Screen flickering is an annoying issue that’s been around since Windows 7. Many users have reported that their screen flickers or flashes while gaming or using some GPU-intensive programs. But it can also happen when dragging a program, handling the taskbar, turning on your PC, after the PC wakes from sleep, when scrolling through a feed on a webpage or app, when personalizing the system UI, or browning the Chrome browser.

It is usually caused by a faulty display driver or an incompatible app. But it can also be caused by a number of other things including:

  • Hardware malfunction
  • Incorrect refresh rate
  • Faulty monitor or cables
  • HDR is only partially supported or not supported
  • Incorrect personalization settings

Whatever the reason may be, we have compiled a list of troubleshooting methods to fix the Windows 11 flickering screen.

1. Check Your Cables and Monitor

If your screen is flickering, the first thing you should check is your monitor and cables. The Screen flickering is usually caused by loose cables or faulty monitors, so make sure they are plugged in securely.

  • Turn off your PC completely including your monitor. Then, unplug your monitor (VGA, DVI, or HDMI ) cable and other cables and plug them back in properly. If your monitor cable is damaged, replace it with a new one.
  • If you have a spare monitor, connect your PC to that monitor and see if the flickering disappears.
  • In case you’re experiencing screen flickering on your laptop, check if the hinges are damaged or broken. If the hinges are not damaged, plug your laptop into an external monitor or a TV with an HDMI cable, and see if the flickering appears on the external monitor.
  • If the flickering stops on the external monitor, you are probably dealing with a faulty laptop monitor. In that case, contact the manufacturer or service center for support or raise a warranty claim.

Check if Display Driver or App is Causing the Flickers

If faulty cables or monitor is not the issue, most of the time screen flickering is caused by the Display drivers. We can use the Task Manager to check if the screen flickers are caused by a driver/ faulty hardware or an app, so you can take the necessary actions to fix the issue.

Right-click on an empty space on the Taskbar and select ‘Task Manager’ or press Win+X and select ‘Task Manager’ from the context menu to launch the tool.

Now, if the Task Manager flickers along with everything else on the screen, then it is most likely caused by the faulty driver or something else. However, if the Task Manager doesn’t flicker, then the culprit is most likely an incompatible application.

2. Update Display or Graphics Driver

If your graphics driver gets corrupted, is outdated, or missing, you may encounter several issues like screen flickering in Windows 11. Installing pending Windows updates and graphics driver updates can fix the screen or display-related issues. There are different ways to update your video card:

2.1 Update Drivers using Device Manager

The Device Manager tool can scan for driver changes and install new versions of the drivers. To open Device Manager, right-click on the Start menu and select ‘Device manager’. Alternatively, open the Run command box and type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.

It will open up the Device Manager which will list all the drivers installed in your system categorized by hardware. Now, locate the driver that’s causing the problem and update it. Sometimes malfunctioning drivers will have a yellow triangle mark (a warning sign), make sure you should update those drivers. Graphics or Video drivers are located under the Display adaptors category.

If you have two graphics cards, integrated and dedicated graphics card, then the chances are that the integrated graphics is used as the default display adaptor, meaning your display uses integrated or inbuilt graphics card for everyday tasks. It will automatically switch to the dedicated graphics card when running graphics-intensive programs like gaming, video rendering, streaming, etc. So updating the integrated graphics card fixes most display-related issues.

If the graphics driver is the one causing the problem, expand the ‘Display adaptor’, right-click on the graphics driver, and select the ‘Update driver’ option from the context menu.

This will open up the ‘Update drivers’ dialog box. Then, click the ‘Search automatically for drivers’ option.

Now, Windows will automatically search for the driver and update it on your computer. If prompted, restart the computer to complete the installation.

2.2 Update Drivers through Windows Update

Another way to install or update the necessary drivers is through Windows updates. Updating Windows not only updates or installs device drivers but can also fix other issues in your computer.

Right-click the Start menu and select ‘Settings’ from the overflow menu or press Win+I.

In the Windows Settings, select the ‘Windows Update’ tab on the left pane and click the ‘Check for updates’ button.

