- There's a hidden Screen Tint feature in a new Windows 11 preview build
- It offers a choice of six preset modes designed to deal with various issues
- You can also set your own color tint, and its strength, giving you plenty of customization options
Windows 11 is apparently set to get a new accessibility feature, one that can tint the display to make it more suitable and easier on the eyes for reading, or even help guard against a migraine developing.
Windows Latest flagged up a post on X from regular leaker PhantomOfEarth, who uncovered the new Screen Tint feature in a recent preview build of Windows 11, where it's present in the accessibility settings for the OS.
It's essentially a supercharged version of the current Night Light feature, offering a range of six preset colors, and the ability to set your own custom color tint. There's also a slider to adjust the strength of the effect, so you can have a deeper, more intense tint should you wish.
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The provided presets include a 'calm amber' tint, which is designed to be helpful for long periods of using your Windows 11 PC to defend against eye strain. (This is the closest tint to the existing Night Light feature, it's worth noting). There's also a 'rose tint', which is the color that aims to reduce migraine triggers as mentioned at the outset, and another warm tint, 'soft yellow', is for helping to mitigate any discomfort when reading text.
At the colder side of the color temperature range, there's 'cool blue' to combat glare sensitivity, while 'gentle green' is for relief from photophobia (light sensitivity). Finally, the 'natural grey' tint is for those who dislike the starker contrast levels of the standard black-and-white look of Windows 11.
Analysis: commendably customizable
Remember, this new feature is not even in testing yet, so the usual rule applies — it could be an idea that Microsoft is toying with, but might abandon. Or at least the implementation could end up different to what we see here, which is a feature hidden in the background that's been enabled by poking around under the hood of Windows 11.
As noted by Windows Latest, which experimented with the Screen Tint ability, it doesn't work properly yet. The results can include screen flickering or the colors being wrongly applied, but that's only to be expected considering the feature isn't official yet.
I don't see any reason why Microsoft wouldn't want to roll this out into testing, though, as it's a handy accessibility feature – and this is an area the company has been very keen on developing ever since Windows 11 was first launched. I particularly like the customization available here, including the option to adjust the intensity of the effect, and the fact that you can mix your own tint using a color picker.
I'm not alone in liking the idea, as you might guess, with one Redditor observing that: "Neat — I'll use this for sure. I fly a lot of 12+ hour overseas flights and I'd very much like to have more control over the overall colour palette when the lights go out. I used f.lux for this for a long time but it hasn't been updated in years and it's too temperamental."
This all plays into Microsoft's current drive to give Windows 11 users more choice and control over the OS, and to generally fix everything that's wrong with the desktop operating system. More broadly, it's good to see deeper options to tailor the nature of a display more to your tastes or needs, beyond a simple reading mode, or the blue light reduction facility, that may be provided with your monitor.
Of course, this kind of tech, while clearly useful, should not be a substitute for keeping healthy screen habits — try not to be stuck staring at any display for too long if you can at all avoid it, and practice the 20/20/20 rule.
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