In the immortal words of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ CJ, “here we go again.” Microsoft has confirmed its Windows 11 24H2 update has broken Auto HDR, causing a myriad of issues in games. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to prevent your system from tripping up while the Redmond company finds a fix.
Specifically related to the visual enhancing option, problems manifest in several different ways, from incorrect colour reproduction, to unresponsiveness and crashes, or infinite loading resulting in a complete failure to launch. Affected titles include Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla/Origins, Far Cry, and Need for Speed Unbound, but there could be several more at the mercy of the latest blunder.
“After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, you might experience issues with games if you have AutoHDR enabled on your device. You might observe that the game colors are incorrect in certain display configurations. You might also observe that some games stop responding.” Said Microsoft.
To safeguard machines that have Auto HDR enabled, Microsoft has put the 24H2 update on hold until it fixes these bugs. The company recommends avoiding manually updating to version 24H2 for the time being. However, if your system is already up to date, you could avoid these issues simply by disabling Auto HDR.
You can do so by following these steps:
- Open the Start menu and go to Settings.
- Navigate to System > Display.
- Scroll down and select Graphics.
- To turn off Auto HDR for all games, use the Default Settings control.
- To turn off Auto HDR for individual games, select Custom settings for applications and choose the specific game.
Auto HDR is a feature in Windows 11 that aims to enhance the game’s graphics by automatically converting SDR (standard dynamic range) content into HDR (high dynamic range) without requiring intervention from developers.
Microsoft is actively working on a solution to these issues and plans to release it in the near future. Windows 11 24H2 seems to be full of bugs, from mouse cursors disappearing to performance issues. Due to this, it is often better to wait a couple of weeks before updating Windows or any app for that matter, unless there are security implications. Hopefully, it won’t take long to find the root cause as many users count on its Auto HDR feature to enhance old games.