Now, Windows will search, download and install the drivers that are missing or out of date on your computer. Usually, Windows Update will find the available updates and automatically install them. But sometimes, it will list the available updates and you have to click the ‘Download & Install’ button to download and install them.

If you don’t see any available drivers here, you can check the Optional updates. To do that, click the ‘Advanced options’ on the Windows update setting page.

Next, click the ‘Optional updates’ option under the Additional options section. If you have any driver updates available, they will be listed here. You can then download and install the necessary drivers.

2.3 Update Graphics/Display Driver using Graphics Card Companion app

If you have a dedicated graphics card (like NVIDIA), you can install driver updates from the graphics card companion app. If you are using an AMD video card, you would have the ‘Catalyst Control Center’ or ‘AMD Radeon software’ app and if you’re using an NVIDIA card, you would have the ‘Geforce Experience’ app.

You can find the graphics companion running in the Windows notification area. If you’re using an NVIDIA card, right-click the app icon from the Notification area and select the ‘NVIDIA GeForce Experience’ option.

In the GeForce Experience app, go to the ‘Drivers’ tab and click the ‘CHECK FOR UPDATES’ option. Then, download and install the updates if there are any.

Once the new driver is downloaded, select ‘EXPRESS INSTALLATION’ OR ‘CUSTOM INSTALLATION’, and follow the onscreen instructions to install the driver.

After the installation is over, restart your PC and check if the flickering is stopped.

3. Uninstall and Reinstall Graphics Drivers

If updating your graphics doesn’t fix the problem, then uninstall and perform a clean installation of your graphics driver. The screen flashing could be caused by the display adapter driver being corrupted or damaged or outdated. If you have both inbuilt (AMD) and dedicated (NVIDIA) graphics cards, try reinstalling the inbuilt driver first. If it doesn’t work, reinstall the dedicated graphics card driver as well.

To uninstall your graphics driver, go to the ‘Device Manager’, right-click the graphics driver, and select the ‘Uninstall device’ option. But before uninstalling the driver note down your graphics driver model name, so you can use it to search for drivers online.

In the Uninstall Device box, check the ‘Attempt to remove the driver for this device (if you have one), and click the ‘Uninstall’ button. Once the driver is uninstalled, reboot your system. When you restart your system, Windows will automatically reinstall the driver from the Windows update. If not, you need to manually download the driver and then reinstall it.

You can find your graphics drivers on your computer manufacturer’s website or the graphics card manufacturer’s website. Go to your manufacturer’s website and look for the ‘graphics driver’, ‘video driver’, or ‘display driver’ for your GPU hardware and download the latest version that’s available.

Here are the download pages for the most commonly used GPUs on PC:

If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, go to the NVIDIA download page, and choose product type, series, and model using the drop-down menus. Then, select Windows 11 as the operating system and choose ‘Game Ready Driver (GRD)’ from the Download Type.

Then, click the ‘Search’ button.

The website will show you the latest version of the driver; click the ‘Download’ button to continue.

Then, click ‘Download’ again to download the driver and save it on your computer.

If you have an AMD graphics card, go to the AMD support page using the above link and select your product from the series of lists. For integrated graphics card, select ‘Processors with graphics’

Then, select your hardware from the lists and click ‘SUBMIT’.

On the next page, click on the ‘Windows 11 – 64-Bit Edition’ option and select the ‘Download’ button.

After the driver is downloaded, run the installer. Then, click ‘OK’ to extract the files. The extracted files will be saved in a folder named ‘NVIDIA’ or ‘AMD’ in the C: drive.

After the files are extracted, the installer will automatically check for system compatibility. Then, click ‘Agree and Continue’ on the NVIDIA software license agreement screen.

On the Installation options page, select the ‘Custom (Advanced)’ option and click ‘Next’ to continue.

On the next step, check the ‘Perform a clean installation’ box and click ‘Next’ to install the NVIDIA Geforce Experience software, NVIDIA Control Panel, and NVIDIA driver.

This will restore all NVIDIA settings to the default value and remove any profile you have created.

You can also update drivers using third-party driver updater tools such as Driver Booster, Driver Talent, Driver Easy, etc.

4. Roll Back your Graphics Driver

In many cases, the flickering or flashing is caused by faulty graphics driver updates. If the recent driver update contains any bugs or is not compatible with your hardware, it can lead to various issues. If the screen flickering has just started after a recent graphics driver update, then you need to roll back the driver to the previous version or a specific version. There are two ways to go about it:

4.1 Roll Back Driver Using Device Manager

The easiest way to roll back a device driver is by using the Device Manager. 

Open the Run command box, type ,devmgmt.msc , and click ‘OK’ or hit Enter to launch the Device Manager tool.

In the Device Manager, click on the ‘Display adapters’ option to see the list of graphics cards (integrated or dedicated graphics cards) on your device.

Then, right-click the device for which driver you recently updated and select ‘Properties’.

In the Properties dialog window, switch to the ‘Driver’ tab and then click on the ‘Roll Back Driver’ button to proceed. 

In the confirmation dialog box, select one of the right reasons, then click ‘Yes’ to roll back to the previous driver.

If the ‘Roll Back Driver’ button is greyed out as shown in the above screenshot, it means update files for the previous version of the driver are not available on the computer. This option would also be greyed if you also clean-installed the driver the last time.

If the ‘Roll Back Driver’ button is greyed out, you need to use the next method to install the previous version of the driver.

4.2 Manually Download and Install Graphics Driver to the Previous Version

If you are unable to roll back the driver using the above method, you can uninstall the graphics drivers and then download and install the previous or specific version of the driver manually.

Before you uninstall the current faulty version of the driver, you need to know its version so you can download an older version. To get the current version of the driver, open the Windows Settings app and go to the ‘Apps’ section. Then, select ‘Installed apps’ on the right side.

From the list of apps, find the graphics driver (For example – NVIDIA Graphics Driver 527.56) and note down the driver version which will be part of the name.

Now, you can uninstall the graphics driver. Click the three dots button and select ‘Uninstall’.

Once the driver is uninstalled, restart your PC for changes to take effect.

All of the discrete video cards used on PCs and laptops are designed and built by either Nvidia or AMD. And most of the computers use NVIDIA GPU for the dedicated graphics card. Here, we are going to download and install the NVIDIA driver.

Go to NVIDIA’s download driver page and specify your graphics card information to search. First, select the ‘Product Type’, and ‘Product Series’, and then select the ‘Product’ using the respective dropdown menus.

Then, choose ‘Windows 11’ under the ‘Operating System’ dropdown menu and then select the ‘DCH’ option from the dropdown menu under the ‘Windows Driver Type’.

After that, select the language from the ‘Language’ drop-down, choose the ‘Recommended’ option from the ‘Recommended/Certified’ dropdown, and then click the ‘Search’ button to list all the available versions.

This will show you a list of drivers by version and release date. Now, click on any driver version released before the one you just uninstalled.

After that, click the ‘Download’ button to proceed.

On the next page, click the ‘Download’ button again to download the file.

Choose where you want to save the file and once it’s downloaded, run the setup to install the driver.

5. Adjust the Screen Refresh Rate

If you are using an older monitor or older laptop, it may not compatible with Windows 11’s refresh rate. Windows 11 has a Dynamic Refresh Rate which uses 60 Hz for everyday use but will automatically switch to 120Hz or 144Hz for visually intensive tasks like gaming, video rendering, etc. So, adjusting the refresh rate to the optimum level can solve the problem.

First, open Settings on your Windows 11 computer by pressing Win+I simultaneously. On the left pane, click on the ‘System’ option and select ‘Display’ from the right-side panel.

Then scroll down to the ‘Related Settings’ section on the ‘Display’ settings page and select the ‘Advanced display’ option.

On the next page, choose the display (if you have multiple displays) that’s having the screen flickering issue from the drop-down menu above.

Now, click on the drop-down menu for ‘Choose a refresh rate’ and choose a refresh that works for you, preferably a higher refresh rate. However, this option is available only on supported hardware.

