What is Auto HDR on Windows 11? Requirements Prerequisites Limitations

The viewing experience matters a lot, especially for gaming. HDR (High Dynamic Range) is an imaging technique that shows darks and lights in a digitally reproduced scene with more color depth. In other words, HDR is an imaging process that improves the picture quality depending on three separate images of a single frame.

HDR comes with an enhanced range of color and luminance for presenting a lifelike, immersive gaming experience. You can clearly perceive the details of moments in dark shadows instead of black.

Image Source: Microsoft

Just like HDR, another outstanding innovation in the realms of imaging and video technology is Auto HDR. This technology is implemented in Xbox Series S / X, and now it is also being implemented to Windows 11 to add HDR to those games that don’t support it. Therefore, it enhances its graphic quality, especially on older titles. Moreover, it will be compatible with all those games that are based on DX11 and DX12. All this, without any additional efforts by developers to rewrite the code. Thus, it will support thousands of existing games.

Windows 10 already had HDR settings; however, it owned limited capabilities. With the launch of Auto HDR on Windows 11, the users can explore the full potential of the displays. This feature allows Windows devices to determine whether or when to utilize this feature by taking into account various parameters.

When you set your Windows device to Auto HDR mode, it makes sure that you don’t need to enable/disable the HDR settings each time you attempt to stream a movie or play a game.

Certain game studios develop HDR gaming PCs after mastering their game natively for HDR. On the other hand, Auto HDR for PC would accept DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 SDR-only games and smartly enlarge the brightness/color range up to HDR. Essentially, it is a seamless platform feature that presents you with a splendid gaming experience taking full benefit of your HDR monitor’s capabilities. As implied from the name, the word Auto suggests how simple it is to enable the feature. With just a simple setting, you can toggle this feature on and off.

How to enable the Auto-HDR feature on Windows 11?

Enabling this feature in Windows is as easy as enabling HDR feature on the previous Windows OS versions. Follow the below steps to enable Auto-HDR in Windows 11:

• Step-1: Click the ‘Start Menu’ icon present at the center of the taskbar or press the Windows Key + S.
• Step-2: Now tap on the ‘Settings’ icon from the Start menu.
• Step-3: From the Settings window that appears, tap on the ‘System’ from the left-hand side.
• Step-4: Now click on the ‘Display’ setting available on the right side of that screen.
• Step-5: Now click on the ‘HDR’ from the right-hand side to change it.
• Step-6: On the right-hand side, enlarge the ‘Display capabilities.
• Step-7: Toggle the ‘Play streaming HDR video’ and the ‘Use HDR’ settings to ‘On.’
• Step-8: Navigate down to the bottom and toggle the ‘Auto HDR’ settings to ‘On.’
• Step-9: Finally, close the Settings window.

Note: You need not disable/enable the HDR mode because Windows 11 automatically takes care of it. If you set up multiple monitors, you can separately enable or disable this setting on various displays from the display settings window.

How to disable the Auto HDR feature on Windows 11?

• Step-1: Press the Windows key + I keys.
• Step-2: From the Settings window that appears, you have to click on the ‘System’ from the left-hand tab.
• Step-3: Now click on the ‘Display’ setting from the right-hand pane.
• Step-4: Click on the ‘HDR’ from the right-hand pane to change it.
• Step-5: Toggle the ‘Auto HDR’ settings to ‘Off.’

Note: We do not recommend you to turn off the ‘Use HDR‘ settings because it will disable the HDR settings on the Windows 11 system.

Also Read: Windows 11 TPM 2.0 Requirements