A customer states their laptop screen is very dim. In order to avoid going to the client site, which of the following is the FIRST action the customer should perform?

Increasing screen resolution affects the sharpness and layout of the display, not its brightness or backlight intensity.

Laptops include hardware-level brightness controls via function key combinations (e.g., Fn + F5/F6 or similar), which directly control the display backlight independent of any OS settings. This is the quickest and least invasive first action to take, as the dim screen could simply be caused by the brightness having been turned down, perhaps accidentally while in the carrying case. Attempting software or configuration changes first would be premature troubleshooting.

Rebooting is a general troubleshooting step that would not directly address a hardware brightness setting and skips a simpler corrective action.

Power Options can affect display timeout and sleep settings but does not directly control the current brightness level in real time as efficiently as function keys.