Windows 10 Display Settings superguide: How to adjust every feature

Your computer monitor is a major factor in deciding how good Windows will look on your computer. In fact, even if your computer stays exactly the same, adding a higher-resolution monitor or a larger display can make a world difference. To get the most out of your display, it’s important to familiarize yourself with it built-in monitor settings and calibrate it correctly. However, it is equally important to know your display settings on Windows 10 and what all your adjustments will do.

In this article, we’ll look at everything you can do to set up your display in Windows 10. To play together, open Control Panel and click the Settings tab to open the Settings app. You can also press Windows key + I. Then click System> Display. Now let’s dive.

Settings> System> Display> Color

There is only one option in this first section and that is for Night light. The night light should filter the amount of blue light emitted from your display, thus allowing you to sleep better while still using your computer late at night. We will not go into the arguments for or against this proposal, but if you want to use this option, here it is.

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There is a simple slider to turn the night light on or off. There is also a Night lighting settings connection under the slider. Clicking on this will take you to a second screen where you can activate the night light by clicking Turn it on now. Below it is a slider that allows you to adjust the “power” of the night light. Increasing it reduces the amount of blue in the monitor, and maximizing it gives the monitor a red filter. Rotating all the way back returns your monitor to its normal state. By default, the night light is set to about 50 percent.

Finally, this second screen has a Schedule option. Turning this button on the On slider will allow you to customize the hours during which the night light is active. By default, it is automatically scheduled to be turned on from sunset to sunrise based on your location.

Otherwise, you can set your own hours by selecting Set hours radio button. This gives you two simple options: Turn it onwhere you can set the time with AM / PM; and then Turn it offusing the same interface.

To return to the main page of Settings> System press the back button in the upper left corner.

Settings> System> Display> Windows HD Color

If you have HDR monitor here you can make adjustments to your display. First, you should see a drag button with a label Use HDR. Turn this on. If you do not see this slider, you may need to enable HDR in the monitor’s built-in settings. How you do this depends on the manufacturer of your monitor, so see your instruction manual for how to turn on HDR.

Once HDR is activated on your monitor, click the link Windows HD color settings. This takes you to a second page with a number of options that only appear when HDR is active.

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At the top is a drop-down menu for switching between displays if you have a setting for multiple monitors. It then shows a summary of your HDR options and what is active. They include Stream HDR video,, Use HDR, and Use WCG applications.

Then you have Use HDR slider button, then another slider button that says Stream HDR video. When available, you can stream HDR video.

Then we have a preview video that gives you an idea of ​​what the HDR video will look like with your current settings.

Then there is the option of HDR / SDR brightness balance. This is another slider that allows you to balance the brightness between the two images. Adjust this slider until you like the appearance of both images.

If you want to explore in depth how to maximize the HDR potential of your monitor, see our tutorials on How to enable HDR in Windows 10 and Everything you need to know about HDR on your computer.

Settings> System> Display> Scale and Design

Here you can adjust your display resolution,, orientation, and scaling. At the top there is a drop-down menu with a label Resize text, applications, and other items. We recommend that you use at least 125 percent zoom at 1080p and higher display resolutions to make your eyes easier, but find the zoom that works best for you.

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If you want a zoom that is between the preset settings, click Advanced zoom settings. On the next screen you will see an option for Custom scaling where you can enter anything between 100 and 500 percent. Custom scaling is not recommended as it can really confuse things. But if you need him, he’s here.

There is also a slider button at the top of this screen that allows Windows to try to correct applications from being blurred, which can sometimes happen when zooming. Overall, though, the Windows 10 zoom presets work very well.

Returning to Basic Settings> System> Display Window, there are also options for adjusting the display resolution. This should almost always be set to the natural resolution of your display. Then below is the display orientation for landscape and portrait mode options – landscape is the default.

Settings> System> Display> Multiple displays

Finally, we are at the last option where you can set up multiple monitors. If you use an older display with your computer, it may not be detected automatically. If this is the case, click Detection button. Otherwise, you will see a drop-down menu labeled Many displays. The default is to use Expand these displays an option that allows you to use both displays as one large desktop. In this way, when you move the mouse across the desktop (left or right), the mouse automatically moves to the second display.

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You can also choose Duplicate these displayswhich can be useful if you want to show a group display and navigate the laptop screen facing you. Then there is Show only 1 and Show only on 2which will show Windows only on the primary display (1) or the secondary display (2).

If you have a setting for multiple monitors, Windows 10 will automatically appear at the top of Settings> System> Display display a graph showing the number of monitors that Windows 10 detects. Here you can rearrange where your monitors are in physical space by clicking and dragging the monitors around. There is also Identify and Detection buttons to help you organize your monitors.

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Returning to the section with multiple displays, there is a link to a label Advanced display settings. This takes you to a second page where you can see the attributes for each monitor. At the top is a drop-down menu listing your displays.

Then there is a Display information an option that displays various attributes, including resolution, refresh rate, bit depth, color format, and color space. If you need to adjust any of these attributes, click the link below Display information labeled Display Adapter Properties for Display 1. This will change depending on which of your displays you are currently set to view the settings for. For example, if you switched to see the settings on your secondary monitor, then the link will say Display 2 Display Adapter Properties

Clicking this link will open a properties window where you can set the maximum refresh rate, adjust the monitor properties, and adjust the color management settings.

Finally, there is another drop-down menu where you can adjust the refresh rate.

Return to the main window for Settings> System> Display> Multiple displays there is also a connection to etiquette Graphic settings. This opens another a secondary page where you can turn on the option to use a variable refresh rate (FreeSync), if available, and Graphics performance preference preset. This allows you to set preferences for each application. For example, you can choose to have your games explicitly set to high performance and choose energy-saving efficiency for web browsing.

For the most part, it’s best to let Windows automatically choose between high performance and power saving; however, you can explicitly specify certain applications if you wish.

That’s all for our tour of the default display settings built into Windows 10. Sound, notifications, and focus help follow.