I am sensitive to dithering, but have never had an issue with W10 itself, others here including yourself do. I have wondered if it was something to do with the graphics card, perhaps W10 can force dithering whereas W7 doesn't. What graphics card are you using?
Trouble with Windows 10, any solutions?
ensete A solution could be to downgrade the Windows 10. Because we discovered that since the "Anniversary upgrade" 3 years ago Windows 10 suddenly got bad for some of us. The very first build 1507 and maybe 1510 (not sure) are known-good. Downgrading plus properly blocking updates helps, but then you have a vulnerable Windows 10 without any updates. Not the best solution. LTSB 2015 also helps, which is a version that only companies can get unless users decide to get it "elsewhere". The benefit is this version still gets updates but no upgrades. But since I haven't used it for years I can't say for sure if it's still "known-good" nowadays after countless updates. Maybe someone else knows.
1510 is good. The lastest versions (1903) are ... acceptable ... for me, although I still prefer 1510.
KM any idea where to get a pre-anniversary version?
ensete I've experienced similar issues but not on the same computer. I had a graphics card that worked fine with windows 7 but when using it with windows 10 with a first gen ryzen (no integrated graphics) it caused eye strain. Not sure if it's windows 10, windows 10 radeon drivers or both.
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SeniorTaquito I'd do it by finding the legit checksum information of your language version, on some trustworthy website, then download the ISO file anywhere and compare the checksums to ensure the file hasn't been tempered with. I don't have neither anymore so can't provide you with first-hand information. Make sure to pull any LAN cables or Windows would auto-update itself, effectively losing the eye strain benefits.
Should a user decide to "get" LTSB 2015, the procedure is similar, although probably not authorized by any means, plus it would involve bypassing software activation. So probably not something we can discuss in detail here. I think the forum mydigitallife.info is a good source of information.
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ensete Presumably your IT dept will just deploy the latest W10 image to your machine?
I doubt even the most sympathetic IT admin would downgrade one person to an earlier W10 revision.
This is the problem, in most small and large corporates, you're at the mercy of the IT dept, and I'd expect most places are reasonably up to date with patches.
We can tweak all we like to have a personal comfortable setup, but the minute you set foot in a traditional office, you don't have any control over your workstation.
It's a work computer, so I can't downgrade the OS.
It has an identical video card as I have in a Win 7 computer that is used without eye strain, so I'm prety sure Windows 10 is the issue.
Windows 10 appears to render type and color completely differently. This seems to cause the monitor to act in a way that causes eye strain. I'm currently working on getting admin access to the machine so I can tweak more settings and see if I can resolve the issue.
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diop I doubt even the most sympathetic IT admin would downgrade one person to an earlier W10 revision.
Yeah, I tried to stay on the corporate Win 7 build as long as possible but eventually the company had to upgrade me due to security policy. My ADA request to remain on Windows 7 was rejected as being unreasonable due to lack of adherence to security policies.
For my home PC I don't have windows 10 and never will, that OS is so freaking beyond terrible I can't believe it. I am on Windows 7 until it becomes unsupported and I will then be moving to Linux when forced to. I have used various Linux builds with XFCE shell without issues.
ensete What CPU and GPU are you using in your PC? Does Linux cause eye strain without the XFCE shell? I tried the latest version of ubuntu and mint, both caused eyestrain with a ryzen 5/RX550 build... however that might be due to the RX550. I now have an old HD8500 GPU which worked fine on windows 7 but causes strain on windows 10. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to try it with any linux distos.
ensete I'm running 7 at home too but have had success with 8.1, might be worth a try at least for home use?
Funny thing is I've never had a good time with Linux. I remember trying Ubuntu live in the late 00's and had (looking back) similar symptoms to now, so dithering of some sort has been a thing on *nix long before Windows I imagine.
Since nouveau etc is open-source hopefully there's a solution for Linux soon. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Gurm Possibly. I've turned bad displays into good displays by loading the correct ICC profile. I've also had good displays hurt me when displaying certain colors. But I've never gotten triggered by a color in real life, which leads me to believe it's something the monitor is doing in order to display that color that is causing the issue
Still waiting for admin access but one thing I notices, switching from a DVI connecter to an old HD15 connector seemed to help a little
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ensete I didnt notice this article before - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subpixel_rendering
it shows that when subpixel rendering is involved, the letters float and dont stay put. Putting too much workload on people with preexisting eye cond. like heterophoria.
Im gonna meet with one physicist soon and do tests in a lab with microscope and high speed camera on good and bad devices. He works in led development and is really interested in the topic. Its already been done here, but now I hope to replicate it more precisely.
I am also curious why my iphone 7 is ok now with reduced white point, but without it gives really bad pain. Hopefully the tests will show.
It also seems subpixel rendering is driven by graphic cards and not os - 
6 months later
I found this link from some months ago where Windows 10 had a bug that caused all monitors and graphics card to have strong banding on gradients: https://www.eizoglobal.com/support/compatibility/software/problem_windows10_may_2019_update/index.html
I think this is further proof that they are doing something unnecessary with the graphics output on the OS level, independent of monitors and graphics cards.