Microsoft will add a feature to Windows 11 that will automatically enable HDR for streaming video, even if HDR is disabled at the system level. Even though Windows has officially supported HDR for several years, working with it has not always been convenient. New tweaks found in Windows 11 build 27686, available to Windows Insiders, promise to make HDR easier to use.
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The main innovation is an option that will allow you to watch HDR videos in streaming mode without turning on HDR mode for the entire system, TechSpot reports. The display settings section for HDR has also been renamed to “HDR video streaming, games, apps, and more.” The name change, along with the new option, also hints at wider HDR support across various apps and games.
Interestingly, Microsoft did not initially mention these changes in the Build 27686 announcement, focusing on increasing the maximum FAT32 file system size from 32 GB to 2 TB. Information about the new HDR setting appeared later in an updated post on the official blog.
Let’s remember that the company first introduced official HDR support in 2017 with the release of Windows 10 Creators Update (1703). Since then, compatibility with HDR content has been continually improved. Today, users can enable HDR using a keyboard shortcut or convert standard content (SDR) to HDR for select games.
In addition to improvements to HDR video streaming, the Windows 11 24H2 update will also include support for JXR (JPEG XR) HDR wallpaper image compression, a Microsoft-exclusive technology that aims to improve upon the widely used JPEG standard.