6. Disable Desktop Window Manager

Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) is a Windows process responsible for rendering transparent windows, themes, visual effects, and taskbar icons, i.e., pretty much anything to do with a graphical user interface (GUI).

There is a small chance that the window manager freezes and malfunctions which can lead to several screen display issues, including flickering. So, restarting the Desktop Window Manager process may help solve the issue.

To do that, open the Task Manager with the shortcut keys (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and locate the ‘Desktop Window Manager’ process under the Processes section.

Now, right-click on the ‘Desktop Window Manager’ process and select ‘End Task’.

You will be shown a prompt box; check the option for ‘Abandon unsaved data and shut down’, then click the ‘Shut down’ button.

When you start the computer again, the process will start automatically, and the issue should be fixed.

7. Change Accent Color and Background

Another method that may stop your screen flickering issue in Windows 11 is to change the Accent color and background. Here’s how you do this:

Open Windows Settings (Win+I) and select the ‘Personalization’ tab on the left and then choose ‘Colors’ from the right pane.

In the Colors settings page, choose ‘Manual’ from the ‘Accent Color’ drop-down menu.

Then, select any color of your choice from the color palette below.

Next, go back to the previous page, i.e., Personalization, and select the ‘Background’ option.

Then, click the ‘Personalize your background’ drop-down menu and choose ‘Picture’ or ‘Solid color’.

If you select the ‘Picture’ option, you can click the ‘Browse photos’ button below and pick an image from your computer for wallpaper. If you select ‘Solid color’, you can choose a color of your choice from the color palette as your background.

8. Disable the Animation Effects on Windows

By default, the Animation Effects feature is enabled in Windows 11 which makes the user interface look more fluid. Few users have reported that disabling the Animation effects has stopped the screen from flickering on their devices. Besides disabling Animation effects can also improve your system’s performance. Follow these steps to disable the Animation effects on Windows 11:

Click the Start button and select ‘Settings’ from the Start menu.

In the Settings app, go to the ‘Accessibility’ tab on the left panel and click on the ‘Visual effects’ tile on the right.

Now, disable the toggle button next to ‘Animation effects’ under the Visual Effects page.

After this, check if the screen flickering is gone.

9. Disable Hardware Acceleration to Fix Screen Flickering in Chrome

Hardware acceleration is the process that allows some applications like Chrome to offload or move all graphics and text rendering from the CPU to the GPU, thus improving the overall user experience of the app. But this may increase the burden on the GPU and prevent visual elements from displaying correctly on the display.

If your screen is flickering while using the Chrome browser, video game, or any other specific application, disabling the hardware acceleration in that application can fix the problem. Chrome browser is known for causing display issues, so here we will see how to disable Hardware acceleration in Google Chrome.

Open the Google Chrome browser, click the three dots menu button at the top right corner and select ‘Settings’.

In the Settings page, move to the ‘System’ tab on the left side navigational panel and turn off the toggle behind ‘Use hardware acceleration when available’.

Then, click the ‘Relaunch’ button to relaunch the browser and see if the screen has stopped flickering.

10. Disable the Hardware Acceleration for Windows

As mentioned earlier, Hardware acceleration can often cause Screen flickering issues in Windows 11. If your screen is still flickering even after disabling the hardware acceleration in Google Chrome, you can try disabling it at the system level. To do this, you have to use the Registry Editor:

Search for ‘Registry Editor’ or ‘regedit’ in the Windows Search and select the top result to open Windows Registry Editor.

Make sure to create a backup of the registries before you proceed further. To do that, follow these steps:

When the Registry launches, click the ‘File’ menu and select ‘Export’.

Choose ‘All’ from the Export range, give a name to the file, and click ‘Save’.

In the Registry Editor, go to the following location using the left navigation panel or paste the below path in the address bar:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics

Look for the ‘DisableHWAcceleration’ DWORD in the right-side pane. If it’s not available, you need to create it. To do that, right-click on an empty area, select ‘New’, and then ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Rename the newly created DWORD to ‘DisableHWAcceleration’.

