To change your monitor’s colors in Windows 11, go to Settings > System > Display > Color profile and select Calibrate display, or press Windows + R, type dccw, and press Enter. Follow the steps for gamma, brightness, contrast, and color balance. For a warmer screen at night, use Night light, and for color blindness or grayscale, use Color filters.
These steps are for Windows 11 Home and Pro and follow Microsoft’s display brightness and color guide and its color filters article. If your Display page has no Color profile option, you are on an older Windows 11 build, so use the Color Management method below.
Which Setting Do You Need?
“Monitor color” can mean several different things. Pick the tool that matches what you see:
| What you want | Use this |
|---|---|
| More accurate or balanced colors | Calibrate display, or a color profile from your monitor maker |
| A warmer, less blue screen at night | Night light |
| Help telling colors apart, or a gray screen | Color filters |
| Better HDR games and video | HDR settings and the Windows HDR Calibration app |
| Richer or less intense colors | Your graphics software or the monitor’s menu |
| Different window and taskbar colors | Personalization settings, not display color |
How to Calibrate Your Display Color
Calibration builds a color profile that corrects how your PC sends color to the screen. Before you start, set your monitor’s own picture mode back to its default (often called Standard) and sit in your normal room lighting, so the result matches how you use the screen.
- Go to Settings > System > Display > Color profile and select Calibrate display. Or press Windows + R, type dccw, and press Enter. The Display Color Calibration tool opens.
- If you have more than one monitor, move the window onto the one you want to adjust.
- Follow the screens to set gamma, brightness, contrast, and color balance. Each screen shows a sample image to match. Some steps ask you to use your monitor’s own buttons, and you can skip the brightness and contrast steps if your monitor doesn’t have those controls.
- At the end, compare the new and old settings with Previous calibration and Current calibration, then select Finish to keep them. Windows saves a new color profile for that display.
Microsoft notes that on HDR-enabled external displays, Calibrate display sends you to the Windows HDR Calibration app instead. That app is covered in the HDR section below.
Choose or Add a Color Profile
A color profile is a small file (ending in .icm or .icc) that tells Windows how your monitor shows color. Windows usually picks one when you connect a display, so you only need to change it if colors look wrong or you do photo and video work. Your monitor maker may offer a profile on its support site. Search for your monitor’s model number (printed on the back of the monitor) and look in the driver download, and unzip the download if needed.
On the Color profile page (Settings > System > Display > Color profile), you can:
- Add a profile: select your display, then select Add profile and choose the .icm or .icc file.
- Set a default: select Set profile next to the one you want.
- Remove a profile: expand it and select Remove.
Only color-managed apps, such as most photo editors, use the profile fully. Some apps look the same no matter which profile you pick.
Turn On Automatic Color Management
On supported displays, Windows can manage color across all apps so they look accurate and consistent. On the Color profile page, select your display and turn on Automatically manage color for apps. This can improve color quality even on 8-bit displays.
Use Color Management on Older Windows 11 Builds
If you don’t see the Color profile page, use the classic tool instead:
- Select Start, type Color Management, and open it.
- On the Devices tab, pick your monitor in the Device list. Select Identify monitors if you aren’t sure which one is which.
- Check Use my settings for this device.
- Select Add, choose the profile (select Browse if it isn’t listed), and select OK.
- Select the profile in the list and choose Set as Default Profile, then select Close.
To go back to what Windows chose, return to the Devices tab, select Profiles, and choose Reset my settings to the system defaults.
Make the Screen Warmer With Night Light
Night light reduces blue light and makes colors warmer, which can be easier on your eyes at night. Turn it on in Settings > System > Display, then open Night light to set the Strength or turn on Schedule night light (Sunset to sunrise, or Set hours). You can also switch it on from Quick Settings on the taskbar. If the toggle is grayed out, update your display driver.
Turn Night light off before editing photos, because the warm tint changes how colors look. For more display options, you can also adjust brightness on Windows 11.
If the screen is still too bright at night, you can make screen brightness even lower in Windows 11.
Use Color Filters
Color filters change the whole screen’s color palette, which can help if you have trouble telling some colors apart. Press Windows + U (or go to Settings > Accessibility), select Color filters, turn the switch on, and try each filter to find one that suits you. Options include grayscale, inverted colors, and filters for red-green and blue-yellow color blindness. On the same page you can turn on the keyboard shortcut, which toggles your filter with Windows + Ctrl + C.
If you need stronger contrast for reading rather than a different palette, go to Settings > Accessibility > Contrast themes, choose a theme, and select Apply. Pick None to turn it off.
Adjust HDR Color
HDR (high dynamic range) shows brighter highlights and a wider range of color in supported games and videos, but it can make everyday apps look dull. Check your screen first: go to Settings > System > Display > HDR and look at Display capabilities, which shows Supported or Not supported for each HDR feature.
- On the HDR page, select the right display and turn HDR on. The screen may flicker or go black for a moment.
- If regular windows look washed out or too dark, drag SDR content brightness (external displays) or HDR content brightness (built-in displays) until they look normal. Microsoft’s HDR settings page explains both sliders.
