Update from Win11 21H2 to Win11 22H2 leads to eye strain
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arturpanteleev This might have been said in this thread before, but the reason why Windows 11 22H2 ruined your display is that 22H2 brings Windows ACM (Auto Color Management) to SDR (8-bit) displays.
(For those skimming this thread, this applies to 11 22H2 but not 10 22H2, which remains unchanged.)
This feature has existed since Windows 10 1709 for HDR and 10-bit displays, but this is the first time where it has been rolled out to most PCs.
Starting with version 22H2, Windows 11 offers hardware-accelerated, system-level color management, which means accurate, consistent colors across all Windows apps on every display and less artifacting with gradients, shadows, and darker tones.
This is temporal dithering at the OS level.
The best way to describe ACM is that Microsoft has changed the way Windows fundamentally renders color for the first time in years. Essentially, ACM on Windows implements very similar OS-level color rendering tactics to macOS — AKA, exactly what causes a lot of people here to find macOS unusable.
(As an example, "floating point color" — which is new with ACM on Windows — has been used on macOS since OS X Tiger and has involved temporal dithering since around the era of OS X Snow Leopard.)
Here is an official article from Microsoft about ACM, where they surprisingly say it straight up — Windows now uses 16-bit floating point color ("in-between colors" that are more precise than even a 10-bit display, which means that yes, even 10-bit displays will be dithered), forced color calibration, and dithering on 8-bit displays.
Directly from Microsoft:
When ACM is enabled, the DWM performs its composition using IEEE half-precision floating point (FP16), eliminating any bottlenecks, and allowing the full precision of the display to be used. With ACM, apps can access billions of colors with 10-16 bits of precision, and even on displays that only support 8-bit precision, ACM unlocks additional quality using techniques such as dithering.
Graphics drivers may have caused similar effects in the past, but this is the first time it has become a part of the Windows OS itself on 8-bit displays.
Thankfully, unlike Apple, Microsoft has added a toggle to enable/disable ACM — at least for the time being.
(This might be why @Oshim had a positive experience with 22H2 in contrast to yours, because Microsoft may have listed their device as "ACM incompatible" and disabled it on upgrade instead.)
I don't have Windows 11, but there should be a toggle called "Automatically manage color for apps" within Settings app » System » Display » Advanced display.
Let me know if this toggle is on and if so, turn it off. Hopefully, this will most likely revert 22H2 back to the more comfortable rendering method that 21H2 uses.
If the toggle does not exist, there is a section in the second Microsoft article I linked that mentions a registry key that is also able to control ACM. I sincerely hope that ACM is never made mandatory on Windows.
Supposedly Intel arc a770 LE with ACM and HDR disabled has zero dithering and has banding on 8bit monitor. Could be a super safe GPU
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jordan Yep, I highly suspect like that once Microsoft added this toggle to turn ACM on (and turn it on by default), they also probably reduced the amount of ACM-like tactics used when that toggle is off.
This is probably why people who turned ACM off intentionally (as well as people with older devices where Microsoft marked ACM as unsupported) actually have better experiences on 22H2 instead of worse.
DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs Interesting theory!
DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs I don't have Windows 11, but there should be a toggle called "Automatically manage color for apps" within Settings app » System » Display » Advanced display.
On Win 11 23H2, I don't see it
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Well, Windows 10 21H2 which has been working fine for me, will be EOL'd by June and corp IT will force me to Windows 10 22H2 in a few weeks. 
Win 10 21H2 OS Build 19044.4170
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Does that mean your place is on the current GAC channel expiring in 2025, as opposed to the LTSC 21H2 channel expiring in 2027?
You can't do anything about IT, but it's puzzling because it implies they plan to move to 11 in 2025 as opposed to staying on 10 till 2027.
chintamani_reverse @chintamani_reverse Which features did you disable?
Unfortunately I'm forced to Win 10 22H2 (IT mandate). And the dizziness is back
Sunspark You can't do anything about IT, but it's puzzling because it implies they plan to move to 11 in 2025 as opposed to staying on 10 till 2027.
Microsoft always pushed faster adoptions then needed by charging more money for extended support for older OS's to entice orgs to move. Windows 10 will remain in support for over year and a half, but my org is moving to Windows 11 by Jan 2025 at the latest, and any new PC build is Windows 11.
The ACM thing does not surprise me, ad I have long thought that color was a primary culprit of our condition
Anyone having new issues recently from May Windows 10 updates? I have a trusty old Lenovo T450 that I've been able to use for years without any eye issues (with two ancient HP EliteDisplay 221's on my desktop). Sometime in the last week or two I started having really bad eyestrain, burning eyes, etc. (different feeling than I get with new monitors, OLED screens, etc. that seems almost more neurological.) This is pure eyestrain.
Looking at my system it looks like these two updates were installed at around that time.
KB5037768 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64 based Systems
KB5038285 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5, 4.8 and 4.8.1 for Windows 10 Version 22H2
Has anyone else had issues with these or have any idea what could have changed? I've followed along with these Windows update threads over the years and have dreaded this ever happening to me. I didn't have any issues with the 22H2 or 21H2 updates so had hoped I was in the clear.
I've uninstalled these two updates and will see if it helps at all (eyes are too exhausted to really tell immediately)
Oshim Hello, please could you share all methods you use to disable windows udpates that work for you 100%?
I use these two methods but it is not enough to stop some updates:
Method 1:
Edit group policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Update:
- Configure Automatic Updates = Disabled
- Do not include drivers with Windows Updates = Enabled
Method 2: Task Manager/Services/Open Services/Windows Update = Manual
However these two methods are not enough because from time to time some Quality Updates, Other Updates, Security Update for Microsoft Windows and Servicing Stack install automatically silently in the background without me knowing. I just notice it after few days or weeks when I check my "View update history".
I have another question regarding your eyesight. Please can you confirm whether you have myopia (nearsightedness = doctor prescribes minus lenses) or hyperopia (farsightedness = doctor prescribes plus lenses)? I ask this because I wonder if the same type of eye strain which people suffer on this forum can only get person with hyperopia or also a person with myopia. My theory is that only people with hyperopia are those who get eye strain because their ciliary muscles (eye focusing muscles) have to work hard when looking at close objects for prolonged time (monitor, smartphone, book,...).
In case someone does not know difference between myopia or hyperopia, here are two explanation videos: