Windows 10 with lower color depth?

Currently, if I open Advanced Display Settings and List All Modes, all supported modes have "True Color (32 bit)".

I Googled and did not find a solution. Given that lower color depths have been supported in previous versions of Windows NT, it would be quite surprising that such a thing is complete removed. I'd like to know if there is any hidden settings (e.g., registry hacks) that can bring the lower color depths back -- 16 bit, 256 color, 16 color, etc.

Existing related solutions on the web include setting compatibility modes for individual apps, but this is not useful since I want the display to output with lower color depths, not just to make it seem to have lower color depths.

The story is that I am connecting a USB 3 to HDMI adapter using USB passthrough to a VMware VM. The performance is terrible. It seems that lowering the resolution can improve the performance so I am wondering if it is possible to keep the resolution but lower the color depth to achieve the same performance improvement.

Solve this, or find a strong reference (e.g., official documentation from MS) to confirm that this is actually not possible.

PS: I have seen Windows 7 with low color depth? but that one is for remote connection so not relevant.

2 Answers

Yes.. and no.

They are still there but the driver only supports the modes that have been published by the driver author.

The dialog that existed all the way back to NT is accessed by Display Properties -> Advanced Display Settings -> Display Adapter Properities for Display X -> "[List All Modes]".

To get lower resolutions and other color depths, VMWare (which I don't currently have) has a bad a$$ guest driver and might well support other modes using the method above. Otherwise, I believe that you would need to (roll the dice and..) install a different driver. To do this...

Go to driver settings, Update driver -> Browse my computer for drivers -> Let me pick... -> , uncheck show compatible hardware -> Look in "(Standard display types)" -> Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.

I don't suggest doing this. I am not willing to try it on my laptop to find out what happens. :) A VM would totally be worth rolling these dice!

If windows detects a binary that was written for a pre-vista version of windows, it will allow you to decrease the color depth and resolution for that app only but not the entire system.

As far as provide specific links to documentation. No. I don't have time for that. If you don't trust my post, don't vote for it (but good luck!) :)

If the list of valid display modes for your monitor only includes 32-bit modes, but not 16-bit, this is because Windows 10 and 8 don't directly support 16-bit Color any more.

You may use 16-bit colors for a specific program by running it in compatibility mode. You might try to set VMware this way for this VM. If you have other VMs that don't need it, you might create a copy of the VMware .exe and set its color depth (if this will work).

This how to set the color depth of a single program:

• Right-click the program .exe and select Properties
• Go to the Compatibility tab
• Check "Reduced color mode"
• Select "16-bit (65536) colour"
• Click OK to apply.