Many of us have to use a Windows 11 PC day in and day out for work, and while that's just a standard for modern society, it doesn't mean it's good for your health. Looking at a screen all day is going to wear down your eyes and cause discomfort, so you need to take some preventive measures.
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Of course, there's the usual advice of looking away from the screen for a minute or two every 30 minutes, but Windows itself has some features that can also help your eyes. Don't get me wrong, looking at a screen is always harmful when it's too much, but there are a lot of things you can do to make things easier for yourself. If you're an office worker, check out these tips.
Adjust the brightness of your screen
It's basic, but worth remembering
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This is a basic option that you've probably already done, but it's worth mentioning just in case. Just about any computer monitor or laptop screen can adjust its brightness, and this is absolutely essential to ensure you have a comfortable experience. If you have a laptop or all-in-one PC, you can change the brightness directly within Windows 11. You can press Windows + A on your keyboard to open the Quick actions panel and you'll see a brightnesds slider there.
If you're using an external monitor, you may need to change its brightness using the controls built onto the screen itself, but you can also use an app like Monitorian or Twinkle Tray to be able to change screen brightness in Windows, even for external monitors.
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It's not always just about lowering brightness, either. Depending on how bright it is around you, increasing the brightness can actually be better for you. It's important that you can comfortably see what's on screen without having to squint or focus too hard, as that can also be tiring and damaging.
Twinkle Tray
See at Microsoft StoreSee at Twinkle Tray
Monitorian
See at Microsoft Store
Change the size (and color) of your mouse cursor
Make it easier to find
Whether you work with a big or small screen, I can almost guarantee at some point you've probably lost track of your mouse cursor and started squinting a bit to see if you can spot it. It happens to everyone, and Microsoft knows that, so there's an option to change the mouse cursor size and color in Windows 11. Here's how it works:
Open the Settings app. Head to the Accessibility section, then choose Mouse pointer and touch.
On this page, you can choose a mouse style (clack, white, inverted, and colored) that makes it easier to see the cursor against the background. The latter two may be the best to increase contrast between the background and the cursor.
You can also choose the size of the cursor. It may look a little funny at first, but it goes a long way in making things easier for you.
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Adjust the scaling of your screen
Small icons and text may be a problem
Monitors and screens have increasingly higher resolutions, and in many cases, Windows will take advantage of the higher pixel density to fit more content on the screen by making everything smaller. While this can be nice if your eyesight is still perfect, it's going to cause some issues if you have trouble seeing the smaller elements on screen. While you can change the resolution of the screen, using a non-native resolution may be worse for you, but what you can do is change the text and icon scaling.
Open the Settings app. Head to the System section and then choose Display.
You'll see a Scale option with a dropdown menu next to it that has a percentage (the default value will vary depending on your screen). Just increase or decrease the value until you're at a comfortable level for your eyes, and you'll be good to go.
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If you need some more help with text, you can also check out the Accessibility section and use the Text size option to make things easier to read.
Use dark mode
But be smart about it
This is the tip you're going to see almost everyone give you, but it's still worth mentioning. By default, Windows 11 comes in light mode, which means most UI elements are white with black text, and that applies to the operating system itself but also many apps that follow the system setting. But Windows 11 also includes a dark mode, that makes UI elements black or dark grey and uses white text, making it a little easier on the eyes overall.
Open the Settings app. Go to the Personlization section and then choose Colors.
Next to Choose your mode, use the dropdown menu to select Dark.
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Now, while dark mode can help, it's a good idea to be smart about it. If you work in an environment with a lot of light, dark mode can make things harder to see, and it might just be harder on your eyes in the end. You can switch between modes at any time to get the most comfortable experience, which is important to be aware of. There's an app called Auto Dark Mode that can handle this automatically for you, so it's also worth checking out using the link below.
