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

 

[Marnes]

Unlike everyone else's, mine is stuck in being disabled and I can't get it to turn on. The Sensor service is running and set to automatic, the active power plan has adaptive brightness enabled and the driver Windows needs for this laptop's power features is installed (I can manually dim the screen and such). Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E531. Is this a common thing with a solution I'm just not finding, or is this one of those annoying 1-in-a-billion things that just doesn't happen?

 

[Brink]

Hello Marnes,

Since you have an OEM PC, I'm betting the issue is the Lenovo Power Management program is set to have it disabled and is overriding Windows settings. Double check in your Apps screen for this program, and open it (if there) to see what it may be set at for this setting.

 

[Marnes]

Hello Marnes,

Since you have an OEM PC, I'm betting the issue is the Lenovo Power Management program is set to have it disabled and is overriding Windows settings. Double check in your Apps screen for this program, and open it (if there) to see what it may be set at for this setting.

That's the weird thing, I thought something like that too but it's a driver with no UI of any kind. :/

Edit: ah, wait, that power manager thing has separate driver and UI downloads. I've got the UI too now, but it contains no settings related to adaptive brightness unfortunately.

 

[Brink]

Look for any power saving options, and disable them to see if that was causing it.

 

[Marnes]

Look for any power saving options, and disable them to see if that was causing it.

Everything is set to max performance, I don't use power saving features.

 

[Brink]

In that case, see if uninstalling the Lenovo Power Management may allow your Adaptive Brightness settings to work properly.

 

[Marnes]

In that case, see if uninstalling the Lenovo Power Management may allow your Adaptive Brightness settings to work properly.

If I uninstall the driver, I can't adjust the screen brightness anymore. I've already removed the GUI program again.

 

[Brink]

Since you have Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics, check OPTION FOUR to see if that may be it.

 

[Marnes]

Since you have Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics, check OPTION FOUR to see if that may be it.

My control panel looks quite different and doesn't have quite the same options, but I'll try messing around with them again.

It'd be great if manufacturers like Intel started making better software (I'm not happy about their drivers at all) and stopped obfuscating everything. "Display power saving" for example can mean anything. All because they try to make everything available to people who can't handle any of it and therefore need that obfuscation. Obfuscating everything into meaningless terms doesn't even help either end of the spectrum of users, it just confuses everyone even more. They should just be straight forward about everything,

I'm trying different combos of the settings, switching between cable and battery, darkening and lighting the room, but I'm not seeing anything happen at all.


Edit: these are my power options:

 

[Brink]

Disable the "Display Power Saving Technology" setting for both "Plugged In" and "On Battery".

 

[Marnes]

Disable the "Display Power Saving Technology" setting for both "Plugged In" and "On Battery".

"Plugged in" has no settings at all, even if I select a different mode for it.

Still no change in any situation.

Maybe my screen just doesn't have such a sensor after all but Windows thinks it does? I wouldn't know where they put it if it is there, it's not the webcam and the only other thing I see on my screen is the mic.

Edit: I just noticed the sensor monitoring service tends to die after a while. That kinda seems to hint at a lack of sensors too.

 

[Brink]

You might see if this below may be a workaround.

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

 

[Marnes]

Did a couple of posts just disappear?

Anyway, no, dimming the display after x time doesn't do what I need. :/ I feel like I should just drop the idea since clearly something isn't working.

 

[Brink]

Yeah, I removed them to not confuse others with them.

I'm thinking it may be a missing driver that's not allowing it to work properly.

Here's your drivers download page at Lenovo. It may be the "ThinkPad Monitor INF File" driver.

Laptops and netbooks :: ThinkPad Edge laptops :: ThinkPad Edge E531 - Lenovo Support (US)

 

[Marnes]

Yeah, I removed them to not confuse others with them.

I'm thinking it may be a missing driver that's not allowing it to work properly.

Here's your drivers download page at Lenovo. It may be the "ThinkPad Monitor INF File" driver.

Laptops and netbooks :: ThinkPad Edge laptops :: ThinkPad Edge E531 - Lenovo Support (US)

Windows says it's the same as what's currently installed.

Thanks for the help so far by the way.

 

[Brink]

Hmm, I must admit that I'm stumped as well.

 

[grassby13]

I have a dell alienware 13 and im having the issue even after disabling everything. Though this brightness thing online happens when im playing a game called "evolve". Any help would be very good. Thanks!

 

[cwnetwork]

Why is not "Adjust my screen brightness automatically" on my laptop ASUS X555. OS is Windows 8.1.



like on photo ↓↓↓


How to fix this ?

 

[Brink]

Hello cwnetwork,

I'm not sure why, but are you able to change your adaptive brightness settings using one of the other options in the tutorial?

 

[yodarulez]

Thanks, I found this post useful...and this is my first post