Any lightweight alternatives for brightness control for Z12?

Hi,

I've got a Vaio Z122GX and I have 2 weeks to return it.

I really like the hardware, but I am looking to see if I can get the OS to run on it the way I like.

I'd really like to have a fresh, clean install of Windows without Sony's numerous bloatware-like Utilities/Control Center.

That works great, except of course it doesn't let me control the screen brightness.

Does anyone know any lightweight alternatives to Sony's utilities, something that would allow one to adjust the screen brightness?

Thanks.

P.S. In the past, my Acer netbooks supported Brightness Adjustment via Fn key shortcuts without the need for any utilities. It was just a standard way of doing it through BIOS. I'd really like to have the same situation with the Z12.

 

Perhaps I'm betraying my ignorance here, but there are Fn keys for controlling the brightness on the Z. I'm assuming then that when you've removed Sony's utilities, that the Fn keys no longer work for controlling brightness?

 

That is correct.

That's why I'm looking for a lightweight way to get them to work, or a simple utility that would allow me to adjust the brightness in any way. As it is now, I would have absolutely no way to adjust it after a clean install.

 

Sony's implementation of Fn key control is not through BIOS, but based upon a combination of a hardware driver (SFEP driver) and software (Sony shared library and Vaio event service).

 

You can adjust LCD brightness with Win+X, Tab.

 

If you're referring to the Windows Mobility Center on Windows 7, then that won't work. At least not with a clean Windows 7 install.

Display Brightness is simply not listed there, nor anywhere else in any of the power settings.

 

Aren't we at the point where notebooks like the Z12 are fast and powerful enough that we can live with the very slight size and performance hit that comes with using the VAIO software? It can't be using that much in the way of resources, and it seems like these programs are useful.

To me, doing a total wipe AND fresh windows install AND driver setup AND settings configuration... wow, it seems like a LOT of pain (time/effort/risk) for not much gain (small performance improvement and small increase in hard disk free space).

For my Z12 that they're building now, I'll definitely get rid of Office 2010 starter and the Norton trial, since I am not planning on using them. Other than that, I'll be good to go, and it will be SO nice to be up and running quickly.

 

You need to install the GPU driver for controlling display brightness.

 

Good suggestion, thanks, I'll try that!

Is there anything that would work for Windows XP too?

 

You can find the XP support for Z12 here Sony eSupport - VPCZ1290X - Software Updates & Drivers

 

I know about the official Sony utilities for XP, but I am looking to see if there are any more lightweight alternatives...

 

As I said before, because of Sony's way of implementing the Fn key control, you MUST install the needed Sony software for controlling the Fn keys, no exceptions.

 

I see, thanks for the info.

That doesn't mean I'm giving up completely just yet.