darkbright-helper

darkbright-helper is a hotkey dimmer for Windows monitors that does not stop at 0%: it lowers the real backlight over DDC/CI, then keeps dimming with a black overlay below the hardware minimum.

Both mechanisms sit on the same pair of hotkeys, so there is nothing to switch between — you keep pressing, and the tool moves from backlight to overlay on its own. Useful in a dark room, or if you are sensitive to light.

Multi-monitor aware: a hotkey affects whichever monitor the mouse pointer is currently on. Monitors are identified by EDID rather than by operating-system handle, so the configuration survives replugging and changing ports. An on-screen displayshows both values at once — overlay opacity on the left, hardware brightness on the right — and a tray icon offers live per-monitor status.

It performs no network I/O whatsoever — no telemetry, no update checks, no crash reporting. It is a single executable with no installer and no background service beyond its own process.

Known limitations, stated plainly: the overlay does not cover exclusive-fullscreen games or some Windows system UI such as the taskbar and Start menu. Laptop internal panels that do not speak DDC/CI are not supported. Dedicated brightness keys on most laptop keyboards are handled by firmware before Windows sees them. The binary is not code-signed, so Windows warns on first run.