Forum Discussion
Windows 11 that causes severe eye strain and headaches
Hello,
I am reporting a serious display-related issue in Windows 11 that causes severe eye strain and headaches and makes the OS unusable for me and a few other people. We migrated the entire company, 300 people, from Windows 10 to Windows 11 due to security requirements, but now about 30 employees are suffering from headaches.
Since switching from Windows 10 to Windows 11, I experience strong headaches and visual discomfort even during short sessions and even when simply looking at the desktop with no active workload. This issue is consistent and reproducible.
Based on extensive testing, I suspect Windows 11 applies forced temporal dithering or other frame-to-frame color modulation at the OS / DWM / graphics pipeline level, even when using a native 8-bit display.
System configuration:
Native 8-bit IPS monitor (not 6-bit + FRC)
NVIDIA GPU
HDR fully disabled (Windows, driver, and monitor)
Tested via DisplayPort and HDMI
Multiple refresh rates and timings tested
Troubleshooting steps already performed:
Clean installation of multiple NVIDIA drivers (Game Ready and Studio, DDU used)
Explicitly set 8 bpc color depth
Tested RGB and YCbCr output formats
Disabled G-SYNC / VRR at both driver and monitor levels
Disabled MPO (Multiplane Overlay) via registry
Reset NVIDIA Control Panel to defaults
Removed all custom ICC profiles and reverted to default sRGB
Disabled Night Light, blue light filters, and all adaptive color features
Tested different brightness levels and fully disabled monitor post-processing
Tested multiple scaling settings (100–150%)
Tested different resolutions and timing standards (CVT / CVT-RB)
Tested output via integrated GPU (where available)
Key observation:
With the exact same hardware, cables, monitor, and settings, Windows 10 does not cause these symptoms. The problem appears only on Windows 11, which strongly suggests a change in the Windows 11 graphics pipeline, DWM behavior, or color management.
This is not a subjective preference issue but a health-related problem.
Questions:
Is there any supported or undocumented way to fully disable THIS in Windows 11?
If not, then are there plans to provide explicit user control over color modulation in future Windows versions, given that this behavior causes severe eye strain and headaches for some users?
I would appreciate a response from a technical specialist familiar with Windows graphics, DWM, and display output behavior.
4 Replies
I started suffering from the same issues (severe headaches, dizziness, nausea) when my company upgraded to Windows 11 as well. For me, the symptoms are almost instantaneous and the headaches will last for a week or more afterwards. I too have narrowed this down to the dithering used in Windows 11. Interestingly, on the learn.microsoft.com site, a Microsoft External Staff and moderator confirms that Windows uses dithering for display pipelines that are not true 10-bit (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5631008/why-has-microsoft-introduced-dithering-in-wddm-sin). Due to the fact that true 10-bit monitors aren't made anymore by most companies (I confirmed directly with Dell and BenQ) there is currently not a viable way to avoid the dithering. For me, this is a matter of being able to maintain my livelihood as I will no longer be able to work if I can't find a solution very soon. My company has provided me some time, but it won't last long since I'm now working on an unsupported OS. I join in asking that Microsoft provide a release as quickly as possible that allows the users
This is happening at my workplace too. I've been suffering from headaches and dizziness since the update, and at lunchtime I talked to a coworker who has been experiencing the same symptoms ever since we switched to Windows 11
It's just that most people are either used to enduring pain, or don't know what it's because of a lack of technical knowledge (and think there's something wrong with them), or don't know where to turn. We're at the techcommunity now, the only place where you can get an answer. But for some reason, none of the specialists bother to answer. The problem is very serious. People are PHYSICALLY unable to work. Yes, we restored Windows 10 for them, but they've run out of security updates!
This is happening at my workplace too. I've been suffering from headaches and dizziness since the update, and at lunchtime I talked to a coworker who has been experiencing the same symptoms ever since we switched to Windows 11
