Windows 11 gets some much-needed HDR improvements

Microsoft is rolling out a monthly update to Windows 11 that includes some important updates to HDR support in the operating system. The updates allow you to keep HDR disabled across the whole of Windows, but still stream HDR video in all its glory, alongside more control over Dolby Vision.

The latest KB5058499 update is available to all Windows 11 users right now if you’ve enabled the “get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” option in Windows Update. Once it’s installed, you can now toggle the ability to stream HDR video option even when HDR is disabled in Windows, allowing you to view HDR content from apps like Netflix or websites like YouTube without having to enable HDR throughout Windows.

Microsoft is also updating Windows 11’s HDR support to allow you to independently toggle Dolby Vision support in content or throughout Windows. Dolby Vision used to be forced on inside Windows if you enabled it on your monitor, so it’s nice to have the option to be able to toggle it on or off.

These new options are great for people who simply disable HDR in Windows because of its patchy support. I personally disable HDR in Windows and use the keyboard shortcut (Windows Key + Alt + B) to enable it in games that properly support it, simply because I rely on a variety of content capture tools for screenshots and screen recording that produce a washed out image because they don’t properly support HDR or provide a way to capture individual SDR content.

While HDR support in Windows has improved over the past year thanks to the latest batch of OLED monitors, I’d still like to see game developers and Microsoft take HDR more seriously. Auto HDR is great for games, but it’s still a really fiddly and manual process to get HDR to work well across a variety of apps and games in Windows.