Over the weekend I freshly installed Win 10 2004 on several Laptops by using an iso image from the techbench site.
(https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php)

The following laptops where tested with respect to visual comfort:

  • Thinkpad X1 Extreme FHD with Intel UHD 630 Graphics WDDM 2.6 / 2.7 drivers from 2020 (Display: 8 bit)
  • Acer Travelmate P645 S with Intel HD 5500 Graphics WDDM 2.0 driver from 2017 (Display: 6 bit + FRC)
  • Acer Travelmate P645 MG with Intel HD 4400 Graphics WDDM 2.0 driver from 2015 (Display: 6 bit + FRC)

(The Latest Firefox 77.0.1 browser was used for reading tests on all laptops).

On all laptops I noticed the following improvements over Windows 1909:

  • Easier to read and focus on text. Particularly reading in Firefox has improved.
  • The screen's content seems to be steadier and calmer.
  • No neurological problems. Neither migraine-like symptoms nor any tightening/tingling of the head was noticed.

Nevertheless on all three laptops I experienced some eye strain to a varying degree. The least strain was noticeable on the older Acer latops. There I only got slightly watered, irritated eyes after some minutes of reading in the browser. I got the impression that I could use these laptops for several hours without developing any more serious strain.

The most strain I got on the newer Thinkpad. My left eye accumulated some serious pain that was creeping up after around half an hour of using it. Both eyes got also much more irritated than on the older laptops. By the way upgrading Intel drivers from WDDM 2.6 to 2.7 made no difference.

I assume that perhaps the lower level of WDDM support made a positive difference here. The laptops based on WDDM 2.0 seem to be much more eye friendly than WDDM 2.6/2.7 on the Thinkpad. Perhaps the intel UHD 630 drivers still need some fine-tuning to catch up in eye friendliness.

In short. On the Acer laptops the latest Win 10 iteration is better than the previously installed 1909. Regrettably the same cannot be said for the Thinkpad.

    tfouto I don't know to be honest. Right now I am still sick from Saturday, so I can't test anything!
    I am sure that the version 1809 is 100% fine on my laptop (dell latitude E5550), intel driver from 2017 with WDDM 2.0 + ditering.exe enable.
    With my desktop I was using 1809 + AMD driver from 2017 with WDDM 2.2 and it was 80/90% fine. No brain problem, just some burning eyes.
    Last Sunday i've formated the 1909 and installed the 1803 (i didn't have any ISO of 1709 or 1809 right now) but i can't give you any feedback right now. I need more time to recover my brain.
    I think there is something that triggers my esophoria on or off, and maybe it could be the dithering that cause a less stable image?! I should try to start some visual training and/or using prismatic lens!

    P.S. I think that only bill gates can help us 😐

      I'm sorry to see that there aren't that many success stories in here - currently I would view W10 v2004 as a revelation for my temporal dithering / subpixel rendering sensitivity. However, my experience is completely dependent on the Intel drivers.

      I've got 7th gen Intel graphics in my laptop (HD 630) and I provided I use very old drivers I can use it all day. I have experimented with new Intel drivers (2018 - 2020) and they cause the same 'unable to focus', squiggly eye feeling that I had with Windows 1909, which will build to nausea and migraines if I continue. However, revert back to the oldest drivers I could find (Intel HD 21.20.16.4475) and the display is calm, easy on the eyes and I can use it all day on my XPS 9560.

      I'm going to use this information to really push Intel to investigate.

      I have also updated the Nvidia drivers of my onboard 1050Ti to the current version (26.21.14.4614) and I am experimenting with gaming on my laptop for 1 hour at a time, and have yet to get any symptoms - bear in mind this is the first time in 8 years I can game on a laptop.

      Feeling boosted by all this, I went to work trying to get my brand new XPS 15 9500 to work (Intel UHD 630 on board). After days of experiments, I feel there is nothing that can be done to make this new integrated card work for me - it triggers crazy nausea, migraines and dizziness from working on it.

      Overall I still can't quite believe I have a working setup, on good hardware, and a modern OS that is basically 'vanilla'. Really hope there are further success stories to come from v2004.

        si_edgey Wish you could visit me and be able to induce your hardware in known good/bad modes. I have some ideas, but they require my custom setup to test.

