Customize the Display

Windows 11 will try to select the correct resolution and optimize the scaling for your PC’s display based on its size and capabilities. But you may still want to customize these options to your liking and make other changes related to how Windows 11 looks on your PC’s display.

Most of these options are configured via Display settings. The quickest way to get there is to right-click the Desktop and choose “Display settings” from the context menu that appears. Or, you can open the Settings app and navigate to System > Display.

Change the display resolution

Display settings lets you choose between native and recommended resolutions of your display and several other choices, all of which will be lower than the native resolution. You should make sure that this setting is set to your display’s native resolution.

To do so, open Display settings and view the Display resolution setting in the Scale & layout section.

If you find the user interface elements to be too small (or too big) at your display’s native resolution, you can make them bigger (or smaller) using the display scaling and text sizing settings noted below.

Change the display scaling

Once the display is set properly to its native resolution, you can use the display scaling capabilities in Windows 11—also found under Scale & layout in Display settings—to scale all of the user interface elements in the system so that they are sized as you prefer.

Here, for example, you can see the impact of switching a 14-inch 4K UHD display with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 from the default display scaling of 300 percent to 100 percent.

The scaling that Windows recommends is denoted with the text “(Recommended).”

You can also configure a custom scaling size between 100 and 500 percent. This is not recommended because these custom sizes can sometimes cut off user interface elements. But if you’d like to give it a shot, select the Scale setting in Display settings (not the size drop-down but the setting itself) to navigate to Custom scaling.

Make text bigger

You can also optionally scale text independently of other user interface elements. This is useful if you prefer to use a smaller display scaling setting but would like to make just the on-screen text bigger.

To change onscreen text size independently, open Settings and navigate to Accessibility > Text size. (Or, if you’re already in Display settings, navigate to Scale > Text size.)

You can also use Search or Settings search: look for make text bigger.

Here, you can use the Text size slider to scale onscreen text in 1 percent increments and preview the results in the Text size preview pane at the top. Select the Apply button when the text is exactly the size you prefer.

Enable and configure Night light

Like smartphones and tablets, Windows 11 supports a special display mode that removes a configurable amount of blue light from your PC’s display, making it appear warmer and more orange-colored. This feature, called Night light, is especially desirable at night because blue light is very harsh to our eyes and it impacts our ability to sleep normally.

You can toggle Night light manually in Display settings. But it’s better to set Night light to come on automatically on a set schedule—typically from sunset to sunrise—so that your PC is always configured optimally.

To do so, open Display settings and then select the Night light setting. (Not the toggle switch.) In Night light settings, toggle the setting Schedule night light to “On.”

Here, you can choose between “Sunset to sunrise” or your own custom schedule.

Experiment with the “Strength” slider as well. It will temporarily adjust the display warmth as you do so.

Enable and configure HDR

Windows 10 supports a modern display standard called HDR (high dynamic range) that provides a superior picture than more traditional SDR (standard dynamic range) displays, with brighter colors and deeper blacks. Depending on the capabilities of your PC, you might be able to enable HDR or just play HDR videos in compatible apps.

To find out whether your PC supports HDR, open Display settings and select the HDR (or Use HDR) option if available. This will open HDR settings.

The Display capabilities section displays whether your PC supports HDR (“Use HDR”) and/or HDR video streaming.

If your PC supports neither, then there’s nothing you can do. There are no configurable options here for you.

Use HDR

If you would like to take advantage of your PC’s HDR display capabilities, enable the setting Use HDR. When you do so, several other new settings appear in HDR settings.

These include:

Auto HDR. When enabled, this feature will apply HDR effects to older video games that were created before HDR. It doesn’t work with all games, and it doesn’t work with non-game content. So if you do not play games, leave this setting configured to Off.

Battery options. Because HDR amps up the display brightness, it can adversely impact the battery life of portable PCs. In general, we recommend leaving this setting on its default, “Optimize for battery life.” But you can change it to “Optimize for image quality” if you value that more.

HDR content brightness. By default, HDR content will appear at the brightest possible setting your display supports. But you can use this slider to adjust the brightness down to your liking.

HDR video streaming

If your display supports HDR video streaming, you can configure Battery options as noted in the previous section and use a unique display calibration feature to optimize the display for video playback.

To do so, select the Calibrate button in the Display calibration for HDR video section. In the full-screen experience that appears, you can calibrate the display using the slider as desired.