How to Change Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration?

Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration helps users in boosting Windows OS performance and run the applications hang-free. When it is enabled, certain tasks, especially heavy tasks like video rendering and game loading, works comparatively better and faster. Although it is an excellent feature to have on your computer, it is not always necessary to keep it turned ON. 

In this post, we would learn more about Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration and know how to turn it ON or OFF.

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What is Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration?

When you run any application on Windows 10 system, it requires a certain amount of CPU power to open and function properly. However, several applications like Google Chrome, high-graphic games, video editing, rendering applications, etc., need more power than usual to operate that CPU might not be able to provide and thus deteriorates the device performance. This is where Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration comes into effect.

Windows 10 comes with various dedicated hardware components for different work, such as Sound card, Video card, GPU, and more. Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration combines the power of such hardware components with the CPU power to run the heavy applications. For instance, if applications like high graphics games need more than usual graphical power, the CPU would offload some visual work to the graphic card, making it efficient to run the application smoothly, lag-free. Similarly, while running Google Chrome or some other heavy applications, the CPU will lend some work to GPU so that the system remains undisturbed and applications run smoothly.

Should I turn on Hardware Acceleration?

While launching certain games or any other application, you might have got a prompt to enable the Hardware Acceleration. If you wonder whether to allow it or not, you must not think much and simply allow it, especially if you are a multitasker and simultaneously run multiple applications together. The Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration would ensure that the workload is distributed among the CPU and GPU, and therefore, all applications run smoothly. Hardware Acceleration is essential for gamers unless they play the pre-HD era games. With it enabled, the game would run at a higher framerate, the 3D rendering becomes slick, and game effects would be more precise.

Apart from that, if you visit any website containing a lot of video clips and graphics-related content, the Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration would ensure that the page loads smoothly. If not, the page loading time would be high, and the website would load poorly without the graphic content. 

How to enable/disable Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration?

If you want to enable or disable the Hardware Acceleration in Windows 10, here are the steps for that:

  1. On your Windows 10 desktop, right-click on the empty space and select Display settings.
    Display settings from context menu

  2. Under the Display Settings page, scroll down and click on Advanced display settings.
    Click on Advanced display settings

  3. Now, click on the Display adapter properties for display 1.
    display adapter properties

  4. On the Graphic properties window, switch to Troubleshoot tab.

  5. Next, click on Change Settings.

  6. In the Display Adapter Troubleshooter bar, toggle the button to disable or enable the Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration.

  7. Click OK to save your settings.

If the Change Settings option in step 5 is greyed out, you can try to enable it from the Windows Registry. Before moving forward, it is advised to backup the Registries.

  1. Navigate to – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft.
  2. Find the graphics card registry entry and change DWORD DisableHWAcceleration from 0 to 1. 

This method only works if your PC supports hardware acceleration.

Bottom Line

Though the Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration is an excellent option, if you want to conserver your laptop battery, you can temporarily disable it by following the steps listed in this guide. If you cannot find the option to configure the Hardware Acceleration, there are two possibilities. Either your PC does not support it, or your GPU drivers are outdated. If you are sure that your computer or laptop has in-built or dedicated hardware to support the Hardware Acceleration, then try updating your graphic drivers.

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