Photon Count Adjuster

Changing your monitors’ brightness settings can be cumbersome if you dislike the feel and layout of its control scheme — some buttons are placed behind, others underneath, and many just feature a small joystick for navigation.

For those with mouse-focused workflows, a portable utility such as Proton Count Adjuster can be very helpful, since it removes the need to fiddle with shortcut keys or manual hardware buttons.

Many companies nowadays offer compulsory installation wizards bundled with their software, which can sometimes include unwanted advertisements, browser extensions or sponsored apps. However, thanks to its open-source license and portable format, this program is perfect for users with on-the-go setups who want to avoid apps that sacrifice privacy for the sake of convenience.

Double-clicking the utility’s executable provides users with a straightforward window boasting a horizontal brightness slider that instantaneously applies the changes to your monitor’s brightness. The application can then be left running in the background, with the option of bringing it back up via its taskbar icon, where users can pin it for quick access at any point in time.

One of the program’s greatest strengths lies in its ability to detect and change the brightness of multiple monitors, detecting them automatically. This is an important advantage, since the built-in Windows brightness slider in the Control Center cannot adjust the brightness of more than one screen.

In terms of improvement, the application does not seem to find and display the particular names of the monitors in its drop-down menu, making it harder to figure out which monitor’s brightness you are changing at first glance. The option of placing it in the system tray would also make it easier for users to build up muscle memory and access the slider in an area closer to the rest of the system controls.

Whether you just upgraded to a setup with multiple monitors and want a way to change their brightness on the fly, or you wish to avoid Windows’ default Control Center slider, Photon Count Adjuster can be of great use, thanks to its lightweight and portable design.