Surface pro 3 Brightness control missing

btw, I've resisted trying "Recovery while keeping personal files" because it appears I would then have to individually reinstall every single program and app I've put on this thing over the past few years.  Again, I just don't really have the time to do that right now.  

Am I correct that Recovery does require reinstalling everything, one program at a time?

Or is there some way to either keep my apps, or create some kind of re-install bundle so that the process is less onerous? (I figure that's doubtful but it doesn't hurt to ask!)

Hi,

Yes the recovery keeping files does keep all files in documents, pictures etc; but ALL programs need to be re-installed afterwards (other than ones installed from the Windows Store ... but who ever uses that for anything?) . I don't know of any way to save and reinstall a bunch of apps together - or not one that is easier than just re-installing anyway.

I realise this is a real pain. I hate to sounds smug, but the solution I posted on 19th December really has still worked, I install all Windows updates and it's still working perfectly with power settings and screen brightness intact etc. Of course it may just be a coincidence, and it could fail tomorrow, but I did the same thing to two Surface Pro 3s with exactly the same problem and they were both immediately fixed.

Yes, I did resent re-installing all my programs, but really it was only a couple of hours work on each one; nothing compared to the time I'd previously spent trying to fix Microsoft's mess.

Touch-wood that I haven't now jinxed myself with this post.

btw, I've resisted trying "Recovery while keeping personal files" because it appears I would then have to individually reinstall every single program and app I've put on this thing over the past few years.  Again, I just don't really have the time to do that right now.  

Am I correct that Recovery does require reinstalling everything, one program at a time?

Or is there some way to either keep my apps, or create some kind of re-install bundle so that the process is less onerous? (I figure that's doubtful but it doesn't hurt to ask!)

Yeah, I did wonder about that, whether it was reducing the power draw -- thanks for giving me a way to tell.  

But I don't often run my Surface all that long on battery power -- thanks to this problem, I've gotten in the habit of using my other laptop when I need a long time unplugged.  So this does at least allow me to use the surface in a dim room without blinding myself, which was the main thing I just couldn't cope with in this mess.

When I have more time and energy, I may turn back to working on the real problem, but I just can't waste any more time on this at the moment. So for now, I'll settle for this solution to the most pressing symptom (for me) and leave dealing with the underlying problem for another day.

About the Desktop Dimmer solution...  it's not really dimming your screen using voltage regulation.   

The screen is  still at 100% energy output, the Desktop-Dimmer is simply multiplying by a gray-scale mask of 0-255 degrees.  

You are saving your eyes (because it looks dimmer because it's reducing the intensity of what you see visually), you are not solving the fact that it's using 100% of the power to display picture of a darker screen.   

The tip off is the cursor (in some situations) that still displays at 100% brightness.   This solution will make it easier on your eyes, but it does nothing for the power-saving issues.

https://github.com/sidneys/desktop-dimmer/releases/tag/v4.0.4

I am trying a temporary solution with this software This software may not display the speaker. But it can be controlled. We just don't see it.

THANK YOU -- a simple dimmer-slider, works perfectly! 

I still have the problem of missing overall power-plans, but at least I can have my screen at less than 100%.  That's going to be good enough for me, for now; I have already spent way too much time trying to fix this problem. 

(There are a lot of files available at that link -- for Windows/Surface Pro, you want to download and run desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-setup.exe)