My Strange Problem About Screen Brightness & Taskbar

cihank1 · 22 Mar 2019

Hey guys. English is not my native language, so pls forgive any errors.

As part of my job, I write a lot on my PC. Back when my OS was Windows 7, I used DimScreen as my screen dimmer (to keep my eyes from tiring quickly). Something strange happened when I switched to Windows 10 though. Whenever DimScreen is open, Windows taskbar stops being always on top (even if it's locked). As soon as I close the program, things go back to normal.

Because of this I'm now using Pangolin (another screen brightness utility). When I'm not working and screen brightness is at 100%, the taskbar is always on top (as it should be). But when I reduce brightness by any amount, the same thing happens and the taskbar stops being always on top.

Does anyone have any idea why? How can I keep the taskbar always on top even when I dim the screen?

dalchina · 23 Mar 2019

Hi, your English is fine (I taught English to foreigners for a while!).

To separate the issues: what happens to your taskbar if you use this:

My Strange Problem About Screen Brightness & Taskbar-snap-2019-03-23-06.49.24.png

or the Action Centre tile?

Do you have a desktop or a laptop? If the latter, you will probably have dedicated keys for brightness control.

I use this rather smart free program (really for volume control with my scroll wheel) but it adds hot keys which, when pressed show the blue graphic for brightness:

My Strange Problem About Screen Brightness & Taskbar-untitled.png

However, maybe you need something that differentiates between multiple monitors...
Download PangoBright 2.1.0.1

Considering the issue of eyestrain from another perspective- I try to ensure no background is the default MS slightly off-white.

For example:

My Strange Problem About Screen Brightness & Taskbar-snap-2019-03-23-07.02.47.png

In build 1809 there is the option of having a dark background.

Change Default App Windows Mode to Light or Dark Theme in Windows 10 | Tutorials
Add App Mode to Context Menu for Light or Dark Theme in Windows 10 | Tutorials

And there is this:
Turn On or Off Night Light in Windows 10 | Tutorials

cihank1 · 23 Mar 2019

Thank you for your help, Dalchina. I was already using the program you recommended (PangoBright). But I tried the other program (Volume2) and I really liked it. I think I'm going to use that from now on.

I have another question: Can I change the colors of windows? (I don't want to use the dark mode, but I want to darken the white tones a little bit.) There was an option to do this in Windows 7, but I couldn't find it in 10.

I'm using a desktop computer BTW.

dalchina · 23 Mar 2019

Hi, that dialogue- Advanced Windows Appearance or some such vanished in Win 8.

For explorer related backgrounds, you can use Qttabbar by Quizo (free) which does many many things- optionally- one of which is to allow you to choose any colour for different regions. It can add tabs to explorer and a lot more. It's a download + 1 update- instructions to configure it on same site.

That's what I used as shown above, plus a simple registry hack for other backgrounds - can do the equivalent using this free utility which goes some way to replace that lost dialogue:
S.M.A.C.C - Superfly's Mouse Assisted Color Chooser - Windows 10 Forums