HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is something you take for granted on consoles and TVs because once you flip the switch it just happens, every time you use it, forever. On the pc the technique was a bit more complicated.
On PC, Windows users – those with compatible monitors anyway – generally need a toggle to turn HDR on and off all the time. This is because the brightness and settings used by the gaming feature are totally unsuitable for sitting near a monitor while browsing / working. I need these eyeballs thank you very much and if they are burned to ashes in my skull then they are not very good for online shopping, reading news articles, or blogging for a website.
Previously, this was a switch in the Windows 10 Settings menu. If you wanted to use HDR, you had to open that menu, flip a switch, play the game, and then when you were done go back and turn it off again. I know this sounds quick and easy to read when you read it this way, but any pc gamer familiar with the feature will know it was so easy to forget and required so many clicks and menus for such a simple option are that it is often used too little, if not completely overlooked.
No longer! While Windows 11’s system tray and folder changes are all making the headlines, it also quietly introduced some HDR settings that are hugely beneficial for PC gamers with a compatible monitor.
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The first is a simple shortcut key. Anytime users can press Win + Alt + B and instantly switch between HDR and standard display, something I know should have been in Windows for years but kind of just made it into the game. This is great for not only quickly turning the feature on and off, but for being able to do it quickly within a game so you can see the difference.
The second is to add some HDR options to the Xbox Game Bar. In the Game Features section of the Game Bar Settings menu, you can now tell Windows to automatically turn HDR on and off when booting and shutting down a detected game (very useful for the above Reason for “burning eyeballs”) and once on, you can also adjust the intensity of the effect with a slider. Even better, in games that don’t have HDR options of their own, Windows 11 takes a swing in customizing the levels themselves, and it does Excellent Job. I’ve tested this with a number of games and found that it works every time and that the slider is always best set to maximum.
While these settings actually debuted for testers earlier this year and have been available to everyone since Windows 11 released last month, they had so little noticed that I thought I’d post about them today. You don’t even have to install anything, just try it now and see how you like it!
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