- To fine-tune HDR, install the free Windows HDR Calibration app from the Microsoft Store and open it from Start > All apps. Drag each test pattern’s slider until the pattern disappears. The last screen has a color saturation slider if you want richer HDR color.
The app needs an HDR-capable display with HDR on and fairly recent graphics hardware, listed on Microsoft’s HDR Calibration page. On a laptop, HDR may turn off on battery power. If HDR still looks wrong on your monitor, turn it off and use standard mode.
Use the Monitor’s Own Menu
Most monitors have buttons for picture modes, color temperature, and RGB levels. These change the picture no matter which PC is connected. Look for a Picture, Display, or Color section with presets such as Warm, Cool, Normal, sRGB, or Custom, and make small RGB changes one at a time. Check your monitor’s manual for the menu. Microsoft also notes that on desktop PCs with an external monitor, you may need the monitor’s buttons to change brightness.
For more ways to dim or brighten an external display, including PowerToys, read how to change brightness on a second monitor.
Change Saturation With Your Graphics Software
Windows 11 does not provide a universal saturation slider in Display settings. The calibration wizard above adjusts gamma and color balance; it is not a substitute for a graphics utility’s saturation control. If you want richer or less intense desktop colors, check the software for the graphics hardware driving that screen. Record the original values first. More saturation does not necessarily mean more accurate color.
In NVIDIA Control Panel, open Display > Adjust desktop color settings, select the correct display, and adjust Digital Vibrance. More detail is in NVIDIA’s Digital Vibrance guide. Apply a small change and compare a familiar photo; restore your previous setting if skin tones or colors look exaggerated.
In AMD Software, search for Display, open Display Settings, select the screen, enable Custom Color, and adjust Saturation if available. AMD’s Custom Color instructions explain the controls. In Intel Graphics Command Center, open Display > Color, create a custom profile, and use Saturation if supported; the default profile may be locked. See Intel’s color-setting instructions.
Available controls depend on your graphics hardware and driver. If the option is missing, use the color settings in the monitor’s own menu, described above.
Change Output Color Depth
Bit depth controls color precision, and Windows 11 doesn’t let you change it in Display settings. On supported NVIDIA graphics, open NVIDIA Control Panel > Display > Change resolution, choose Use NVIDIA color settings, and pick a value under Output color depth (see NVIDIA’s help page). Available values depend on the GPU, cable, and display, so 10 or 12 bpc may not be offered, and a higher value won’t make colors more accurate by itself.
Colors Look Wrong All of a Sudden?
Change one thing at a time so you know which fix worked.
- Screen went gray or inverted: Color filters may be on. Turn them off in Settings > Accessibility > Color filters, or press Windows + Ctrl + C if the keyboard shortcut is turned on.
- Everything looks orange or yellow: turn off Night light. If it’s off, check the monitor’s color temperature preset.
- Colors look faded after turning on HDR: adjust the content brightness slider described above, or turn HDR off.
- Colors changed after you added a profile: set a different profile on the Color profile page, or reset Color Management to the system defaults.
- Brightness keeps changing: some PCs adjust brightness and contrast based on content. In Settings > System > Display > Brightness, set Change brightness based on content to Off.
- Text looks blurry and colors look muddy: choose the resolution marked Recommended in Display settings. For help, read how to change screen resolution.
- Still off: update your graphics driver in Windows 11 through Windows Update or your graphics maker, then restart.
Change Windows Colors Instead of Display Color
If you want a different look for windows, the Start menu, or the taskbar, that’s a Personalization setting, and it doesn’t change how your monitor shows photos or video. That’s where you turn on dark mode in Windows 11 or change the taskbar color.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does calibration change my monitor’s own settings?
No. Windows saves a color profile on your PC. Your monitor’s menu settings stay as they are.
How do I undo calibration?
Go to the Color profile page and set a different profile as the default, or remove the profile the calibration created.
To put scale, resolution and Night light back to their defaults as well, you can reset display settings in Windows 11.
Can calibration damage my monitor?
No. Calibration only changes the color profile Windows uses. You can remove the profile at any time.
Do I need to calibrate each monitor separately?
Yes. Each display gets its own color profile, so run Calibrate display on every screen and move the tool’s window onto the screen you’re adjusting.
Why does my screen look yellow?
Night light is the most common cause. A warm color temperature preset in the monitor’s menu or the wrong color profile can also add a yellow tint.
Matthew Burleigh is the founder, head writer, and editor of Solve Your Tech, which he launched in 2012. He has written technology tutorials since 2008 and worked in IT since 2003, including small-business support, IT management, and consulting. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Arizona State University.
Matthew writes practical guides for Windows, iPhone and iPad, Microsoft Office, Outlook, Google apps, and Android. Solve Your Tech’s guides are checked step by step against the device or app maker’s own documentation and tested on his own devices whenever he has the hardware or software, with clear steps, sources, and update dates.
Read more about Matthew and how Solve Your Tech writes and updates its guides, or report a correction.