BrightnessTray

BrightnessTray puts a brightness slider in the system tray. Click the icon, drag the bar, and the laptop screen dims or brightens on the spot, with the current level shown as a number right on the icon. That is the entire main feature, and for people whose keyboards lack brightness keys or whose keys stopped working after a driver update, it is the whole reason to have it.

Around the slider sit three small extras in the right-click menu. Caffeine keeps the display from switching off while the machine is idle, Power off display turns the screen dark immediately, and Enter sleep mode sends the computer to sleep.

The program is a single tiny executable that runs without installation and stays out of memory and out of sight.

A slider where the system hides one

The system tucks brightness behind a settings page or a quick-settings panel that takes two or three clicks to reach. BrightnessTray reduces that to one. The icon in the tray shows the current percentage as a number, so you can see at a glance whether the screen is at 30 or 80 without opening anything.

A click opens a vertical slider that responds to the mouse and to touch, which suits tablets and convertibles whose brightness keys are awkward in tablet mode. Drag it and the change applies live, with no apply button and no delay.

The range stops short of the extremes

One detail from actual use deserves a mention. The slider does not reach the display’s absolute minimum or maximum. The lowest setting is still clearly visible rather than near-black, and the highest stops short of full blast. For most daily adjustments that is irrelevant, and some will prefer not accidentally dropping to an unreadable screen.

People who want a near-dark display for night reading, or need every last bit of brightness outdoors, will need the system’s own controls for those endpoints. The tool also controls only displays the system itself can dim, which in practice means laptop and tablet screens.

External monitors connected over HDMI or DisplayPort need a tool that speaks to the monitor directly, such as Twinkle Tray.

Caffeine and the power shortcuts

Caffeine is the most useful of the extras in BrightnessTray. Switch it on and the screen stays awake through a long read, a presentation or a recipe on the kitchen counter, without changing the power plan and forgetting to change it back. Switch it off and the normal timeout returns.

The two power shortcuts are convenience items. Power off display darkens the screen instantly, handy on a laptop that stays on for a download, though users have reported it not responding on every machine. Enter sleep mode does what the start menu already does, one click closer.

If keeping the whole machine awake matters more than the screen, a small tool that simulates activity covers that case.

What it leaves out

BrightnessTray has no schedules, no automatic adjustment by time of day, no colour temperature control and no hotkeys. It does one thing on one kind of display and adds a few shortcuts. That restraint keeps it tiny and instant, and it also means anyone with more than one monitor or a night-time dimming routine will outgrow it quickly.

For multiple monitors and finer control, a tray tool that drives every monitor at once is the step up. For a single laptop screen, this one is hard to argue with, and it will never be the program slowing the machine down.

Conclusion

BrightnessTray suits laptop and tablet users who want brightness one click away in the tray, with the current level visible at all times and a quick way to keep the screen awake. It is tiny, instant and needs no setup.

Its limited range, internal-display-only scope and lack of scheduling keep it a single-purpose helper. Within that purpose it does exactly what it promises.