptop, or tablet?

Now you know not only one or two but eight different methods to adjust brightness on your Windows 11 computer or device. Are there any others that we missed? Do you have a favorite way to increase or reduce the brightness on your laptop? Let us know in the comments section below.