Monitorian

Monitorian is a Windows desktop tool to adjust the brightness of multiple monitors with ease.

(DPI: 200%)

The user can change the brightness of monitors, including external ones, either individually or in unison. For the system with an ambient light sensor, the adjusted brightness can be shown along with configured one.

(DPI: 100%)

In addition, the user can change the adjustable range of brightness and contrast for each monitor seamlessly.

 

Additional languages:

• ar (Arabic) by @MohammadShughri
• de (German) by @uDEV2019
• es (Spanish) by @josemirm
• fr (French) by @AlexZeGamer
• it (Italian) by @GhostyJade
• ja-JP (Japanese) by @emoacht
• ko-KR (Korean) by @VenusGirl
• nl-NL (Dutch) by @JordyEGNL
• pl-PL (Polish) by @Daxxxis and @FakeMichau
• ru-RU (Russian) by @SigmaTel71
• tr-TR (Turkish) by @webbudesign
• zh-Hans (Simplified Chinese) by @ComMouse and @zhujunsan
• zh-Hant (Traditional Chinese) by @toto6038

Requirements

• Windows 7 or newer
• .NET Framework 4.8
• An external monitor must be DDC/CI enabled.

Download

• Microsoft Store (Windows 10 (1607) or newer):
  Monitorian
  

• Winget (a.k.a. Windows Package Manager, App Installer):

  winget install Monitorian
  

• Other:
  💾 Installer

Install/Uninstall

If you wish to place executable files on your own, you can extract them from installer file (.msi) by the following command:

msiexec /a [source msi file path] targetdir=[destination folder path (absolute path)] /qn

In such case, please note the following:

• The settings file will be created at: [system drive]\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Monitorian\
• When you check [Start on sign in], a registry value will be added to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Remarks

• The monitor name shown in main window can be changed to distinguish monitors easily. To change the name, press and hold it until it turns to be editable.
• To adjust the brightness by a touchpad, place two fingers on it and swipe horizontally. The touchpad must be a precision touchpad.
• The number of monitors shown at a time is up to 4.

Add-on Features

Add-on features are available for Microsoft Store version on a subscription basis.

Hot keys & Shortcut keys

Command-line options

You can use command-line options to get/set the brigtness.

Actions	Options
Get brightness of a monitor.	/get
Get brightness of a specified monitor.	/get [Device Instance ID]
Get brightness of all monitors.	/get all
Set brightness of a monitor.	/set [Brightness]
Set brightness of a specified monitor.	/set [Device Instance ID] [Brightness]
Set brightness of all monitors.	/set all [Brightness]

If this app is called with /get option, it will return [Device Instance ID] [Monitor name] [Brightness]. The device instance ID is an unique identifier given by the OS to each monitor. The brightness ranges from 0 to 100%. It can be specified with brightness itself (e.g. 20), increase (e.g. +10) or decrease (e.g. -10) when you use /set option.

You can call this app by its name Monitorian in command prompt or bat file. From Task Scheduler, it can be performed by the path to its alias %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\Monitorian.exe. For example, to increase brightness of all monitors by 30%, the Action will be the following:

The code for add-on features is not included in this repository.

Development

This app is a WPF app developed and tested with Surface Pro 4 and 7.

Reporting

The controllability of an external monitor depends on whether the monitor successfully responds to DDC/CI commands. Even if a monitor is expected to be DDC/CI compatible, it may fail to respond (a) if the monitor is weird, (b) if its connection to the system is problematic, or (c) when the system starts or resumes. If an issue is case (a) or (b), this app cannot help it. If case (c), this app may be able to handle it.

In any case, reporting on the controllability of a monitor MUST include probe.log and operation.log described below. The logs will be the starting point to look into the issue.

Probe

• You can check the compatibility of your monitor by probe.log. It will include raw information on monitors, including capabilities through DDC/CI, from various APIs that are used to find accessible monitors. To get this log, tap Probe into monitors in the hidden menu described below.
• To open the hidden menu, click app title at the top of menu window 3 times.

Rescan

• As part of testing, you can manually trigger to rescan monitors via Rescan monitors in the hidden menu. A system sound will be played when completed.

Operations

• As part of testing, you can record operations to scan monitors and reflect their states. To enable the recording, check Make operation log in the hidden menu. After that, operation.log can be copied by Copy operation log.

Command-line arguments

• As part of testing, you can store persistent arguments in Command-line arguments in the hidden menu. They will be tested along with current arguments when this app starts.

Exceptions

• If anything unexpected happens, exception.log will be saved. It will be useful source of information when looking into an issue.

Setup

1. Install Visual Studio.
2. In Visual Studio Installer, go to the Individual components tab and make sure the following components are checked and installed. The version must match the corresponding field of project (.csproj) file of each project.

