Idle Dimmer

Step away. Let your displays rest.

A small Windows tray app that lowers display brightness when you leave, then restores it when you return.

Download · Get started · Build from source

_{Current source build · MP4 with smoother gradients}

Portable. Native C++. No installer, service, or extra runtime.

Set it once. Leave it in the tray.

Control	What it does
Choose your delay	Drag or scroll the slider to set how long the app waits before dimming.
Keep watching	Separate media, sound, and full-screen protections let you pause dimming during playback or a full-screen app.
Dim or switch off	Lower hardware brightness, use Off at idle, or switch the displays off from the footer.
Pick up where you left off	Input restores saved brightness after dimming. The app also saves recovery state before changing brightness.
Fits Windows	A native acrylic flyout with an upward entrance, system accent colours, and light/dark theme support.
Quiet when closed	The panel renderer shuts down when the flyout closes. No hidden UI animation loop.

Get started

1. Download the EXE or ZIP from Releases.
2. Run IdleDimmer.exe and click its tray icon. Check the ^ overflow if it is hidden.
3. Set your delay and protection toggles. Enable Start at login if you want it to run with Windows.

The slider saves changes automatically. Scroll up to increase the delay; scroll down to decrease it. The footer's moon dims immediately, monitor schedules screen-off after a short settling delay, and exit arrow quits after restoring brightness.

Compatibility and SmartScreen

Brightness control depends on the display and driver. Internal panels use WMI; external monitors need DDC/CI support. Screen-off and wake behavior also vary by device. See the hardware notes for implementation and testing limits.

The EXE is currently unsigned, so Windows may show a SmartScreen warning. Review the source and release before choosing More info → Run anyway.

Update without starting over

Quit Idle Dimmer normally, download the new version, and replace only IdleDimmer.exe. Keep the adjacent settings and statistics files. The release workflow supplies download checksums; in-app updating is planned separately.

The preview above shows the current source build. The latest published release can be older.

Build from source

App version: 1.0.1.

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build.ps1 -SkipIconRender
Start-Process .\IdleDimmer.exe -ArgumentList '--self-test' -Wait
Get-Content diagnostics.txt

The build downloads the pinned Zig compiler on first use. It uses the committed icon assets, builds the EXE, and checks documentation and icon geometry. build.ps1 -NoRun builds without running or relaunching the app; close an existing instance first.

Useful commands

Command	What it does
IdleDimmer.exe --menu	Open or close the flyout
IdleDimmer.exe --quit	Exit gracefully and restore brightness
IdleDimmer.exe --status	Write runtime status to diagnostics.txt
IdleDimmer.exe --diagnose	Report display, playback, and configuration details
IdleDimmer.exe --self-test	Run the assertion suite

Under the hood

Architecture & measured footprint · Release guide · Research · Contributing rules

Release builds are deliberate: ordinary commits run checks, while Prepare release creates a tested draft with downloads and generated change notes. Nothing publishes on every commit.

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MIT · Made for Windows.