Adaptive Brightness - Turn On or Off in Windows 8

How to Turn On or Off Adaptive Brightness in Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

This will show you how to turn adaptive brightness on or off to have Windows 8 use a light sensor (usually built into the display) to automatically adjust the screen brightness to match the lighting conditions in your PC's surroundings.

To determine if your laptop or computer monitor supports adaptive brightness, look for the Enable adaptive brightness setting in Power Options in the steps below. If the Enable adaptive brightness setting is not available, then it doesn't support adaptive brightness.

This will affect all users on the computer that use the same power plan that you have this set for.

OPTION ONE

To Turn Adaptive Brightness On or Off in Power Options

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1. Open the Advanced Power Settings for your power plan.​

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2. Expand Display and Enable display brightness, then set adaptive brightness to be turned on or off for when your computer is On battery and Plugged in. (see screenshot below)​

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3. When finished, click/tap on OK, and close the Power Options window. (see screenshot above)​

OPTION TWO

To Turn Adaptive Brightness On or Off in PC Settings in Windows 8.1

   Note

This option will turn on or off both the On battery and Plugged in settings for your power plan in OPTION ONE above.

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1. Open PC settings, and click/tap on PC and devices on the left side. (see screenshot below)​

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2. Click/tap on Power and sleep on the left side, and turn on or off Adjust my screen brightness automatically on the right side under Brightness. (see screenshot below)​

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OPTION THREE

To Enable or Disable Adaptive Brightness in Services

NOTE: This option should really on be used if OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO above did not work for you.

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1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type services.msc, and press Enter.​

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2. Do step 3 or 4 below for what you would like to do.​

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3. To Enable Adaptive Brightness​

NOTE: This is the default setting.​

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A) Enable the Sensor Monitoring Service, and set it as Manual (Trigger Start).​

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4. To Disable Adaptive Brightness​

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A) Stop (if running) and disable the Sensor Monitoring Service.​

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5. You can now close Services if you like.​

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OPTION FOUR

Enable or Disable Adaptive Brightness in Intel Graphics Control Panel

NOTE: This option is only if you are using Intel HD graphics on your PC. You may need to do it in addition to the options above. If you are using NVIDIA or AMD graphics instead, then this does not apply to you.

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1. Open the Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel.​

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2. Click/tap the Power icon, and do step 3 or 4 below for what you would like to do.​

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3. To Enable Adaptive Brightness​

NOTE: This is the default setting.​

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A) Check or turn on the Display Power Saving Technology box for both On battery and Plugged in, and click/tap on OK or Apply.​

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4. To Disable Adaptive Brightness​

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A) Uncheck or turn off the Display Power Saving Technology box for both On battery and Plugged in, and click/tap on OK or Apply.​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Create a Power and Sleep PC Settings Shortcut in Windows 8.1
• How to Adjust the Display Screen Brightness in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Turn On or Off Automatic Dim Display Brightness in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Add or Remove "Dim display after" in Power Options in Windows
• How to Change Power Plan Settings in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Set to Turn Off the Display after Specified Time in Windows

 

[karatekirk]

See if doing a clean startup to troubleshoot may help ID what may be causing this.

How to perform a clean boot to troubleshoot a problem in Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8

Thanks for the help Brink.. I was hoping this would help me eliminate background apps as an issue. No go though. I am still experiencing the dimming/brightening display. I noticed that my post screen is full brightness and when it goes to the Windows petals/loading, the screen brightness reduces drastically. As soon as I log in and it goes to my desktop, the brightness returns to normal, until I do anything that shows a darker image like a game or a dark webpage.. Whatever is happening is actually dimming the display because everything, taskbar, text, buttons and even mouse cursor dim..

Again, this doesn't happen in Windows 7. So, confused and annoyed.. :\

 

[kodiak]

This are the new settings since the other did not work

 

[Brink]

Kodiak and Kirk,

As a test, uninstall your display drivers to see if they may be at issue here.

 

[karatekirk]

Tried that already. uninstalled and still dimmed my display using the Windows generic video. Installed new drivers from safe mode and normal boot. Installed newest drivers from ATI website, newest drivers from ASUS website, 2 other beta drivers and the standard Windows 8 drivers. Ran ATI driver cleaner between each install then eventually used most recent Catalyst. Doesn't affect it in the least.

Trying to play Tomb Raider right now... I want to cry every time I go into a text screen... Everything works great except for this dimming issue. Even effects it in movies like on Netflix..

 

[Brink]

I'm afraid that I'm not sure what may be causing this.

 

[Tess]

Can't keep display brightness from dimming

I followed your advice and went into advanced settings and display but didn't have an enable adaptive brightness section so couldn't follow the advice through
Any ideas?
The dimming screen is driving me nuts!

 

[Brink]

Hello Tess, and welcome to Eight Forums.

In that case, you might check using the tutorial below to make sure that the dim settings is set to "Never" to see if that may be the culprit instead.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/21702-dim-display-automatically-turn-off-windows-8-a.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Ambassador351]

Thanks

 

[oliverjohn]

Hi, please help... the auto dim feature is driving me nuts. Sat in the garden in the sun trying to do some work yesterday and the screen literally dimmed every few seconds. So annoying. I've followed all the steps outlined, but no success.

Steps I've taken:

- In the edit settings screen 'dim display' is set to never (both for on battery and plugged in)
- In the list of services, sensor monitoring has been disabled
- Don't have the adaptive brightness setting in the advanced settings screen so couldn't change that

What else can I do?

 

[Brink]

Hello Oliver, and welcome to Eight Forums.

In your Dimmed display brightness setting in your power plan settings, check to make sure that both "On battery" and "Plugged in" are set to the same "display brightness" percentage. This way when it dims, it'll be the same percentage so you will not see a change.

 

[oliverjohn]

Thanks - already done that & it made no difference. It dims to literally 10%, even though settings are specified as 100%. Also doesn't explain why it dims in the first place given that I've disabled these services?

 

[Brink]

Oliver,

If you have a store bought PC like Dell, check to see if it may have any proprietary software installed that is controlling the settings for this instead.

 

[sygnus21]

LOL - I just found this feature on my laptop. Was wondering why my screen seemed a little dim. Turned off Adaptive brightness and nearly went blind due to the instant brightening of the screen

I knew I had a camera but I thought I disabled auto dimming feature when I neglected to install the Asus Power4Gear software when I did a clean install of 8.1. Never even thought about looking for this feature.

Now I just have to re-run my color management software again to re-calibrate the display.

Thanks for the tut

BTW can I lock out adjusting the display brightness once set. Sometime I accidentally hit the brightness keys on the keyboard when searching for function keys.

Again, thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hey Drew,

Not sure about the brightness keys, but you might see if you may be able to remap them, or turn them off if the OEM has software included to do so.

 

[sygnus21]

Yeah I may revisit the Power4Gear software at a later date to see if it allows me to disable those keys.

Thanks Shawn

 

[Brink]

Anytime.

 

[Talmarsh]

OMG It's back on windows 8.1

EDIT:
SO I found a fix

Intel HD Graphics Control Panel > Power > On battery > Display Power Saving Technology <off>

 

[nomadgamer13]

Thanks Brink!

 

[Brink]

OMG It's back on windows 8.1

EDIT:
SO I found a fix

Intel HD Graphics Control Panel > Power > On battery > Display Power Saving Technology <off>

Thank you Talmarsh. Added as Option Three for all those folks with Intel HD graphics.

 

[xraiderv1]

and now I know why my display dims that tiny bit when on battery even with the windows options set to maximum. thanks mate!