Auto Dark Mode
See at Github
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Turn on night light
Reduce blue light
Screens emit a lot of harmful blue light, which can increase eye strain and, according to some studies, affect your sleep. While that last point has been contended, the fact remains that blue light is harmful for your eyes, and reducing it is important. Windows 11 comes with a feature called Night light, which can reduce the amount of blue light emitted by your screen. As the name implies, it's mostly meant to be used at night, but you can set it to be always on if you're constantly working in the dark.
Open the Settings app Go to the System section and choose Display. Click Night light.
To turn Night light on permanently, click Turn on now. You can turn it off manually if you want.
Use the slider to adjust the intensity of the blue light reduction filter. As you increase the intensity, the blue light will be reduced, but your screen will appear more yellow (or red-ish). If you want to only use Night light at certain times, enable the Schedule night light toggle. You can have it sync up with sunrise and sunset, or choose custom hours for your specific needs.
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If you want to reduce blue light emissions in a way that feels a bit more natural, then another option you have is buying blue light filter glasses. Gunnar Optiks is one brand making these kinds of glasses, and we've tested a few of them ourselves. They're great options for reducing eye strain, and they even come in a few variants for different types of needs. You can check them out below:
Gunnar Optiks Cupertino
The Cupertino model from Gunnar is available with a whopping four lenss options, including sunlight lenses for wearing outside, and various levels of blue light filtering for computer use. However, they lakc the more recent Clear Pro lens that offers the best color accuracy.
$175 at Gunnar
Gunnar Optiks Tahoe
The Gunnar Optiks Tahoe offer two styles of blue light reduction lenses. The Amber model can filter up to 65% of blue light, while the Clear Pro model filters 20% of blue light, but retains color accuracy across the entire spectrum.
$250 at Gunnar
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Use color filters
For colorblind users
Now we're getting into the features that may not be for everyone, but they're very important all the same. If you have some degree of color blindness, Windows 11 also includes a number of color filters that are designed to cater to your needs. These filters change the way colors are displayed so that users can perceive them more naturally.
Open the Settings app. Go to Accessibility and then choose Color filters.
Set the Color filters toggle to On.
Choose one of the filters available:Red-green (green weak, deuteranopia) Red-green (red weak, protanopia) Blue-yellow (tritanopia) Grayscale Grayscale inverted Inverted
For the first three options, you can use the Intensity slider to choose how strong the filter should be depending on your level of vision deficiency. The Color Boost slider may also help improve visibility.
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Related
How to make Windows 11 more accessible
Microsoft has made Windows 11 easy to use for those with a variety of needs with features like live captions and voice access
Use contrast themes
For more extreme cases
Finally, your last option is to use one of the contrast themes available on Windows 11. Contrast themes are, as the name suggests, designed to help increase the contrast between UI elements, so it's easier to understand the information without the added visual noise that a typical UI has. Things may not look as pretty this way, but if you need things to be easy to perceive, this is the way to go.
Open the Settings app. Go to Accessibility and then choose Contrast themes.
You can preview the contrast themes with the images along the top. Your options are:
Aquatic (near-black background, white text, blue highlights) Desert (off-white background, black text, dark highlights) Dusk (dark grey background, white text, soft blue highlights) Night sky (black background, white text, purple or yellow highlights)
Then use the dropdown menu next to Contrast themes to choose the one that suits you the best. Click Apply to see your changes. If you don't like the theme you chose, you can always pick a different one or go back to None.
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Related
You can make Windows 11 feel like home -- here's how to customize it
Windows 11 is a great operating system, but not everyone has to like how it looks out of the box. Here's how you can change
Use your computer comfortably
No matter who you are, these tips are bound to be helpful if you're experiencing eye strain after using your computer for many hours in a row. Eye strain is bad for your health, both in the short and long term, so anything you can do to reduce it is a step forward.
As a last resort, upgrading your monitor can also be helpful. Older screen technologies didn't do the best job of being easy on the eyes, but technology has evolved a lot and modern screens are much better. For example, an OLED monitor will display blacks by turning off the black pixels entirely, so there's a lot less harmful light coming your way.
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