            JTL So frustrating isn't it? Don't suppose you're in Scotland, or even the UK...? I'm willing to chip in some money on finding a solution to this for everyone, or even advancing our knowledge of it. So if you have hardware I could use or purchase to help with investigation then I'm 100% game.

            In reality though, this isn't our problem to solve, it's Intel's / AMD's / Nvidia's. I've been speaking with my contact at Microsoft and he has been speaking to a graphics guy who agreed with our hypothesis of hardware bit-depth up-scaling (using temporal dithering) that can happen at the output stage of a graphics adapter, so that confirms why some systems are 'bad' and will always be 'bad'.

            But on 'good' hardware that is made bad by drivers - that is unacceptable, and will be an easy fix if we can get someone to care. These companies don't want bad press so let's start thinking collectively about how we can make a loud noise about this and get it sorted once and for all.

                JTL Well that's easy, I can just jump on a.....oh wait. 😷

                  si_edgey These companies don't want bad press so let's start thinking collectively about how we can make a loud noise about this and get it sorted once and for all.

                  Although the effects of blue light are common knowledge yet I don’t see people up in arms over it. In the case of desktop monitors sensible choices can now be made which is a godsend, however smartphones are notorious for high blue light spikes. The latest clickbait I have seen suggests premature ageing of the skin and sight loss due to excessive exposure to blue light. It is simply unacceptable for these devices to have made it past R&D with full knowledge of the harm that can be caused.

                  I agree that the good setup turning bad is a major fail for driver developers, and also suggests once again that this is all a software setting/dithering en masse. Getting a working driver/OS is a great start, however it’s worthless if we don’t have control at the GPU output level.

                    I can't recover after that weekend of trying with the 2004. I am pretty scared because now i am sick with almost my devices! I don't have eye strain / burning eyes etc.. it's just a "brain problem" massive dazzles / headache. Any suggestions on what can I do? any medicines?
                    Thanks 🙂

                      5 days later

                      diop How are you getting on with your W10 2004 install?

                      20 days on and I'm happy to report that I am symptom free, and have even been enjoying gaming on my laptop for the first time in 8 years. I've been playing Portal 2 as it was the game I started playing back in January 2012 on my brand new Macbook when I experienced my first powerful migraine and started my long journey to this point.

                      I've installed W10 2004 on my desktop machine too (Nvidia GTX 770) and updated to the latest drivers and I'm pretty confident in saying I can use that without issues also - so far I've not had any symptoms but it needs more testing. I would say that the newest Nvidia drivers feel better to me than the older ones which is also good news.

                      The only caveat on my laptop is I have to use the oldest available Intel graphics drivers (21.20.16.4475) and this means that the most recent hardware I can use is the 7th gen Intel processors. Switching to drivers from 2018 - 2020 gives me symptoms, although I've not done extensive testing of this for obvious reasons. I'm also still running ditherig.exe out of a purely 'if it ain't broke' mentality.

                      I've now tried 2 machines with the 10th gen Intel UHD 630 graphics and both give me symptoms very quickly.

                      So I feel like for me at least, any dithering / subpixel rendering issues within Windows have been fixed, and now I'm completely dependant on 'good' Intel graphics drivers. I've opened a line of communication with Intel and will try to make progress on that front, but overall I'm very glad to have multiple working setups on an up-to-date OS.

                      Anyone else having positive experiences with v2004?

                          si_edgey Thanks for the update!

                          What would be interesting to know is if you found a duplicate 'good' laptop via eBay etc would that be comfortable with the same drivers/OS? (At least it's a backup 🙂) It also may be worth making a note of the VBIOS/BIOS version of your 'good' machines for future reference.

                          This does look like a driver issue more than ever now. I am a bit apprehensive to update anything else at the moment but hopefully others will be able to chime in with 2004 news. As you're finding out though it's all about having good drivers or GPU to begin with.

                              diop What would be interesting to know is if you found a duplicate 'good' laptop via eBay etc would that be comfortable with the same drivers/OS?

                              I'm tempted to try this - it's an expensive experiment though, but a backup for the future would be nice..

