Everything in Windows 11 Looks Black and White?

Published by Nyau Wai Hoe - Updated on

If you see that everything in Windows 11, including the background or wallpaper, interfaces, windows, buttons, taskbar, and basically the entire desktop, is all black and white, right after you get past the login screen, you might have some options accidentally turned on. This guide will show you several things you should look into to fix the problem.

Also see: Ideas to Fix Blurry and Washed Out Graphics in Games

Everything in Windows 11 Looks Black and White

Check if you’ve accidentally turned on “Color filters”

Sometimes your screen might start looking black and white like an old movie because of a simple setting. In Windows 11, there is a “Color filters” option designed to help people who have trouble seeing colors. If this setting is turned on by mistake, your screen will change to black and white. To turn it off, follow the steps below.

  1. Press the Win key to open the Start menu search, type “Color filters“, and press Enter. This will take you directly to the Color filters section in the settings. You can also go there manually by going to “Settings > Accessibility > Color filters”.Open Color Filters in Windows 11
  2. On the Color filters page, look for the switch labeled “Color filters“. If this switch is on, it’s probably why your screen is black and white.Fix desktop black and white on Windows 11
  3. Click on the switch to turn it off. Your screen should show colors again right away.

After doing this, see if your screen colors look normal again. If they do, you’ve fixed the issue. If not, there might be other settings messing things up.

Suggested read: GPU Artifacting Examples, How to Test, and Fixes

Check the graphics card settings as well

Another possible reason why everything looks black and white could be other color settings in your graphics card software. Sometimes, these settings can override the system settings without you noticing.

  1. Right-click on an empty part of your desktop and choose “Show more options“.
  2. If you see options for your graphics card like “NVIDIA Control Panel” or “AMD Radeon Settings“, click on them.Open Nvidia Control Panel from right-click
  3. You might need to find options like “Change resolution” or “Adjust color settings” inside the graphics card settings.
  4. Check for any settings that mention color changes, grayscale, black and white, or even the “Hue” slider. Set them to normal or color.NVIDIA color settings
  5. If you change anything, click “Apply” to save your settings and see if the color comes back to your display.

Pro tip: Force App or Game to Use Nvidia GPU or Integrated Graphics

Try turning off the Night Light settings

Night Light is a feature that changes the color scheme to reduce blue light, especially at night. It usually adds an orange tint, but if it’s set wrong, it could mess up your display colors.

Just go to your display settings by right-clicking on the desktop, select “Display settings“, and make sure that the “Night light” feature is turned off.

Turn off Night Light in Windows 11

Calibrate display color

If the colors still look off, you might need to recalibrate your display. Go to the Start menu or Search, type “calibrate display color“, and hit Enter.

How to open Calibrate display color

Follow the instructions to adjust the gamma, brightness, and contrast settings. Remember to save the calibrated profile as the default to keep these settings after you reboot your PC.

Calibrate display color in Windows 11

Check high contrast and other grayscale settings

If your screen is still black and white in Windows 11, High Contrast mode could be the cause. This feature makes the display easier to see but can make your screen look kind of black and white if it’s set to use a high contrast theme.

  1. Right-click on your desktop and choose “Personalize“.
  2. From the menu on the left, select “Colors“.
  3. Scroll down and select the “Contrast themes” setting.
  4. Make sure that no contrast theme is selected. The option should be set to “None“.Turn off Contrast theme in Windows 11

This adjustment should help if the black and white issue is related to an accessibility setting that was changed by accident.

Might be usefulHow to Turn Brightness Up or Down on Windows 11 or 10

Check for accidental keyboard shortcuts

Sometimes, hitting the wrong keys can turn on color filters without you realizing it. The shortcut for enabling or disabling color filters in Windows 11 is “Win + CTRL + C“. If you think this might have happened by accident, try the following steps.

  1. Press Win + CTRL + C to see if it changes the color back to normal.
  2. This can quickly turn off any color filter that might have been activated by mistake.

Reset Windows 11 visual effects

If the above methods haven’t worked and your desktop screen still look entirely black and white, you might want to try resetting the visual effects in Windows 11. Sometimes, problems with these settings can cause your screen to go black and white.

  1. Press the Windows key to open the Start menu, search for “Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows” and select it from the search result. This opens the Performance Options window.
  2. In the Performance Options window, go to the “Visual Effects” tab.
  3. Try selecting “Adjust for best performance” to turn off most visual effects, and then re-select “Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer” to reset to the default settings.Reset Windows 11 visual effects
  4. Click “Apply“, then “OK” to save the changes.

Resetting these settings can sometimes fix display issues caused by errors in the visual effects settings. After making these changes, check if your display color looks normal again.

Try to update or reinstall your display driver

Sometimes, an update can inadvertently change settings or introduce bugs that affect display colors. Try to manually update your graphics card driver, which means downloading the driver from the manufacturer’s website instead of relying on Windows Update.

Update graphics driver

If updating it doesn’t work, you should also try to reinstall it. Uninstall the driver first, and then install the latest driver you downloaded.

Related guide: How to tell if it’s your Monitor or GPU that is dying?

It might be a hardware issue

It’s not uncommon to see a “black and white” (grayscale) issue on a monitor that’s going to fail. It could also be caused by a failing GPU as well. You can test your monitor or GPU on a different computer and see if they are also showing black and white. If it shows the same problem, then you might have a broken monitor or GPU.


Nyau Wai Hoe
Nyau Wai Hoe is the Founder and Chief Editor of WindowsDigitals.com. With a degree in software engineering and over 12 years of experience in the tech support industry, Nyau has established himself as an expert in the field, with a primary focus on the Microsoft Windows operating system. As a tech enthusiast, he loves exploring new technologies and leveraging them to solve real-life problems.

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