Windows 11 update forcing Dolby Vision with green and purple tint on OLED displays, but there's a temporary fix

It seems some Windows 11 users are left dealing with a frustrating bug following a recent update. According to reports on Reddit and Microsoft’s community forums, a bug is causing colors to get botched when HDR is enabled on OLED monitors. So users are only seeing green and purple colors over everything on the screen.

The problem seems to have emerged following a recent Windows update — KB5058499 (OS Build 26100.4202) Preview — which was apparently set to bring HDR improvements. But things seem to have gone the other way. Users with various LG OLED models, including the G4, C3, and C2, connected to Windows 11 PCs with NVIDIA RTX 40-series graphics cards, are among those most impacted. The core of the issue is that despite disabling Dolby Vision in both Windows display settings and the TV’s input settings, the system defaults to Dolby Vision upon every cold boot or wake-up.

Naturally, the messed up viewing experience has left many users seeking solutions. I mean, when you spend top dollars on an OLED monitor or TV, the least one would expect to see is decent colors. One user on Microsoft’s community forums said, 

Every single time I power the TV and PC back on, Windows starts in Dolby Vision anyway. The picture looks brown, dim, and washed-out until I manually go into Windows, turn the Dolby Vision toggle on and then off again. After that, it switches to the normal HDR mode I actually want and everything looks fine — until the next restart, when the whole problem repeats.

On the same thread, a MSFT agent mentioned that “after [an] investigation it was found that the issue may be caused by KB5058499. Please uninstall this update temporarily to confirm whether the problem is resolved.” 

To this, someone did confirm that uninstalling the update fixed the issue on their end. However, this is far from an ideal solution and users on the thread have expressed the same. That said, I did manage to find a few potential workarounds that might help. But first off, if you haven’t yet tried disabling Dolby Vision, give that a shot. Here’s a video guide that you can follow along:

As mentioned earlier, this workaround, while effective, must be performed each time the PC sleeps or when you restart it. To make things easier, one user shared a handy keyboard shortcut: “Win + Alt + B.” This combo, when pressed twice after each restart, will quickly toggle HDR on and off, effectively achieving the same temporary fix.

Now, if you’re still on the lookout for more solutions, read along. Another agent said to dig into Nvidia’s control panel. Here’s what to try if you want to keep that update installed. Open the Nvidia Control Panel and head to Display → Change Resolution. Under “Use Nvidia Color Settings” pick Limited for the output dynamic range. If you see any Dolby Vision options there switch them off. This can stop Windows from flipping the switch at startup.

They also suggested poking at the registry. Open the registry editor and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\VideoSettings

Look for any entries mentioning DolbyVision or HDR and set their values to zero. Always back up your registry first. A misstep here can cause real problems.

These tips should help you move past the annoying green and purple tint on your display. While it’s unclear how long it’ll take for a proper fix to go live, the quick way to deal with the issue is toggling off Dolby Vision.

As usual, we’ll post an update if there are any new developments worth sharing. In the meantime, do let us know if the suggestions above work for you.

Featured image credit: Spitfire Spud / Microsoft community