In W10 I enabled a focus mode setting that dims all background windows... now I cant find it again!

Richdog

Richdog

Richdog

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Hi guys. I'm having a weird little blip where I clicked to activate some kind of focus mode setting that dims all inactive/background windows. It's annoying as hell and now I cant for the life of me find it again to disable it. I tried googling all kinds of things like "windows 10 focus window dim" etc and all I get are links to 3rd party tools. However this was not a 3rd party tool, it was built into Windows and I am sure it had focus somewhere in the name. I can't find it with a search of the settings though as it just shows me a different kind of "focus assist" mode related to notifications.

Can anyone please save my sanity and tell me if they know which setting this is and where it's located? :D
 
might be focus assist, when in use it changes the name (I think)
Right hand bottom of task bar, click on the box and it should be there.
It has a moon icon on it
 
Servo said:
might be focus assist, when in use it changes the name (I think)
Right hand bottom of task bar, click on the box and it should be there.
It has a moon icon on it
Click to expand...
Hi chap thanks for the reply but as I wrote sadly that's not it. :(
 
You've not inadvertently enabled some sort of high contrast mode / theme or anything have you? I would imagine that the sort of setting you may have flipped might be hidden down in accessibility options of windows.

Maybe if you changed the themes back and forth between a range of different types, it might reset some of the settings ?
 
Donnie Fisher said:
You've not inadvertently enabled some sort of high contrast mode / theme or anything have you? I would imagine that the sort of setting you may have flipped might be hidden down in accessibility options of windows.

Maybe if you changed the themes back and forth between a range of different types, it might reset some of the settings ?
Click to expand...
Nope its not high contrast, it is a specific slider setting to dim background windows so that only the active window is lit. It's driving me nuts. :D

I would have thought it would be under the "multitasking" settings but it isn't.

I will see if I can reset things back to defaults, good idea. Thanks!
 
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Donnie Fisher said:
I dont think I've ever seen a setting like that in windows unless its some sort of add on.
Click to expand...
Now I am starting to get worried. I was so sure it was in W10... the only other thing it could be would be the HP software (most of which I uninstalled). I will take a look! :eek:
 
Thanks guys but I checked every single thing I cold think of and can only come to the conclusion that:

1) I uninstalled some HP software that enabled it, without disabling it first.
2) It was some Windows preview feature that disappeared when I upgraded Home to Pro.

I just spent the last few hours reformatting everything and now it's running sweet as a nut. This will possibly forever be a mystery. Thanks to everyone who replied to try and help I really appreciate it. :)
 
Strange. Having a look around there does seem to be a number of untapped registry options that affect various dimming when you Alt-tab between apps etc ... as you say maybe it was a util or something that adjusted one of them.
 
Donnie Fisher said:
Strange. Having a look around there does seem to be a number of untapped registry options that affect various dimming when you Alt-tab between apps etc ... as you say maybe it was a util or something that adjusted one of them.
Click to expand...
Very weird... but I do a have a memory lodged in my brain of changing a windows setting slider. I'm not going crazy, I'm not going crazy... *rocks slowly back and forth* :D
 
Used to use an app called Turn of the Lights or Le Dimmer, very much looks like part of Windows once installed, maybe it was one of those.
 
Journey said:
Used to use an app called Turn of the Lights or Le Dimmer, very much looks like part of Windows once installed, maybe it was one of those.
Click to expand...
I saw those when I googling but I didn't install or uninstall either of them. It was a brand new HP notebook so it was something part of that process.

Donnie Fisher said:
Could it be adaptive brightness you're remembering?

https://appuals.com/fix-windows-10-adaptive-brightness-wont-turn-off/
Click to expand...
Unless that specifically dims inactive windows then I doubt it. This feature was specific for that function and you could have 2 windows sid by side and it would dim the unselected one, whichever that was.

So weird.
 
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