Changing the Screen Resolution and Brightness

The screen is one of the most important part of a PC. You’ll never know what’s inside your machine or what the operating system installed in it can offer without this very important component of a physical computer. Back in the days of some old Windows versions, adjusting some aspects of the screen was done manually by accessing their corresponding settings in the Control Panel.

Getting to this section on the old Windows operating system editions was such a long process and it took a lot of clicks just to get to them but everything changed in the  brand new Windows 8.1 system. All the tweaks that you need to do in just about everything and every aspect of the operating system itself is now capable of being tweaked easily even with the use of your own fingertips.

What Tweaks Can You Do With the Screen?

There are two aspects of the screen on every computer that you can tweak using the settings available on the Control Panel section or from the Settings Charm. These aspects are the screen resolution and the screen brightness. You would need to adjust the screen resolution manually whenever you connect your computer to a projector.

Most projectors with the VGA connection port requires the source computer to be of the same resolution as what it supports. In some modern projectors having an HDMI port, you won’t need to adjust the screen resolution because it automatically adjusts with the current screen size of your computer however, you might still choose to use the VGA connection because HDMI cables costs a bit higher than VGA cables and most of the time, VGA cables are the only ones available.

Another aspect which you can tweak is the screen brightness. This setting on your Windows 8.1 machine is very important because it can help you save some battery juice when your computer is running on batteries. Increasing the screen brightness also helps make the images and characters on the screen become more visible even in broad daylight and decreasing it when you are in a location where it is dark will help lessen the stress on your eyes and save battery power.

Accessing the Screen Resolution Adjustment Knob

Accessing the section where you can make some tweaks on your computer’s screen resolution has never changed. It remained the same since Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and now in Windows 8.1. To access the section where this tweak is done, simply access the Settings charm from the desktop screen. If it is your first time to use your brand new Windows 8.1 machine and you still don’t know how to access the Charms, simply press the Windows Key or point the mouse to the upper or the lower-right corner of the screen. After you do so, you will see the Charms bar appear at the right edge of the screen. From this bar, simply click on the fifth icon at the bottom which is labeled “Settings”. The Settings screen will then appear and from here, click on the “Control Panel” link.

WindowsTechies_375

Another way of accessing the Control Panel Window is by pressing on the Windows + X keyboard shortcut combination and you will be able to access a hidden menu containing a link that leads to the “Control Panel”.

WindowsTechies_377

You can also use the Search feature to access the Control Panel Window. To do this, simply access the Start Screen and start typing the word “control” on your keyboard. After doing so, the search screen will automatically appear and the search results will be displayed just below the Search input box as you can see on the screenshot below. From here, simply click or tap on the “Control Panel” shortcut.

WindowsTechies_379

Still another way of accessing the Control Panel Window on your Windows 8.1 machine is by accessing the “Apps” view which is also a brand new feature never to be found in any of the previous Windows editions that you got accustomed with. To access the Apps view, all you need to do is open the Start Screen, move your mouse over the screen and once you see an arrow down icon appearing at the bottom-left portion, simply click on it and the Apps view will open which lists all of the available apps, desktop programs and as well as system locations and settings in alphabetical order. From this screen, simply look for the Control Panel shortcut and once you find it, just click or tap on it to open the Control Panel Window.

WindowsTechies_385

Now, on the Control Panel Window, you will need to look for the “Appearance and Personalization” menu and under it, you should be able to see a link that says “Adjust screen resolution”. Once you find the link, simply click or tap on it to open the section where you can find the screen resolution adjustment knob.

WindowsTechies_381

After clicking on the link, you will be taken to the Window where the screen resolution tweak can finally be done. To set your screen resolution to a new value, all you need to do is click inside the box that is labeled “Resolution” on its left. After you do so, a drop-down window will appear that has an adjustment knob for adjusting the screen resolution. Simply click and hold then drag the knob to your desired screen resolution value then hit the “Apply” then “OK” buttons at the bottom to save the changes done.

WindowsTechies_383

The need for adjusting the screen resolution rises especially when your computer is connected to a projector. There would be cases that the present resolution settings on your computer is not what the projector device needs so you need to change it perhaps not just once but even more times to arrive at the best resolution where everything on your computer screen is really seen on the projector completely.

Adjusting Your Screen Brightness

If you are fond of reading some tips for prolonging battery life, you will surely find that adjusting the screen brightness is one of the things that you should do to save some battery juice. LED displays especially those that are built-in with some laptop computers don’t really look that clear when the screen resolution is set to low and you are using it in a relatively bright environment. You’ll need to switch the screen to its brightest so you can view things clearly. To access the section where you can make some adjustments on the screen brightness, simply access the Charms bar and click on the “Settings” charm. After doing so, the settings screen will appear. From here, you will need to click on the “Brightness” icon at the bottom in order to access the adjustment knob for your machine’s screen brightness.

WindowsTechies_387

The adjustment knob will just appear as a screen overlay as shown on the screenshot below. To adjust the screen brightness from here, simply point the mouse to the knob then click and hold on it and drag it to your desired level. The screens brightness will also change as you drag the knob up or down. Once you are done setting the screen brightness, simply click outside the settings screen and it will just disappear.

WindowsTechies_388

That’s it! You now learned another tweak that will help you project your screen on another device and save battery power by decreasing screen brightness. These adjustments may seem to be unimportant to you for now but trust me, you will be applying it sometime in the future on a very critical situation. Continue learning more about Windows 8.1 and get the latest tips for Microsoft’s latest operating system only here on windowstechies.loc!