WKD HDR Switch

Toggle HDR per-monitor on Windows 11 from the system tray. Hotkeys, presets, autostart. No admin required.

Windows 11 .NET 8 GPL-3.0 Free & open source
Tray menu showing per-monitor HDR state and the Run-hotkey submenu
The tray menu — click any monitor to flip its HDR state independently.

About

WKD HDR Switch is a small Windows 11 tray utility that adds the per-monitor HDR control Windows is missing. Click any monitor in the tray menu to flip its HDR state independently; bind global keyboard shortcuts for On, Off, or Toggle on a per-monitor basis; or save a Preset that sets every monitor to a specific On/Off state with one keypress.

Under the hood it calls Windows' DisplayConfigSetDeviceInfo with DISPLAYCONFIG_DEVICE_INFO_SET_HDR_STATE on Win11 24H2, falling back to the legacy SET_ADVANCED_COLOR_STATE on older Win11 builds. Standard-user only — no admin, no services, no UAC. Source on GitHub, GPL-3.0, free with no ads or telemetry. Part of the WKD Utilities collection.

Features

Per-monitor toggle

Click any monitor in the tray menu to flip its HDR state. The other monitors stay exactly as they were.

Hotkeys: Actions & Presets

Bind shortcuts for On / Off / Toggle on chosen monitors, or build a Preset that sets each monitor to a specific state in one keypress.

Aliases that survive replug

Rename monitors (Dell U2723QE → Main); aliases are keyed on the device's hardware path, not its name.

Reorderable monitor list

Move-up / move-down in the Monitors tab. The order applies in the tray menu, hotkey target pickers, everywhere.

Modern + legacy display API

Uses Win11 24H2's SET_HDR_STATE when available, falls back to the legacy SET_ADVANCED_COLOR_STATE on older builds.

No admin, autostart, single-instance

Standard user privileges only. No services, no UAC. Registers itself in HKCU\…\Run on first launch; toggle from the tray.

Hotkeys tab listing three example bindings
Hotkeys tab — bindings have a name, shortcut, type (Action or Preset), and target monitors.
Hotkey editor in Preset mode with mixed On/Off states per monitor
A Gaming preset can leave your main monitor on and secondaries off in a single keypress.

Download

Framework-Dependent

~150 KB

Tiny zip. Requires the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime. Most Win11 systems already have it.

Download FDD

Portable

~70 MB

Bundles its own .NET runtime. Runs on a bare Windows 11 install with nothing pre-installed.

Download Portable

Both flavours unpack and run from anywhere — no installer.

First-run notes

Frequently asked questions

Does WKD HDR Switch work on Windows 10?
No. HDR Switch uses the Windows DisplayConfig HDR API (DISPLAYCONFIG_DEVICE_INFO_SET_HDR_STATE), which is a Windows 11 feature. The Win11 24H2 modern API is preferred; older Win11 builds use the legacy SET_ADVANCED_COLOR_STATE call. Windows 10 is not supported.
Why does my antivirus or Windows SmartScreen flag the EXE?
The EXE is unsigned — code-signing certificates cost about $300/year, which isn't justified for a free hobby utility. Windows SmartScreen will show "Windows protected your PC" on first launch; click More info → Run anyway. Some antivirus tools heuristically flag small unsigned tray apps that write an autostart entry and call Win32 display APIs. Restore from quarantine, add an exclusion, or submit it as a false positive to your AV vendor. The source code is on GitHub if you want to verify the binary.
Does HDR Switch need administrator privileges?
No. HDR Switch runs as a standard user with no UAC prompts. It doesn't install a service, drop binaries into Program Files, or modify HKLM. It only writes to its own folder under %LOCALAPPDATA% and one autostart entry under HKCU.
Can I bind a single keyboard shortcut to control only one specific monitor?
Yes. Hotkeys come in two kinds. An Action hotkey applies On, Off, or Toggle to one or more selected monitors. A Preset hotkey is a scene: it sets each monitor to a specific On/Off state in one keypress — for example a Gaming preset that turns HDR on for your main monitor and off for everything else.
Will my monitor names and order survive a replug or driver update?
Yes. Monitor aliases (the friendly names you assign, like Main or Side) are keyed on the device's hardware path, not its EDID name or position. Unplug and replug, swap cables between ports, update drivers — your aliases stay attached to the right physical monitor.
How is this different from the built-in Windows HDR toggle?
Windows lumps HDR controls into Settings → System → Display. Toggling HDR for one monitor takes several clicks, the layout changes depending on which monitor is Display 1, and there's no keyboard shortcut. WKD HDR Switch puts every monitor in the tray menu as a single click, adds global hotkeys, and supports per-monitor presets that apply in a single keypress.
Where does HDR Switch save its settings?
All app state lives under %LOCALAPPDATA%\WkdHdrSwitch — settings.json holds aliases, monitor order, and hotkey bindings; wkdhdrswitch.log is a diagnostic log of every API call (rotated at 1 MB). The only registry write is the autostart entry at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\WkdHdrSwitch, managed by the tray menu's Start with Windows toggle.
Is HDR Switch free? Open source?
Yes to both. HDR Switch is free with no ads, telemetry, or paid tiers, and licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. The full source code is on GitHub at mihaiko/wkd-hdr-switch. If it's useful, support is appreciated via Ko-fi or Patreon — never required.

Source & support

GitHub Ko-fi Patreon