If you are looking for an easy way to adjust monitor brightness, follow this simple trick to change screen brightness in Windows 10 desktop.
On a laptop, it is very easy to control screen brightness. All you have to do is drag the slider in the Notification center. Most laptops even have dedicated buttons or keys to increase or decrease screen brightness.
However, when it comes to the desktops and external monitors, you will not find any options whatsoever within Windows to change monitor brightness. This has more to do with monitor manufactures than Windows.
That being said, there are several ways to change monitor brightness using Windows software. Here are some of those ways you could try.
How to Adjust Brightness on Windows 10 Desktop
To change screen brightness in Windows 10 desktop we are going to use a free and lightweight software called Twinkle Tray.
- Download Twinkle Tray from Github.
- Double-click on the exe file and install it.
- Open the application by searching for "Twinkle Tray" in the Start menu.
- After opening it, it will be available in the taskbar. Click on it.
- As soon as you click, you will see a brightness slider. Drag the slider increase or decrease monitor brightness.
That is it. It is just that simple to adjust monitor brightness without using the monitor buttons.
Optional Twinkle Tray Settings:
If you want to, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to increase or decrease screen brightness. To do that, open the Twinkle Tray slider on the taskbar and click on the "Settings" icon.
Go to the "Hotkeys" tab and assign the keyboard shortcuts as required. In my case, I set Ctrl + F12 to increase brightness and Ctrl + F11 to decrease the brightness on all displays.
You can also configure the app to automatically adjust the brightness based on time. For instance, you might want the monitor to be bright in the day time and dim in the night time. If that's the case, go to the "Time adjustments" tab and click on the "Add a time" button to set the timings.
Alternative Ways to Adjust Brightness
If the above method did not work or if you are looking for an alternative, here are some.
Use Monitor Brightness Buttons
The easiest and sure-fire way is to use the monitor buttons. Usually, most monitors have dedicated Brightness buttons.
On some monitors, the brightness controls might be buried within other menus. For instance, on my Dell monitor, the brightness controls are in the main menu. So, if I want to change the brightness, I need to first open the menu, select the Brightness option, and then change it using the up or down arrow buttons.
Depending on your monitor, the way to change monitor brightness may differ. If you can't find the option within the monitor menu, take a look at the monitor manual. If you are like me and have no idea where you've stored the monitor user manual, don't worry, you can generally find the user manual online.
Just search for "<your monitor model> user manual". Replace "your monitor model" with the actual monitor manufacturer name and model number.
If you are frequently changing the monitor brightness to match the lighting conditions, depending on your monitor you might be able to create dedicated shortcuts within the monitor menu. Again, taking my Dell monitor as an example, it lets me create custom shortcuts so that I can change the brightness with just two button presses.
You might have to dig through the menus or the monitor's user manual to find a way to create custom shortcuts, though.
Use Software from Monitor Manufacturer
In addition to the buttons on your monitor, most monitor manufacturers create and release a companion software that allows you to better manage your monitor.
For instance, Dell has a simple software called Dell Display Manager that lets you do a variety of things like adjusting screen brightness, adjusting screen color depending on the active application, changing resolution, etc. In my case, to change the desktop monitor brightness in Windows, all I have to do is click on the application icon and drag the brightness slider. It's that simple.
Moreover, the good thing about using first-party software is that they may add additional functionality to your monitor that is otherwise unavailable. Not to mention, using proper software eliminates the need to deal with the clunky monitor buttons or terribly designed monitor control menus.
Just go to your monitor manufacturer's official website and look for any available companion software.
I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible. If you like this article, check out how to change wallpaper automatically in Windows 10.
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