                                Just wanted to confirm that the combination of Windows 10 2004 (Build 19041) and Intel HD 5500 drivers from 2015
                                (20.19.0015.4352) has turned out to be the most eye-friendly setup for me so far. I can work productively for hours on my laptop without any mental and physical limitations. Downgrading the Intel graphics driver from 2017 to 2015 has been worthwhile because this step seemed to have eliminated some intermittent eye-pinching sensation in my left eye. On my laptop brightness is set to at least 70% to lessen potential PWM. I have installed pangobright to reduce the glare. (https://www.pangobright.com/)

                                Dithering/FRC, most likely controlled by the vbios, is noticeable on dark backgrounds but doesn´t cause me any harm. Intel´s UHD 630 drivers are still unusable for me in conjunction with Windows 10. So the outlook is bleak. ☹️

                                Decided to take a look at it today so I popped it in on my NUC.

                                One thing that is nice, if you have an activated Windows 7/8 you don't need to run the old upgrade utility to activate from 7 to 10. I have it, but I never bothered running it. Instead, it accepts you typing in the Windows 7 product key (and 8 as well I believe) and it'll activate. So, now I have an activated 10 Pro without having to run any of the third party utilities. Which is nice, because you can download the .iso directly from MS, all you have to do is change the user agent on your browser to a non-Windows string and it will let you download an .iso so you don't need to use their tool to construct whatever.

                                I honestly don't know why people like 10. Eye issues critiques aside, it just feels slower, heavier and clunkier than 7 which is really nice and responsive on my NUC. It really shows how there's still a ton of Vista/7-era elements still kicking around that MS just slapped stuff on top of.

                                Even Netflix, while sure it's nice that it lets you use full resolution, there's this "smoothness" to it that doesn't feel right to me which is likely due to the display compositor, it reminds me of the soap opera effect on TVs where tvs interpolate frames. I do prefer video on 7 for netflix, the framerate feels more natural. Of note, I also don't have this weird smoothness on my Android phone either which is whitelisted for full resolution.

                                Having it search for a driver update for my monitor had it install the same colour profile as I have in 7, so that took care of the harsh white that some here have commented on that 10 has. I would suggest you have it search for an updated monitor driver in your device manager, it very well might bring a colour profile along.

                                Played around with different display driver versions from multiple different years for fun. I can see subtle differences between them but that doesn't change the fact that I just don't like 10, it doesn't feel nice like a planned OS like Vista/7 is with the Aero interface. I use 10 (1809) every day Mon-Fri on my work laptop, so it's not solely a get used to it thing.

                                WDDM # stayed at 2 for every version of the display driver I tried including the same one I use on 7 as well as the latest one available from Intel for download for my 5th gen cpu with HD 6000. Probably it'll never be updated past 2.

                                If I was forced to, I could use 2004, but I don't want to you know? It just feels more comfortable in 7 for me, and I have everything set up the way I like it.

                                Makes me laugh how Windows 10 still has two separate control panels. The gear icon, and the real one.

                                Guess I'll try build 20150 beta for the heck of it which is the 20H2 update scheduled for November.

                                As far as Intel driver versions go, there are definite differences, subtle but there.. but I can make a recommendation as I just spent a long while bouncing between a few looking at them.

                                @Minimax I don't know what CPU generation you are, but if you're 4th-5th like myself, I'd like you to look at this one: https://downloadmirror.intel.com/29313/a08/win64_15.40.44.5107.zip in addition, https://downloadmirror.intel.com/28662/a08/win64_15.40.42.5063.zip Do 5063 first since you're coming from 4352 and it's quite similar (yes, I popped that one on too). So, the idea is that you will look at 5063 which I find to have a fairly similar refresh on the screen like 7, and if it's the same, great, then next move on to 5107 which I think is more stable/flatter. Between the two on 2004, I preferred 5107.

                                @si_edgey It's not completely clear to me which gen your laptop is, you implied 7th. Assuming it's a 7th, if you feel like it, give this one a try, I can't install it on mine so cannot comment on the appearance, but it's a WDDM 2.8 beta which is very new, https://downloadmirror.intel.com/29526/a08/igfx_win10_100.8322.zip for 6th gen and up, there is a driver branch for every single WDDM point version so there's actually a quite a lot of options to check out.

                                  dev