Pre Boot Menu - Just Curious  

Just trying to see if there is any rhyme or reason to what I'm seeing. The attached image is not what my pre boot menu actually looks like. That's because at that point in the boot process its impossible to take a screen grab, so I found this image on line.

In mine, the top left just says "Windows 10" with a count down timer. Below that is "Macrium Reflect", and below that is "Windows 10 Safe Mode" and in the top right there's "Windows 10 Safe Mode with Networking."

The "Macrium Reflect" was put there by that same program.The "Safe Mode" and "Safe Mode w/Networking" was put there using the Tutorial available here. But the actual menu items are not really my question. My question is this. Sometimes I'll hit the power button on my Dell laptop and that pre boot menu is as bright as a light bulb. Other times its really dim and they only way it gets bright is if I move the mouse (but then the 10 second timer for the Windows 10 selection goes away).

I'm sure there are many, many other things for me to worry about, but like the thread title says, I'm just curious as to what determines the brightness of that opening screen.

Homer712 said:

Just trying to see if there is any rhyme or reason to what I'm seeing. The attached image is not what my pre boot menu actually looks like. That's because at that point in the boot process its impossible to take a screen grab...

Here's one from one of the tutorials you mentioned....

In mine, the top left just says "Windows 10" with a count down timer. Below that is "Macrium Reflect", and below that is "Windows 10 Safe Mode" and in the top right there's "Windows 10 Safe Mode with Networking."...

My question is this. Sometimes I'll hit the power button on my Dell laptop and that pre boot menu is as bright as a light bulb. Other times its really dim ... I'm just curious as to what determines the brightness of that opening screen.

Go into your BIOS setup and see if tuning off Dell's 'Ambient Light Sensor' helps....

Dell Support | Troubleshooting the Ambient Light Sensor to resolve dim LCD issues.

@Bree Thanks, but I already looked for the Dell "Ambient Light Sensor" in BIOS and there was no such item in any of the screens. Not an issue, just curious. And, once booted into Windows 10 everything functions perfectly. Think I'll just leave well enough alone.

There is two menus, there is the repair menu when a problem is detected this will automatically be shown, typically on boot or shutdown problems.

The other menu is OS multi boot menu which Macrium can utilise as well. This is what the second screenshot is.

There also is the menu style legacy vs modern, legacy is a text menu.