Twinkle Tray icon

Twinkle Tray

v1.17.2·Hardware

About Twinkle Tray

Twinkle Tray is a free and open-source utility by Xander Frangos, released under the MIT license, that adds brightness control for external displays to Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows can dim a laptop panel but offers no native way to adjust external monitors or manage several screens at once.

Twinkle Tray places brightness sliders in the system tray, styled like the built-in volume flyout and matched to your taskbar theme. It talks to monitors over DDC/CI and WMI, can control features such as contrast, change brightness by time of day or when idle, bind hotkeys to one or all displays, and normalize backlight across different monitors. It starts with Windows and supports command-line arguments.

Key features

  • Per-monitor brightness sliders in the system tray
  • DDC/CI and WMI control, including contrast
  • Time-of-day and idle brightness schedules
  • Hotkeys for specific or all displays
  • Backlight normalization across monitors
  • Matches Windows 10/11 taskbar styling
  • Starts with Windows, command-line arguments

Download via Quark Drive

Quark Drive link coming soon

We’re still preparing the Quark Drive share for this app. It will appear here once it’s ready. Tap “Request” to bump it up.

How to install

“Windows protected your PC”

SmartScreen shows this for apps without a paid signature. Click “More info”, then “Run anyway”.

Antivirus blocks it

Open-source apps are often flagged because they aren’t commercially signed. Check the SHA256 first, then allow it in your antivirus.

Won’t start, or a DLL is missing

Usually a missing runtime. Install Microsoft’s Visual C++ Redistributable (x64) and the .NET Desktop Runtime, then try again.

Check the file

Run this in Command Prompt and compare the result with the SHA256 listed for the cloud file:

certutil -hashfile "%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\file-name" SHA256

Alternatives

Changelog

v1.17.2Current

Official changelog

FAQ

How do I download Twinkle Tray?

The Quark Drive share for Twinkle Tray is being prepared and will appear in the download section of this page.

Is Twinkle Tray free?

Twinkle Tray license: MIT. appwl only lists official builds and charges nothing for downloads.

Which systems does Twinkle Tray support?

This page offers Twinkle Tray for Windows, version 1.17.2.

Is Twinkle Tray from appwl safe?

appwl only lists official releases with their version and date. You can verify the SHA256 using the install tips on this page.

Request an app

The name is enough. The more people ask for an app, the sooner we add it.