Why 0% brightness can still be too bright
A display's brightness slider stops where the manufacturer decided it should. On many laptops and most office monitors, that lowest setting is still a glaring rectangle in a dark bedroom or a night shift control room.
Desktop monitors are worse: Windows often cannot change their brightness at all, and the buttons on the bezel are slow and fiddly.
Brightness Below Minimum works on top of whatever the panel is doing. It lays a see-through dark sheet over the whole screen, taskbar included, and your clicks pass straight through it, so you keep working underneath at a level that is comfortable.
How to dim your screen below minimum brightness in Windows
Brightness Below Minimum has no window. Everything is done from its icon in the notification area, and a level takes one click.
- Click the Brightness Below Minimum icon in the notification area.
- Pick a level from Dim 10% to Dim 90%. Each step lays a darker sheet over the screen.
- Open the screens submenu and choose which monitors to dim. The primary one is marked.
- Turn on start with Windows if you want the shade back after a restart, at the same level and on the same screens.
- Choose Off from the same menu to return the screen to normal.
How it differs from the Windows brightness slider
The Windows slider changes the display's own brightness, and it stops at the lowest level the panel allows. Brightness Below Minimum does not touch that setting. It draws a dark layer over the picture, so it starts where the slider ends.
That means the two add up. Set the Windows slider to 0%, then add the shade at 70% and the screen goes darker than the panel could manage on its own. Turn the shade off and the display is exactly as you left it.
Dimming a second monitor on its own
Each screen is its own switch. You can bring the side monitor down to near black and leave the main one at its normal level, which helps when one screen shows something you only glance at.
Screens are listed by the name Windows knows them by, so two monitors of the same model can be told apart. A monitor plugged in after the app started is listed and covered like the others, without restarting the app.
A darker screen for night use, taskbar included
In a dark room the brightest thing on a dimmed screen is often the taskbar. The shade covers the whole display, taskbar included, so no lit strip is left along the bottom.
Your clicks pass straight through the shade, so you keep working underneath it. The menu follows your light or dark theme, and the darkest step still leaves enough to read, so you can always find the icon that turns it off.