Now, double-click on the ‘DisableHWAcceleration’ to change its value. Set the value of the DWORD to 1 and click ‘OK’.

After that, restart your computer and check if the screen flickering is gone.

11. Disable HDR

High dynamic range (HDR) is a relatively new technology, not all devices and displays support it. If you are using an older or low-cost budget monitor, chances are they don’t fully support high dynamic range (HDR) video in Windows 11, which might end up causing this display issue. Windows 11 has an Auto-HDR feature for videos and games which is enabled by default, so disabling the HDR feature from the Windows Settings has been known to stop the screen flickering issue. Here’s how you do this:

Open the Windows Settings app with Win+I shortcut keys. Once the Settings app opens, click on the ‘System’ tab from the side menu on the left and select ‘Display’ on the right.

Before you disable HDR, you can check whether your display is HDR compatible or not through the Display settings. To do that, scroll down to the ‘Related settings’ and click on the ‘Advanced display’ section on the Display settings page.

On the Advanced display settings page, choose the display that’s flashing from the drop-down menu at the top. Now check whether the ‘Color space’ field under the ‘Display information’ says ‘Standard dynamic range (SDR)’ or ‘High dynamic range (HDR)’.

If the Color space says ‘Standard dynamic range (SDR)’, it means your device is not fully compatible with the HDR feature.

To disable HDR, go back to the ‘Display’ settings page and select the ‘HDR’ toggle under the Brightness & color section.

Click on the ‘Select a display to view or change its settings’ drop-down to choose the display. Under Display capabilities, you can check whether ‘HDR video streaming’ and ‘Use HDR’ features are supported or not.

If both features are supported on your device, you will see toggle switches for ‘HDR video streaming’ and ‘Use HDR’. Now, turn these toggles to ‘Off’.

Here, only HDR video streaming is supported, hence we have only one toggle.

After turning off HDR, close the settings, restart your computer, and check if the issue is resolved.

12. Reseat the Graphics Card

As we mentioned before, the graphics driver is the leading cause of display issues. But if reinstalling the graphics driver doesn’t fix the issues, then the problem is caused by the graphics card. If your graphics cards aren’t seated properly on your motherboard or if it’s covered in dust, it can cause your monitor to flicker or experience display-related issues.

Before you try to reseat the graphics card, you can easily check if the graphics card is the issue. If your monitor is connected to the graphics card through the VGA port at the back of the CPU, remove the monitor cable and try connecting to the motherboard VGA port instead. If the flickering stops, then you know the graphics card caused the issue. Now, you can proceed to reseat your graphics card:

  • Turn off your computer, unplug the cables, and open up your computer case. After opening the case, disconnect any cable that might be connected to your GPU.
  • Next, unscrew the thump screws that are holding the GPU to the back of the case.
  • Once you unscrew the graphics card and disconnect it from the case, the graphics card will still be slotted into the PCIe x16 slot on the motherboard.
  • To remove it, you have to push down the small retention clip (located on the side or below the card) that’s holding the card in place to the motherboard to release the card. Now, pull up the card to remove it from the slot.
  • After removing the graphics card, clean the card and the slot of any dust.
  • Before you reinsert the card, make sure the PCIe retainer clip is in the open position. Then gently reinsert the card back into the slot.

13. Disable Full-Screen Optimization for Games

If you are experiencing screen flickering and screen flashing issues while playing a specific game in full-screen mode, then turning off the full-screen optimization for that game can fix the issue. Follow these steps to disable the full-screen optimization for a game:

First, locate the game that you think might be causing the issue on the desktop, right-click on the game shortcut and select ‘Properties’.

Once the game properties windows open, go to the ‘Compatibility’ tab and check the ‘Disable fullscreen optimizations’ option under the Settings section. Then, click ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’.

After that, launch the game and it will run in windowed mode with borders. Now, check if the screen continues to flicker.

14. Change Power Settings

Another way to deal with the screen flicker problem in Windows 11 is to change the power settings because some active settings in the Power Options could cause the issue. So you need to disable sleep, hibernate, and fast startup settings in Windows 11. Here’s how you can do that:

Open the Start menu and type ‘Control Panel’ and select the best match result.

