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Virtual HDR OSD for Windows

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@Mixomo Mixomo released this 09 Aug 00:00
· 5 commits to main since this release
1.0.0
9076276

Virtual HDR OSD for Windows is a lightweight Windows 11 HDR profile editor designed as a software counterpart to the controls that many monitors disable when HDR mode is enabled.

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Most HDR monitors lock or substantially reduce access to their physical OSD controls after switching to HDR. White balance, gamma, per-channel RGB balance, saturation, brightness, contrast, and related adjustments may become unavailable or much more limited. Virtual HDR OSD provides a practical software pseudo-calibration layer for making small subjective corrections to an existing Windows HDR ICC/ICM profile.

The application is intended for visual fine-tuning: correcting a slight warm/cool cast, reducing a green or magenta bias, matching HDR white balance more closely to a preferred SDR appearance, or making small tonal changes that the monitor's HDR OSD does not expose.

In addition to the app, a watchdog has been integrated that fixes the bug causing incorrect switching between SDR and HDR profiles in Windows 11. This watchdog is standalone and can be distributed without the app. Feel free to use it.

Note

Virtual HDR OSD is not a replacement for a colorimeter, spectrophotometer, reference display, or professional calibration software. Adjustments made by eye are inherently subjective. For an objective calibration workflow, use appropriate measurement hardware and color-management software.

Recommended workflow

The recommended starting point is a profile created with Windows HDR Calibration from Microsoft.

  1. Enable HDR for the target display in Windows 11.
  2. Run Windows HDR Calibration and complete its black-level, peak-luminance, full-frame luminance, and color-saturation calibration.
  3. Save the HDR calibration profile generated by Windows.
  4. Start Virtual HDR OSD for Windows.
  5. Select the correct monitor under Target Display.
  6. Click Import HDR Profile and load the Windows HDR Calibration .icm profile.
  7. Enable Live Apply if you want every adjustment to be reflected on the display automatically.
  8. Make small tonal and color corrections.
  9. Use Compare SDR / HDR when useful to compare white balance, overall color appearance, and perceived brightness between the two Windows modes.
  10. When satisfied, use Export Edited HDR Profile to save the result.

Windows HDR Calibration is the preferred base because it is specifically designed to calibrate HDR-capable displays under Windows 11. Virtual HDR OSD is best treated as the final subjective fine-adjustment stage rather than the primary HDR calibration stage.

Installation

Install the compiled portable .exe from Releases page

The easiest way to install it is downloading the attached .exe file. It's portable and contains the entire app.

Not interested in the app, but want to fix the Windows 11 bug related to the incorrect association between HDR and SDR profiles—especially when using the Win + Alt + B shortcut?
Then just download the .zip file containing the batch file for installing and uninstalling Watchdog.

Note

The standalone Watchdog does not include gamma curve transformation; it only provides a minimal fix for the Windows 11 SDR-HDR profile association bug. To use gamma curve transformation, install Watchdog from the app.

The watchdog is installed to %LOCALAPPDATA%\ColorProfileModeWatchdog and registered as the per-user scheduled task Virtual HDR OSD - Color Profile Mode Watchdog. It starts hidden at sign-in with a 10-second delay, allowing Windows to finish initializing the interactive desktop and display topology before profile recovery begins. The GUI-integrated and standalone installers use the same task and installation directory; use only the installer matching the workflow you want to configure.

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