How to Fix Chrome Browser Flickering, Flashing, Darkening Briefly in Windows [Solution]

Does your Chrome browser occasionally flash to a darker or lighter brightness for a second on your Windows PC? Periodic and momentary flickers, flashes, darkening or brightening in chrome that happen occasionally for no reason? This may happen in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 or other systems.

For me, this suddenly started happening for no reason. Possibly after a Windows update, though it’s hard to pinpoint when because it is so occasional. My whole Chrome window will darken slightly for briefly, for one second (maybe a half second.) Then it will go back to normal. I was not able to identify anything specifically that triggered this happening, and I could never intentionally reproduce it. It may have been related to a video player such as YouTube, but I was not able to confirm that.

Here are the common fixes for Chrome flickering or darkening briefly, including the solution (#1) that worked for me.

1. Solution: Turn off Windows transparency

A Windows update seems to have caused some sort of issues in the past months, possibly more recently for some users. It may depend on the hardware and graphics settings of your specific computer.

Instructions for Windows 11 below. Windows 10, 7, etc may be slightly different – just look for the Colors area under Personalize in Windows Settings.

1. Right click the desktop
2. Select personalize
3. Look for “Colors”
4. Set “Transparency Effects” to off.

Set “Transparency Effects” to Off

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2. Solution – Disable Hardware Acceleration in Chrome

Depending on your version of  Chrome, the setting may be found in a slightly different way. You are looking for the option “Use hardware acceleration when available” and want to set that to off (disabled/unchecked.)

1. Click on the 3 dots in the upper right area of the  Chrome window to open the options drop down.
2. Click on Settings
3. In the search bar at the top, type “use hardware acceleration” to find the option
4. In the results you should see the option – set it to off. (The button will be grey when off/disabled.)

You may also  find this under “Advanced” in some versions of Chrome depending on if you have advanced options enabled, but I did not see this option there.

3. Alternate Solutions on How to Fix Chrome Browser Flickers, Flashes, Glitches

If the above main fixes did not work for you, here are other options that should get you on the right path:

• Check your Windows color profile settings. Ensure you have a color profile set and set to default for each monitor.
• Make sure you don’t have other color profile software running; for example if you used other software or a hardware color calibration device, it likely has software that runs and auto loads your color profile. Try disabling or uninstalling that or checking it’s settings. One example of this software is i1 / Eye One Color Profiler.
• Try a different browser like Firefox, Opera, or Edge for a while and see if the same issue happens there.
• Uninstall and Reinstall Chrome.
• Uninstall any custom themes and browser extensions in Chrome.