When the control panel launches, click the ‘System and Security’ settings if the settings are viewed as Category. Or, if the view is set to small icons or large icons, choose ‘Power Options’.

Then, click ‘Power Options’ from the list of settings.

Alternatively, select ‘Power Options’ if the settings are viewed as large or small icons.

From the left panel, click the ‘Choose what the power button does’ link.

Next, click on ‘Change settings that are currently unavailable’ to edit the settings. Remember you’ll need administrative privileges to do this.

Now uncheck the ‘Turn on fast startup’, ‘Sleep’, ‘Hibernate’ options and click ‘Save changes’ and reboot the computer.

15. Change the Power Plan and Power Plan Settings

If your device is using the ‘Power Saver’ plan, make sure to change it to ‘Balanced’ or ‘High Performance’. Then adjust the Wireless Adaptor’s Power saving mode to ‘Maximum performance’.

Go to the ‘Power Options’ settings in the Control panel and ensure the ‘Balanced (recommended)’ or ‘High Performance’ plan is selected. Then, click ‘Change plan settings’ next to the selected plan.

Next, set the ‘Put the computer to sleep’ setting for both ‘On battery’ and ‘Plugged in’ to ‘Never’ and select ‘Save changes’.

After that, click the ‘Change advanced power settings’ link under it.

This will open the Power Options dialog box where you can customize various power settings of the PC. Now, locate the ‘Wireless Adapter Settings’ option and expand it. Then, expand the ‘Power Saving Mode’ under it and set both On battery and Plugged in settings to ‘Maximum Performance’.

Then, click on ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ buttons. 

After that, click the Save changes button to apply the changes you made.

Now, restart your computer to see if the problem is resolved. If this doesn’t work, try the next fix.

16. Adjust the Energy-Saving Mode Of the Graphics Card (Nvidia Control Panel)

If you have an Nvidia graphics card, the screen issue could be related to the power settings of the Nvidia graphics card. You can fix this by making a few changes in the Nvidia Control Panel which is a centralized interface that lets you customize various functions of the Nvidia driver.

First, right-click on the Nvidia icon in the taskbar corner overflow (system tray) and choose ‘Nvidia Control Panel’. Or you can search for Nvidia Control Panel in Windows search and open it.

In the Nvidia Control Panel, click the ‘Manage 3D settings’ option in the left pane. On the right pane, change the ‘Preferred graphics processor’ to your dedicated graphics card (High-Performance Nvidia processor).

In the list of settings below, find the ‘Power Management mode’ setting and set it as ‘Prefer maximum performance’ from the drop-down menu. 

Now, click ‘Apply’ to save the changes and close the control panel.

17. Turn Off AMD FreeSync technology

AMD FreeSync is a technology used to prevent screen tearing, stuttering, and input latency by synchronizing the display’s refresh rate to the frame rate of the user’s GPU. There have been reports from some users that disabling the AMD Radeon FreeSync technology has stopped the screen from flashing.

To launch AMD Radeon Settings app, right-click on the desktop, and select ‘Show more options’ from the new context menu.

And then, select ‘AMD Radeon Software’ from the classic context menu.

Alternatively, you can also search for ‘AMD Radeon Software’ in Windows Search and select the top result to launch the app.

In the AMD Radeon settings app, click the ‘Settings’ (cog) icon at the top right corner.

Now, go to the ‘Display’ tab and then turn Off the ‘AMD FreeSync’ option (if it is supported) under the Display options section.

If this doesn’t work, try the next method.

18. Override or Disable GPU Scaling on the Graphics Driver

Another method to fix the flickering or flashing issue while gaming is to override or disable the GPU scaling in the Graphics driver. GPU scaling is a feature that allows you to adjust the aspect ratio of your games according to your monitor’s resolution. Here’s how you do this:

Open AMD Radeon Software as we showed you above. Then, click on the ‘Settings’ icon at the top right corner of the app.

Then, move to the ‘Display’ tab and disable the ‘GPU Scaling’, and set ‘Scaling Mode’ to ‘Preserve aspect ratio’.

