DonationCoder.com Software > DC Member Programs and Projects

Monitor Dimmer

(1/3) > >>

mmdoogie:
I guess this program could be a little more flexible, and its not that amazing, but I wanted to share it as it fulfilled a need I had.
Also, I wanted to share the technique I used as it took me a while to get it to work the way I wanted.

Background:

I have two monitors.
Often, I'll watch a movie or play a game on the left one, while I will also be browsing web pages and chatting with people on the right one.
If the movie or game is dark, and I'm looking a mostly white webpage, there is too much light.

Solution:

This program creates a window.  A variable-alpha-transparency, black, always-on-top window, with no titlebar, etc.
It covers my entire right monitor.  BUT, by setting WS_EX_TRANSPARENT, its made transparent to events, and thus mouse clicks, keystrokes, etc. are passed on through to the windows below it.

Win Numpad+ darkens the screen, Win Numpad- lightens the screen, Win Numpad* toggles the overlay on/off.

Getting WS_EX_TRANSPARENT set in an AHK script is as simple as adding +E0x20 to the Gui creation command.

So, without further ado, I present -- MonitorDimmer.
In both AHK and EXE.

Enjoy!
--matt

jgpaiva:
:D cool!
Thanks matt

Ehtyar:
If you're interested in setting the brightness of the entire screen, you can try the Windows gamma ramp API. I've used it myself, very helpful.

Ehtyar.

mmdoogie:
Thanks for the API link Ehtyar.

When I started this, a friend suggested I look at the gamma settings of my graphics card.

However, I have my monitors color-managed, and the control panel disabled the gamma setting because of that,
so I have a suspicion that something like this would not work in my case.

Here is a much nicer version of the program.
It works with arbitrary monitor numbers, (instead of being hardcoded for my monitor sizes  8)),
and remembers dimming and show settings between launches.

mouser:
cool  :up:

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page