How to disable content adaptive brightness control (CABC) on Windows 11

You can now disable content adaptive brightness control on your display for a better color experience, and in this guide, you will learn steps to complete this task on Windows 11.

Windows 11 CABC
Windows 11 CABC

On Windows 11, it is possible to disable “Content Adaptive Brightness Control” (CABC) from the “Display” settings page, and in this guide, you will learn how.

Content Adaptive Brightness Control is a feature that improves battery life by adjusting the contrast and brightness of the display based on the content shown in the display. Although it can help with battery performance, the feature can cause distracting brightness changes that also decrease the image quality when you need to show content with color accuracy.

In this guide, you will learn the steps to disable or re-enable the Content Adaptive Brightness Control feature on Windows 11.

Disable CABC on Windows 11

To disable content adaptive brightness control, use these steps:

  1. Open Settings on Windows 11.

  2. Click on System.

  3. Click the Display page on the right side.

  4. Under the “Brightness & color” section, clear the “Automatically adjust contrast based on the display content to help improve battery” option.

Once you complete the steps, the display brightness will no longer be affected when running Windows 11 on a laptop or tablet.

Enable CABC on Windows 11

To enable CABC on Windows 11, use these steps:

  1. Open Settings.

  2. Click on System.

  3. Click the Display page on the right side.

  4. Under the “Brightness & color” section, check the “Automatically adjust contrast based on the display content to help improve battery” option.

After you complete the steps, the display will adapt brightness accordingly to improve the battery life of your laptop or tablet. If the option is not available, the graphics card does not support this feature.

Content adaptive brightness control is not the same as adaptive brightness. Adaptive brightness is a feature that changes brightness automatically based on the room lighting. Content adaptive brightness is the feature that changes contrast and brightness based on the content displayed on the screen.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.