Need black background for vista

[cowtoon]

I'm trying to select a black background for Vista [32bit home premium](to
increase battery life when working on the laptop). Is there just a way to
select a black coloured background. I can't seem to find it as an option.
I can choose other photos, but there's no pallet with colours to choose
from. I'm thinking the darker colour will extend my battery life by perhaps
a half hour. I've got the brightness down as far as it'll go, but my
current background image is too bright.

I'd appreciate any input. Thanks.

 

[Steve Thackery]

I'm thinking the darker colour will extend my battery life by perhaps a

half hour. I've got the brightness down as far as it'll go, but my
current background image is too bright.

Surely it will make no difference. The backlight is what uses the power,
and you've already turned that down.

LCDs work by blocking the backlight to some greater or lesser degree, so a
dark background colour only means that the backlight is blocked from the
viewer. There is no resultant reduction in power consumption.

One or two of the latest LCD TVs use an array of white LEDs to provide the
backlight. These are selectively adjusted, dimming those behind the dark
parts of the picture in order to increase the perceived contrast ratio.
These will reduce their power consumption with dark pictures, but I don't
think any laptops use this sort of screen.

Of course, maybe you know better

SteveT

 

[Michael Walraven]

to get a solid black background
right click on empty area of desktop
select personalize
select desktop background
in the dropdown box 'Location' select 'solid colors'
pick black

As far as somehow increasing battery life, I don't think so. The battery
drain is from the tubes behind the display. The display pixels themselves
simple block that light. On a laptop there is often a control for the
brightness of the tubes, this will have an effect.

Michael

 

[steve]

download nirsoft volume mouse

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/volumouse.html

it has an option to increase- decrease the screen brightness with the mouse
wheel..

I use it all the time!


Screen Brightness: Allows you to change the brightness of the entire screen.
Important Notice: Changing the screen brightness is achieved by setting the
gamma ramp values into the video card. Unfortunately, many video cards don't
support this feature, so the 'Screen Brightness' component may not work in
your system.