Frequently Asked Questions

OLED burn-in is the gradual, uneven aging of the organic emitters in an OLED panel. Pixels that drive bright, static content for long periods age faster than their neighbours; the difference becomes visible as a faint ghost image of whatever was there for too long. The cause is exposure — luminance multiplied by time — not simply turning the display on.

OLED Guard Pro captures your screen in real time using DXGI Desktop Duplication, models per-pixel exposure on the GPU, and renders a protective overlay that intervenes where the model says risk is building. It tracks the same exposure quantity that drives real burn-in — bright luminance accumulating over time on the same pixel — and pushes back proportionally.

Free includes single-monitor protection with a limited preset set. Pro adds multi-monitor support, all protection modes, app profiles, the Automatic controller, DDC/CI brightness control, gaming mode, and the advanced engine page.

It reduces statistical risk; it does not guarantee a burn-in-free panel. OLED Guard models the same physics that drive burn-in (exposure accumulation) and intervenes early, which is the right approach in principle. But many factors are outside any software's control — panel-level defects, ambient temperature, your specific content, panel age. Treat OLED Guard as a meaningful risk reducer, not a warranty.

Windows 10 (version 1903 or later) or Windows 11, any DirectX 11 compatible GPU, and roughly 50 MB of RAM. The hot path runs on the GPU so the CPU footprint is small.

Both versions are functionally identical. The Steam build integrates with your Steam library and overlay; the Microsoft Store build is what we point Free users at. Choose whichever store you already buy through.

This is normal for newer applications. Click "More info" then "Run anyway". The prompt appears once per install.

Start with Automatic Mode — it adjusts engine knobs in real time based on what is actually on your screen. If you want manual control, the Noise mode is the most generally effective; Gaming mode adds edge-weighted protection for HUDs.

At low intensities, the noise overlay is nearly invisible. You may notice it on solid-colour backgrounds if you look closely. The overlay becomes more visible as risk accumulates, which is intentional — it is protecting the regions that need it most.

OLED Guard is most effective against static-content burn-in (taskbars, HUDs, persistent logos). It cannot reverse damage that already exists, and it cannot help against panel-level uniformity issues that are unrelated to exposure. It can slow further degradation and lower the chance of new burn-in forming.

Yes for borderless fullscreen, which is the recommended way to play on Windows anyway. In exclusive (legacy) fullscreen, the overlay pauses while the game owns the swap chain and resumes when you alt-tab out.

In typical use, less than 1% GPU overhead. Screen capture uses hardware-accelerated DXGI Desktop Duplication; the rest of the work is shader-only. On a modern GPU at 1440p/144 Hz, the cost is generally not measurable in benchmarks, but every system is different.

Pick the Gaming preset on the Protection page, or enable edge weighting manually in Advanced. Gaming Mode applies stronger protection at the screen edges (where HUDs live) and delays activation in the centre (where gameplay action happens).

Yes — OLED Guard works with any OLED display connected to a Windows PC, including OLED monitors, OLED TVs used as monitors, and OLED laptops. It does not need a panel-specific profile.

Fully supported in Pro. Each display gets its own capture, render, and settings pipeline. You can run protection on the OLED panels and leave the LCD ones alone.

Yes. The overlay composites through the Desktop Window Manager using premultiplied alpha, which works correctly in both SDR and HDR modes.

Compatible. The overlay is composited by DWM and does not interfere with the game's swap chain, so VRR continues to function normally.

No. Frames captured by DXGI live in GPU memory just long enough to be analyzed and are then discarded. They are never written to disk and never transmitted.

No. There is no telemetry pipeline, no analytics SDK, and no background uploader. License validation is handled by the storefront (Microsoft Store / Steam), not by us. See the Privacy Policy for the full breakdown.

In your local app-data folder. Settings, presets, and the wear histogram never leave your machine.