Windows 10: Windows 10 continues to be preferred by PC gamers

Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system continues to be the most popular desktop operating system for gamers. Valve Software's latest hardware survey on its Steam gaming platform highlights that 63.51% of all Steam users run the software on Windows 10 powered devices.



Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system runs on 30.33% of all devices; the operating system broke the 30% mark for the first time after its launch in October 2021.

Windows 10 usage dropped by 1.91% in the month of January overall, while Windows 11 usage gained the exact amount. Windows 11, being the newer operating systems of the two, benefits from a few effects that more or less guarantee that its share continues to grow.

Microsoft, for one, ended sales of Windows 10 on its website. There is no option anymore on the Microsoft website to purchase a Windows 10 license or a device with Windows 10. Other manufacturers continue to sell Windows 10 devices and this is not going to stop anytime soon, though.

Most new devices come with Windows 11. While computer users may purchase devices with Windows 10, manufacturers start favoring Windows 11 for a number of reasons, including that support is guaranteed for longer by Microsoft than October 2025, the end of support month for Windows 10.

Windows 11's usage share is gaining rapidly with gamers, at least when compared to the overall performance of the operating system. Usage share tracking company Statcounter, for example, sees Windows 11 at 18.12% of all Windows devices worldwide. Windows 10 dominates the chart with its 68.86% of all Windows PCs.



The difference is explained by several factors. First, that both Valve and Statcounter do not provide exact numbers, but only a view of a certain percentage of the market. Statcounter, for example, analyzes web traffic, but only part of it. Valve asks Steam users to participate in the survey, but it is not mandatory. These systems are ideal for spotting trends.

As far as the difference is concerned, it is clear that gamers require more powerful systems than the average desktop user. These systems may be newer or equipped with better hardware. More of them may be compatible with Windows 11 as a consequence, and there may also be a tendency to run the latest version of an operating system.

Microsoft started to push Windows 11 upgrade prompts to more Windows 10 devices, but this should affect non-gamer and gamer systems alike. When the company launched Windows 11, it promised that the operating system was the best Windows version for gaming. While Windows 11 included support for a few gaming related features that Windows 10 did not support or less-good, some of these features were not used by any game until the recent release of Forspoken, the first PC game to make use of

Even the gaming changes of Windows 11 version 22h2 did not make a huge impact, even though they added Variable Refresh Rate support and optimizations for windowed games. All in all, Windows 11 game performance equals that of Windows 10 though in most cases.

Now You: do you play games on PC? Which operating system do you prefer?

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Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Installing Windows 10 on New PC?

I'm going to be building a new PC on Christmas and want to install Windows 10 on it. I have Windows 10 on my current PC, which I installed upgrading from 8.1 with the files on a USB. How do I go about installing a clean copy of Windows 10 on this new PC? I think I recall something about installing it once makes Microsoft recognize your hardware, but since this will be a PC I'm not sure what steps I need to take. Do I need to go 8.1 -> 10 or is there a method of going directly to 10?

 

Can't change printer preferences in Windows 10

Hi Chris,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft community.

I apologize for the inconvenience caused. We are glad to help you.

• 
  What exactly happens when you try to go into printer driver settings from Control Panel?
  

I suggest you to try the steps given below and check if it helps:

Step 1:

• 
  Type change default printer and hit
  enter.
  
• 
  Check whether you are able to change the preferences and properties from here.
  

Step 2:

• 
  Type printers and scanners and hit
  enter.
  
• 
  Check whether you are able to change the preferences and properties from here.
  

Hope this information helps. Do contact us for further queries. We will be happy to assist you.

Regards,

Jenith