# Setting default window/level?

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/setting-default-window-level/32412>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [October 25, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/setting-default-window-level/32412 "2023-10-25T16:21:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cuatrocinco](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/cuatrocinco/32/68010_2.png) [@cuatrocinco](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/cuatrocinco)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/setting-default-window-level/32412/1 "2023-10-25T16:21:15Z")

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I am working on manually segmenting kidneys for a large number of abdominal CT scans.

For some reason, when I load the DICOMs the default window/level is essentially the same as the CT-Air preset, which is no good for evaluating kidneys.

I am able to right click the scan and change the preset to CT-Abdomen, but it takes several seconds, and over the course of several hundred scans that time adds up.

Is there a way to modify the default window/level settings in 3D Slicer so that I have the option of making all newly imported scans display with a specific window/level?

Thank you!

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**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 4:25pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/setting-default-window-level/32412/2 "2023-10-25T16:25:22Z")

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By default, we apply the window/level that is stored in the DICOM file.

I would recommend to specify your own custom hanging protocol and add a keyboard shortcut to activate. See a complete example here:

[https://slicer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/developer\_guide/script\_repository.html#activate-hanging-protocol-by-keyboard-shortcut](https://slicer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/developer_guide/script_repository.html#activate-hanging-protocol-by-keyboard-shortcut)

All you need is to copy-paste this into Slicer’s Python console. Probably you can delete the part between `# Set up view layout and content` and `# Register keyboard shortcut` and remove all the PET related parts.