After that, restart your computer to apply the changes.

If your default desktop adaptor or graphics is NVIDIA, then follow these steps:

Right-click on the desktop and select ‘NVIDIA Control Panel’ from the context menu.

In the NVIDIA Control Panel, expand the ‘Display’ settings, and select ‘Adjust desktop size and position’ from the left-side panel.

On the right-side panel, check the ‘Override the scale mode set by games and programs’ option.

19. Create a New Windows User Profile

Many Windows 11 problems, including screen flickering, can be solved by creating new user profiles. Creating a new user profile is an easy process, here’s how you do this:

First, log in to a user account with administrative privileges and follow these steps to create a user account. Open Windows 11 Settings, select ‘Accounts’ from the left pane, and then click on ‘Other users’ on the right.

On the Other Users page, click the ‘Add account’ button at the top.

A Microsoft account pop-up window will appear. Here, enter an email address or phone number and click ‘Next’ to create an account. If you want to create a local account without an email address, click the ‘I don’t have this person’s sign-in information’ setting link.

On the next window, select ‘Add a user without a Microsoft account’.

Next, enter the username in the ‘Who’s going to use this PC?’ field. If you want to create an account without a password, leave the ‘make it secure’ fields empty and click ‘Next’.

If you want to add passwords to the account, enter and re-enter the password under the ‘Make it secure’ field. Then, select three security questions and answer them below. If you add a password, you are required to add three security questions as well. Finally, click ‘Next’ to create the user account.

Now, you can restart your computer and sign in with the new account. Then, see if the issue was resolved.

20. Enter Safe Mode to Troubleshoot Your PC

Booting your system into Safe mode is the best way to troubleshoot any Windows issues. Safe mode is a diagnostic mode that enables users to start the computer in a basic state with only the essential drivers, programs, and files. It will not start the drivers and program (like Graphics driver, audio driver, etc) that normally causes the screen flickering and flashing issues. So enabling the safe mode allows you to narrow down the source of the issues and can help you fix them.

You can start your computer in safe mode and try any of these troubleshooting methods to fix the issues. There are a few different ways you can enter the Safe mode. If you don’t know how to enter the boot mode, follow these steps:

Method 1:

To boot your system into Safe Mode, press Windows+R to open the Run command box. Then, type msconfig in the text field and hit Enter.

When the System Configuration control panel opens, move to the ‘Boot’ tab and click the box in front of ‘Safe Boot’ under Boot options to enable the option. Then, click ‘Apply’ and then ‘OK’.

After that, click ‘Restart’ in the confirmation box to reboot your system in safe mode now (automatically), or click ‘Exit without restart’ to restart your PC later (manually). If you select ‘Exit without restart’ you can save your work and close all the open programs properly.

After the system restarts in safe mode, log into your PC.

Method 2:

First, shut down your PC or turn off your PC and then press the power button to turn on the system. And just when Windows starts loading, press and hold the power button for 5 seconds to force the shutdown of your PC. Repeat the same process at least twice and then the third time let the system boot properly. It will boot into the Windows Recovery Environment screen.

Here, click the ‘Advanced options’ button to continue.

You can also boot your system from the Windows 11 bootable media or use the Advanced Startup. Then, follow the same steps in the above method to get to the ‘Advanced Options’ screen in the Windows Recovery Environment. Now, select the ‘Startup Settings’ option.

On the next screen, click ‘Restart’ to change the Windows options.

After that, your system will restart and show you the following screen. Here, press the number key 4 or F4 to enter the safe mode.

Once the system is booted into Safe mode, you can try and fix the problem that’s causing the screen to flicker.

21. Perform Clean Boot

Another common reason for your screen flickering is the third-party programs and drivers conflicting with your Windows services. Sometimes, third-party will use some GPU dependencies which can cause conflicts with the Windows service that needs them.

As you know, when Windows Starts normally, hundreds of programs, drivers, and settings start running in the background. But by booting the Windows in safe mode, you can isolate the service or process and investigate the software conflicts. Here’s how you can Start Windows in clean boot.

