Question Is there a way to turn off the annoying animation Windows 11 does when turning monitors on and off?

[SuperChuchu]

If you have more than one monitor, you know what I'm talking about: the excessively obnoxious, pointless, stupid animation that happens every time you turn on your second monitor, or the TV set if you have it connected to the HDMI port in your card. That zoom out then zoom back in animation with ease in and out keyframes that ruins your productivity for a few seconds each time, adding up to a lot of seconds and hours and eventually days of wasted time just because Microsoft wanted their GUI to look more fancy, but failed miserably.

Now, there's a way to turn that off in the Setting app, the problem is that it also turns off basic functionality, like smooth scrolling in browsers and some other things that I don't mind having animation for. But this stupid gimmick that they came up with is unbearable, and I have three monitors and one TV set connected to my PC, so every time I turn one of them on or off, I know I have to put up with several seconds of watching the stupid animation that serves no practical purpose.

If Microsoft wants to improve their GUI, they should focus on the several elements that are still from the Windows 95 days, none of which are dark themed, like the dialogs for file transfer, properties, and so many others, and make a coherent GUI, because when I right click on a file or folder, half the time I get the new Windows 11 menu, and the other half I get the old style menu. At least that one abides by the dark theme choice, but it's still annoying because everything is in a different place than the new menu. So make up your mind, new menu or old menu?

Anyway, if anyone knows a registry hack or something that will kill that stupid zoom in and out, please reply.

 

[NanoSuit3]

I think in Accessibility you can turn off Animation Effects . . . maybe that'll work

 

[SuperChuchu]

I think in Accessibility you can turn off Animation Effects . . . maybe that'll work

That's what I put in my post, if you turn that off, you also turn off smooth scrolling in browsers and other animations that I'm fine with.

This is typical Microsoft crap, they take control away from the user and dictate how the GUI has to be without any regards for efficiency.

 

[Lutfij]

Just curious, are you on Windows 11 Home or Pro? I'm on 24H2 as well and see the exact same thing but it's never bothered me.

For those curious/clueless, this is what OP's referring to;

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX3MKXqQDP4

 

[SuperChuchu]

Again, if you disable animations system wide, you also disable smooth scrolling in browsers. My Windows 11 is the pro version, but I assume this is the same in the Home version.

 

[COLGeek]

When I saw your thread, I asked the moderation team if anyone had even seen this behavior because I had not.

Two out of three of us had not, and do not see this behavior from multi-monitor systems. We have been chatting about why this might be.

 

[punkncat]

Thanks for the video above as I was lost for a moment. Then the realization hit me that I haven't used a dual monitor enviro since W10. I had not experienced this effect and was also doubtful of what it could be.

 

[COLGeek]

I just experimented with an all Intel system I have. Connected a second display. Don't see the behavior.

Current Nvidia GPU/Intel CPU system with two external displays doesn't do it either.

Both of these systems (all of mine) run Win 11 Pro.

I haven't checked my AMD GPU/CPU systems yet.

 

[punkncat]

Are the two monitors a different resolution?

 

[Lutfij]

@SuperChuchu a workaround might be to enable smooth scrolling in your web browser, since you seem to imply that that's where you need it most. If you're on Chrome or Edge;
chrome://flags or edge://flags you should see a number of options, the search bar will quickly find smooth scrolling and you can change it from Default to Enabled. See if that helps.

To lend some weight to my platform, I'm on Windows 11 Home 24H2, Nvidia GPU, Dual monitor setup, DP connections, main is 1440p, secondary is 1080p.

 

[COLGeek]

Are the two monitors a different resolution?

Good question. In my case, yes, so far. I'll try something different shortly.

 

[SuperChuchu]

When I saw your thread, I asked the moderation team if anyone had even seen this behavior because I had not.

Two out of three of us had not, and do not see this behavior from multi-monitor systems. We have been chatting about why this might be.

You mean that you have two or more monitors connected to your graphics card and whenever you turn them on or off, you don't see the zoom effect? That would be really weird, because I have two computers with Windows 11, and I had a friend's computer here for a while a year ago, and this happens in Windows 11 every time.

