If you need to squint your eyes because of the blindingly bright light from your monitor, then you might want to decrease its brightness. Also, if you need to get way closer to your Dell monitor just to see the contents, you might want to increase its brightness.
Whatever the case may be, you will constantly need to adjust the brightness on your monitor depending on the ambient light. There are several ways to change the brightness on your monitor, and you can stick to any one you prefer.
Using On-Screen Display Menu
The on-screen display (OSD) menu can be used to adjust many of your Dell monitor settings, including brightness controls. You can access it via the buttons present at the front or the bottom of your monitor.
- Click on the numerically third button on your monitor. On some monitors, pressing any of the buttons will bring up the OSD menu.
- Press on the button associated with the Brightness/Contrast option. If you can’t find the Brightness option, select the Menu button to reveal brightness controls.
- Press the up arrow labeled button to increase the brightness and press the down arrow labeled button to decrease the brightness.
- You can press the left-right arrow button to switch to the Contrast setting and adjust that as well.
- Press the X labeled button to exit the OSD.
In some Dell monitors, you might only find one button instead of four. In such cases, the single button is actually a joystick, and you can move it in four different directions to navigate your OSD menu. The OSD menu layout will be quite similar to the above so that you can perform the same steps.
Using Dell Display Manager
The Dell Display Manager is an official app provided by Dell for configuring your monitor settings. As you’ve guessed, you can also use this software to change the brightness on your Dell monitor.
However, older models of Dell monitors won’t be compatible with the latest Dell Display Manager 2.x software. Some of them only support the previous version, Dell Display Manager 1.x. You can check the official Dell website to see which software your monitor supports.
- Download a compatible version of Dell Display Manager, either DDM 2.x or DM 1.x on your computer.
- After the download completes, run the downloaded setup file to install it.
- Open the Dell Display Manager application.
- Click on the Brightness/Contrast option.
- Drag the Brightness slider up or down to adjust your monitor’s brightness.
Using GPU Control Panel
The graphics processing unit (GPU) has dedicated software available for configuring its various settings. It also allows you to change your monitor brightness.
Your computer likely has a GPU from one of the three brands, Intel, AMD, or NVIDIA. So, you can use the corresponding application of your available GPU to change the brightness. Here’s how you can do so:
On NVIDIA Control Panel
- Right-click on your desktop, select Show more options and click on NVIDIA Control Panel.
- Expand the Display tab, and select Adjust desktop color settings.
- Under Select the display you would like to change, select your Dell monitor.
- Change the monitor brightness using the Brightness slider.
On Intel Graphics Control Panel
- Right-click on an empty area on your desktop, select Show more options and click on Intel Graphics Control Panel.
- Go to Display > Color Settings.
- Select your Dell monitor from the drop-down menu under Select Display.
- Change the monitor brightness using the Brightness slider.
- Click on Apply.
On AMD Radeon Settings
- Right-click on any empty area of your desktop, and select Show more options > AMD Radeon Settings.
- Go to the Display tab. (If you’re using Radeon: Adrenaline Edition, go to Gaming > Global Graphics > Display.)
- If you have multiple monitors, select your Dell monitor from under Global Display.
- Make sure the Custom Color setting is toggled on.
- Change your monitor brightness using the Brightness slider.
Using Third-party Applications
Lastly, you can also use third-party applications to change the brightness of your monitor. The main advantage of using third-party apps is that they provide extra customizable features like changing brightness and color temperature depending on time or ambient light and much more.
Some of the great apps that you can use to do so are Display Tuner, Dimmer, and F.lux.