Enable Auto HDR (profile)

What it changes

For games that do not support HDR: turns on Windows 11's Auto HDR while a game runs, so it gets HDR-style brightness and colour on an HDR display, then puts that game's setting back. It needs HDR on: switch on Enable HDR as well, or leave Windows HDR on.

Per game

Edit Game > Performance has an Auto HDR choice for each game, below HDR, on a Windows 11 PC with an HDR-capable display:

• Profile setting follows the Optimized profile's Enable Auto HDR switch, like every other game on the profile. This is how every game starts out. With the switch off, TrayTrigger changes nothing: your own Windows settings for the game stand.
• On for this game turns Auto HDR on for that game when it launches, and back to what it was when it exits, whatever its profile - even Off, where HDR and Auto HDR are then the only things the session changes.
• Off for this game turns Auto HDR off for that game while it runs, even when the profile would turn it on. For a game whose HUD blows out or whose whites clip.

A change to a game's Auto HDR choice is recorded in Activity & History.

What it needs

• Windows' HDR must be on. The game's own HDR choice or the profile's Enable HDR switch can turn it on for the session, or you can leave it on yourself.
• The global Auto HDR switch (Settings > System > Display > HDR, or the Auto HDR tweak on the System page) must be on. A game's own Auto HDR setting only applies while it is.
• Auto HDR covers DirectX 11 and 12 games. There is no official list of supported games.

Trade-offs

• Not every game looks better. A HUD can blow out and whites can clip, which is why this is off by default and why each game can decide for itself.
• Windows restarts nothing, but a game that is already running keeps the setting it started with. The change takes effect the next time the game starts.
• A game that Windows has switched off Auto HDR for in Settings > System > Display > Graphics is still changed while it runs, and put back afterwards.

Details

• Writes the game's own entry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\DirectX\UserGpuPreferences. The AutoHDREnable number is odd for on and even for off (2097 and 2096 on current Windows 11). Only that number changes; the rest of the entry, including the GPU preference, is kept.
• The game's entry is saved before it is changed and restored when the game exits, and after a crash the next start restores it.
• See Enable HDR, and the Auto HDR System tweak, which switches Auto HDR for every game at once.

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Part of Performance Profiles. This page is the same text as the app's Learn more button, generated from Help/profiles/auto_hdr.md. To fix something, edit that file (or open an issue); wiki edits are overwritten on the next sync.