Screen Dimmer for Windows

Hi,

Is there a utility for windows XP which would put the screen at the dimmest setting shortly after the user has stopped interacting with the laptop in the way that Macs do it?

I guess the dimming controls may well be non-standard, in which case my laptop is a Dell Inspiron 600m.

Thanks.

 

I know what you mean - that is a cool feature on Macs. Windows doesn't have that functionality built-in.

However, the power options can be changed. Go into the Control Panel, Power Options, and then you can modify the various power schemes. You can tell the screen to turn off after one minute.

You do know about the way you can manually dim the screen via the Function (Fn) + F keys up top, yes?

 

Oh, I do know you can get the screen to turn off completely and that you can dim it manually.

But having it dim automatically between the computer being left alone and the screen switching off completely seems like the perfect thing to do. You can still see what is on the screen and the battery ends up lasting for longer.

 

Hmm I might have to actually think about doing a program that does that... but in doing some searching at least I can't find anything that does it automatically.

 

hmmm.....is this Arla of Spirestone???? just wondering.

 

Try the following. It works with Vista and Xp. Wintensity ScreenDimmer.

 

Given that I have no idea what Spirestone is... probably not

 

You mean like 5 - 10 secs of being idle it will go dim, sort of like alot of cell phone do?

If so, I would also like to know.


I have no experience with Macs hence the cell phone theory.

 

Yeah, it's exactly like cell phones, and actually would be an incredibly useful thing for any laptop to do given the power management stuff.

I took a look at that Wintensity thing, but seemed expensive given that I'm sure I can devise my own thing to do it, although not sure how easy it would be to devise a generic program rather than specific to the ACPI functions of a given PC.

Will have to look into this some... fun fun fun, I needed a new task now that I've successfully managed to complete the "house buying" operations (tm).

 

Seems like Wintensity doesn't have any competition.

The price is not bad at all, but something as simple as dimming a screen should be free imo.

Not fond of all the extra stuff that is included.

 

Yes, sorry that's a far better way of putting it than how I said, however having tried to do it, it's not as easy as you might think it should be.

I'll get it... I can do gamma now, but it doesn't do what I want yet...

 

ah ha! Found it. VERY SIMPLE to use. heres the link: http://www.whitsoftdev.com/powerdimmer/ or just google power dimmer on google. it works great and it's free. Hope it helps everyone. I know I'm gonna spread the news

 

it didn't work for me!

 

great head.up! thanks!

unzip to my windows\system32, call up the scr via normal display properties, set up to dim just about 5%, & making sure that the screen did not get turned off before the scr being activated

cheers ...

 

Thansk@Pyro_fox

Simple & works.

My only vice is ...... you still have to wait at least 1 whole min for the screen saver to activate.

I set my dimmer to 1sec and 20% dim.

 

Well seems to work, although it doesn't appear to be "dimming" the screen through any of the power saving stuff, so I don't think it would actually help to reduce power usage, but nice find.

Trying to program something to use the power saving capabilities has been a complete pig, maybe just my two laptops, but neither seem to support anything, and as far as I can tell the brightness control of the actual laptop is hardware not software.

 

So your saying dimming the screen via the screensaver way doesn't improve battery life because the hardware or whatever is still using it's full power?

 

well, it is hard to say. Since the so.called hardware control Fn key to dim screen must still go thru a piece of software code somewhere (inside the video controller probably)

but the feature of power dimmer is cool, regardless

cheers ...

 

Yea, I like power dimmer alot so far.

I used to always keep my screen saver off when on AC power and use the Blank (total black) screen saver on battery.

Now I use power dimmer for both AC & Battery, at 1min Screen saver settings, and 20% dim at 1 sec on dimmer setting.

I mostly don't even realize it's a screen saver anymore.

 

It wouldn't actually save any power; it doesn't dim the backlight, it just makes everything on the screen darker.

 

Essentially, yes.

if you put the time down to a minimum (1 minute) and make sure the mouse is somewhere that it's the white arrow, when the screen starts to darken the arrow is still white, which means it's not actually really dimming the screen.

As for the FN+key using software, well yes and no, it does but that software could be built into the bios or direct into the hardware somewhere, although if I recall the epower managment console allowed me to change the brightness settings, so there must be something SOMEWHERE that I can do this, but exactly where I'm not sure.