Open the Start menu and search for ‘System Configuration’ or ‘sysconfig’ and select the app under Best Match.

Under the ‘General’ tab, select the ‘Selective startup’ option and ensure that the ‘Load System Services’, ‘Load Startup Items’, and ‘Use Original boot configuration’ options are checked under it.

Then switch to the ‘Services’ tab and check the ‘Hide all Microsoft services’ box at the bottom left corner. This will hide all Microsoft services and drivers.

Now, you can disable the non-essential services to isolate the cause of the problem. Click the ‘Disable all’ button at the bottom right corner.

This will disable all third-party services. After disabling the services, click ‘Apply’.

You can also choose to disable Microsoft services that you don’t think necessary for the clean boot. Switch to the ‘Startup’ tab and click on ‘Open Task Manager’.

In the Task Manager window, right-click each startup app one by one and select ‘Disable’.

After that, close both Task Manager and System Configuration tools and restart your computer. Your computer will start in clean mode with only essential services and drivers required by your operating system. Now, check if your screen flickers again.

If your screen doesn’t flicker, then it is time to narrow down the program or service that’s causing it. Go back to the System Configuration tool and re-enable some of the previously disabled processes and startup items and then restart your device. Keep re-enabling a few processes at a time until you see the issue returning.

To do that, open the System Configuration tool again, go to the ‘Services’ tab, and check the ‘Hide all Microsoft services’ option. Then, re-enable some of the third-party services, click ‘Apply’ and then restart your computer.

Once you narrow down the application or service that’s causing the problem, you can uninstall it.

After successfully eliminating the cause of the problem, you can get your PC back to running normally using the following steps:

Open the System Configuration tool by entering msconfig command in the Run box.

Select the ‘Normal startup’ option under the General tab, and click ‘Apply’.

Then, go to the ‘Startup’ option and select ‘Open Task Manager’. 

Now, re-enable the startup items you disabled earlier and then restart your computer to boot normally.

22. Uninstall Incompatible Applications

In some cases, the incompatible application causes the screen flickering problem in Windows 11. For instance, if you encounter an issue when you’re running a particular application, then it’s possible that the issue is caused by that app and it has nothing to do with the Windows or your computer’s hardware. 

There are applications that are known to cause this problem such as Norton Antivirus, iCloud, Xsplit Broadcaster, and IDT Audio. If you happen to have any of these apps, try updating to the latest version and if it doesn’t work, uninstall the app.

Moreover, if you started experiencing a screen flickering issue after installing a new app, then it is probably caused by that app. If you found that an app is causing the issue by booting into Clean mode, you should also uninstall that app.

Open Windows Settings (Win+I), go to the ‘Apps’ section on the left, and select ‘Installed apps’ on the right.

Scroll down the list and find the app you wish to uninstall. Then click the three dots button and select ‘Uninstall’.

After uninstalling the program, restart your computer.

23. Restore Your System using System Restore

In case the screen issue started appearing after a certain change in your system like a major update, software installation, or others, you can use system restore to restore your computer to a previous state. Here’s how you do this:

If you can boot Windows normally, open the Start menu and search for ‘System restore’, and choose the ‘Create a restore point’ control panel.

If you are not able to boot Windows normally, boot into Windows Recovery Environment to access the System Restore option.

When the System Properties control panel opens, click the ‘System Restore’ button.

In the System Restore tool, click ‘Next’ to continue.

If you are asked to choose between ‘Recommended restore’ or ‘Choose a different restore point’, select ‘Choose a different restore point’ to see all the available restore points.

On the next screen, you will see a list of system restore points, choose the right one and select ‘Next’. If you have a manual or automatic restore point on or before the error, choose that restore point and click ‘Next’.

Finally, click ‘Finish’ to confirm the restore point.

Screen flickering issue is not just annoying but it makes you worry something is gravely wrong with your system’s hardware. But that’s not always the case. No matter why you’re experiencing screen flickering issues in Windows 11, one of the methods above is bound to help you. Try the fixes one by one until you find the one that works for you.