Components	Fields
.NET Framework 4.8 SDK .NET Framework 4.8 targeting pack	TargetFrameworkVersion
Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.0)	TargetPlatformVersion

3. Load the solution by specifying /Source/Monitorian.sln. Then go to the solution explorer and right click the solution name and execute Restore NuGet Packages.
4. To open installer project, install WiX Toolset Build Tools and WiX Toolset Visual Studio Extension

Globalization

An alternative language can be shown by adding a Resources (.resx) file into /Source/Monitorian.Core/Properties folder. Each Resources file stores name/value pairs for a specific language and will be selected automatically depending on the user's environment.

• The file name must be in Resources.[language-culture].resx format.
• The name of a name/value pair must correspond to that in the default Resources.resx file to override it.

History

Ver 3.6 2021-9-30

• Add it (Italian) language. Thanks to @GhostyJade!
• Fix count for scan process

Ver 3.5 2021-9-9

• Make rounded corners default on Windows 11
• Add zh-Hant (Traditional Chinese) language. Thanks to @toto6038!

Ver 3.4 2021-8-30

• Add nl-NL (Dutch) language. Thanks to @JordyEGNL!
• Supplement zh-Hans (Simplified Chinese) language. Thanks to @zhujunsan!

Ver 3.3 2021-8-20

• Add ar (Arabic) language. Thanks to @MohammadShughri!

Ver 3.2 2021-8-9

• Supplement de (German) language. Thanks to @uDEV2019!

Ver 3.1 2021-8-4

• Supplement pl-PL (Polish) language. Thanks to @FakeMichau!
• Add tr-TR (Turkish) language. Thanks to @webbudesign!
• Supplement ru-RU (Russian) language. Thanks to @SigmaTel71!
• Add es (Spanish) language. Thanks to @josemirm!

Ver 3.0 2021-7-1

• Change UI

Ver 2.19 2021-6-16

• Enable to adjust brightness by precision touchpad

Ver 2.18 2021-5-23

• Add de (German) language. Thanks to @uDEV2019!

Ver 2.17 2021-5-19

• Add fr (French) language. Thanks to @AlexZeGamer!

Ver 2.16 2021-4-11

• Add ko-KR (Korean) language. Thanks to @VenusGirl!

Ver 2.14 2021-3-26

• Improve internal processes

Ver 2.13 2021-2-13

• Improve internal process

Ver 2.11 2021-1-26

• Add ru-RU (Russian) language. Thanks to @SigmaTel71!
• Add pl-PL (Polish) language. Thanks to @Daxxxis!
• Add zh-Hans (Simplified Chinese) language. Thanks to @ComMouse!

Ver 2.9 2020-12-22

• Improve codes

Ver 2.8 2020-11-23

• Adjust mouse wheel roll

Ver 2.7 2020-10-30

• Enable to change adjustable range
• Adjust scan process
• Add get/set brightness test to probe

Ver 2.6 2020-8-10

• Enable to defer update of brightness

Ver 2.5 2020-8-1

• Fix issue of empty description

Ver 2.4 2019-12-30

• Improve scan process

Ver 2.3 2019-11-28

• Change scan process

Ver 2.2 2019-11-18

• Change setting to show adjusted brightness by ambient light enabled as default
• Fix bugs

Ver 2.1 2019-11-6

• Change location to show when the icon is in overflow area
• Change behavior when sliders are moving in unison
• Fix bugs

Ver 2.0 2019-8-6

• Enable operation by arrow keys
• Redesign slider

Ver 1.12 2019-3-9

• Modify to handle raw brightnesses correctly when raw minimum and maximum brightnesses are not standard values. Thanks to @reflecat!
• Change target framework to .NET Framework 4.7.2

Ver 1.11 2019-2-7

• Further suppress an exception

Ver 1.10 2019-2-3

• Change to enable transparency and blur effects only when transparency effects of OS is on

Ver 1.9 2018-12-5

• Change scan timings after resume

Ver 1.8 2018-11-24

• Supplement generic monitor name with connection type

Ver 1.7 2018-8-22

• Improved finding monitor name for Windows 10 April 2018 Update (1803)

Ver 1.6 2018-5-25

• Extended function to control DDC/CI connected monitor
• Modified function to enable moving together

Ver 1.5 2018-2-12

• Improved handling of uncontrollable monitor

Ver 1.4 2018-1-17

• Modified handling of monitor names

Ver 1.2 2017-10-12

• Added control by mouse wheel
• Added function to show adjusted brightness

Ver 1.0 2017-2-22

• Initial release

License

• MIT License

Libraries

• XamlBehaviors for WPF

Developer

• emoacht (emotom[atmark]pobox.com)