Desktop experiences - power options, Windows Mobility Center, and battery meter warnings

As in Windows 7, the Power Options Control Panel and Windows Mobility Center provide brightness sliders. These sliders have the same effect as the slider in the Settings charm fly out – moving the level up or down changes the display brightness level.

Figure 1 Brightness control in the Power Options and Edit Plan Settings pages (left) and Figure 2 Brightness control in the Windows Mobility Center show these controls. In addition, users can set the default brightness both for when the computer is running on battery and when it is plugged-in. This functionality is available in Power Options by clicking Change plan settings for one of the power plans. This displays the Edit Plan Settings page, shown in Figure 1 Brightness control in the Power Options and Edit Plan Settings pages (right), in which users can easily adjust brightness. These brightness changes persist across system power transitions (for example, sleep and restart) and effectively overwrite the brightness level for the current power mode (plugged-in or on-battery).

Figure 1 Brightness control in the Power Options and Edit Plan Settings pages

Figure 2 Brightness control in the Windows Mobility Center

As in Windows 7, the battery meter in the desktop notification area displays a warning if the system is operating on battery and the display brightness is set to a level that is greater than the default display brightness of the battery policy for the active power plan. System manufacturers can adjust the default values for the display brightness policy for their systems to target the many display types and brightness levels in the Windows ecosystem.

The display brightness warning is based on the default value of the on-battery display brightness policy in the current power plan. If a system manufacturer does not customize the default values for the display brightness policy, the default value for the On-Battery display brightness is 40 percent. Figure 3 Battery meter brightness level warning shows this warning.

Figure 3 Battery meter brightness level warning

Windows also offers controls for various display brightness policies in the Advanced settings dialog box (see Figure 4 Power Options Advanced settings dialog box). Users can open this box by clicking the Change advanced power settings link on the Edit Plan Settings page. For the detailed meaning of these policies, see Brightness control settings and actions.

Figure 4 Power Options Advanced settings dialog box

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