 

[COLGeek]

You mean that you have two or more monitors connected to your graphics card and whenever you turn them on or off, you don't see the zoom effect? That would be really weird, because I have two computers with Windows 11, and I had a friend's computer here for a while a year ago, and this happens in Windows 11 every time.

That is exactly what I mean. In fact, all 4 of my systems (GPU/CPU combos: AMD/AMD, AMD/AMD, Intel/Intel, and Nvidia/Intel) lack this behavior. Either that or it happens so fast to not be noticeable.

As I said earlier, I have been doing the geek thing for MANY years and had never seen this until you mentioned today.

All accessibility settings are in default state.

 

[SuperChuchu]

That is exactly what I mean. In fact, all 4 of my systems (GPU/CPU combos: AMD/AMD, AMD/AMD, Intel/Intel, and Nvidia/Intel) lack this behavior. Either that or it happens so fast to not be noticeable.

As I said earlier, I have been doing the geek thing for MANY years and had never seen this until you mentioned today.

All accessibility settings are in default state.

Interesting. I wonder what's your setup to avoid triggering that. I mean, I'm not the only one suffering from this, I read countless posts of people complaining about the same thing.

But funny enough, every once in a while, Copilot is useful for a change, and gave me the perfect answer for this. I had taken a screenshot, but it looks like this forum doesn't take direct image uploads. So I'll just copy and paste a trimmed version of it (option 1 was the one in accessibility so I didn't paste it here):

Yes, there **is** a way to stop that zoom animation when turning monitors on or off in Windows 11 — and you're definitely not the only one annoyed by it. Here's how to disable it:
---------------------------
### 🧩 Option 2: Registry Tweak (Targeted Fix)
If you're on **Windows 11 build 22631.3810 or later**, Microsoft added a hidden registry key to disable **just** the display mode change animation:

1. Press `Win + R`, type `regedit`, and hit Enter
2. Navigate to:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
```
3. Right-click in the right pane and choose **New > DWORD (32-bit) Value**
4. Name it: `ForceDisableModeChangeAnimation`
5. Set its value to `1`
6. Restart your PC

✅ This disables the zoom animation **without affecting other animations** like smooth scrolling.

 

[COLGeek]

In our moderator chat about this earlier, I wasn't the only one who had never seen the behavior and we both use multiple displays and have for many years.

In fact, until you mentioned it I was completely unaware that some experience this.

 

[SuperChuchu]

In our moderator chat about this earlier, I wasn't the only one who had never seen the behavior and we both use multiple displays and have for many years.

In fact, until you mentioned it I was completely unaware that some experience this.

Well, but regardless of what you and other moderators have seen, this is a real problem, and to Microsoft this is a "feature", as shown by the ridiculous effort put into it. I'm a videographer and 3D artist, so I know that this stupid animation was done with keyframes set to ease in and out, or manually adjusting the curves. It completely baffles me that A) someone at Microsoft came up with such a moronic idea, and B) that the chain of people at Microsoft that have jobs with higher pay that the creator of this gimmick thought that it was a good idea and that gave the OK to it.

GUI animations are supposed to have a purpose, this one is completely idiotic and serves no purpose whatsoever. Even worse, it wastes the user's time.

 

[COLGeek]

No denying the behavior's existence. It is certainly real. I'm not in agreement with the magnitude of its significance. Annoying design choice at worst.

 

[ubuysa]

No denying the behavior's existence. It is certainly real. I'm not in agreement with the magnitude of its significance. Annoying design choice at worst.

I have to disagree. I suffer from this 'animation' too, at first I thought it was a bug because it seems to serve no useful purpose. It takes about 2 seconds to complete the shrink and restore and if you're in the middle of something when it happens it's incredibly annoying. What was the intended purpose of this 'animation'? It conveys no useful information and it doesn't make things look pretty, it's just annoying.

I've implemented the registry hack above and so far I've not seen this 'animation' since, thanks to @SuperChuchu!