Some users with weaker eyesight find High Contrast Mode useful to distinguish between varying elements and helpful for reading text. However, a high contrast monitor can become harmful to your eyes after staring at it for long periods of time. Understanding how to turn off high contrast in Windows 10 can be a blessing under these circumstances.
High Contrast Mode is turned off by default in Windows 10. So if you find yourself with high contrast in Windows 10 and want to turn it off, this article has you covered. As far as we know, there are three simple ways that you can turn off high contrast in Windows 10.
Method 1: Turn Off High Contrast in Windows 10 via Keyboard Shortcut
The keyboard shortcut required to turn off high contrast in Windows 10 is left Shift + left Alt + Print Screen. It’s a very simple way to toggle the high contrast mode either on or off. The kicker is that you may have to enable the keyboard shortcut first.
Obviously, it would be a smart idea to try and use the keyboard shortcut first in order to avoid the extra steps. If after using the left Shift + left Alt + Print Screen shortcut, you receive a High Contrast dialog pop-up, then it’s already enabled. You can then click Yes to turn it on or No to turn it off.
However, if no such pop-up presents itself, you’ll want to follow these steps to turn off high contrast in Windows 10.
Step 1. Open the Control Panel and click Ease of Access.
Step 2. Next, in the main window click Ease of Access Center.
Step 3. Now click Set up High Contrast.
Step 4. In the High Contrast section, ensure that the “Turn on or off High Contrast when left ALT + left SHIFT + PRINT SCREEN is pressed” option is marked.
Step 5. Press OK for the changes to take effect.
Method 2: Turn Off High Contrast in Windows 10 via Themes
Another way you can disable high contrast mode in Windows 10 is through Themes. This will allow you to choose a non-high contrast theme to use instead of a high contrast one.
Step 1. Pull up the run dialog with Win + R and type in the following command:
explorer shell:::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}
Press OK.
Step 2. While in the Personalization window, select a non-high contrast theme from the available options.
Method 3: Turn Off High Contrast in Windows 10 in Contrast Settings
A third way to turn off high contrast in Windows 10 is through the Contrast settings.
Step 1. In the Windows search bar, type in high contrast. Select the result Turn high contrast on or off.
Step 2. In the main panel of the High contrast window, look for the Use high contrast section and switch the Turn on high contrast toggle to Off.
FAQs About High Contrast in Windows 10
Any Other Ways To Turn Off The High Contrast Mode If The Above Options Don’t Work?
There is one additional way in which you can turn off the High Contrast mode. Before even logging into Windows 10, you can turn off the high contrast mode directly from the Sign-in screen.
- While on the sign-in screen, select your account in the bottom left. If your account is the only one assigned to the Windows 10 computer, you can skip this step.
- Next, click the Ease of Access button in the lower-right corner of the screen.
- Turn the High Contrast option to Off.
What If I Only Want To Adjust The Brightness and Contrast in Windows 10?
If you don’t need to turn off Contrast Mode completely, you can still adjust the brightness and contrast of Windows 10 by following these steps.
- In the Windows search bar, type in calibrate display color and select the same result.
- You’ll receive a wizard that will walk you through the process. It will have you set the display to the factory default color settings. Once there, you’ll need to adjust the display’s gamma to match a provided sample image.
- Next, you adjust the brightness and contrast, followed by the color balance.
- Once everything has been adjusted to your liking, click Finish to finalize and save all changes.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you didn’t have to read this entire article in high contrast. Thankfully, your eyes should rest much easier now that you know how to disable high contrast mode in Windows 10.
