Windows 10: Microsoft introduces optimizations for windowed games to reduce latency in Windows 11

Microsoft is working on improving the performance of games in Windows 11. It has introduced some new options, labeled Optimizations for windowed games.



It's no secret that games that run in full screen mode have better performance than windowed or the borderless windowed modes. There are a couple of factors that impact the level of performance.

When you are playing a game in full screen, and try to Alt + Tab to a different window (or switch to a different monitor), you may notice that it takes a long time to do so, the screen might stay black for a few seconds. This is because full screen exclusive (FSE) games bypass the Desktop Window Manager (DWM). On the other hand, DWM controls the display in windowed mode, and reduces the time it takes to switch between 2 windows significantly. This is why some games have the full screen borderless window enabled by default.

Microsoft addressed the latency issue in Windows 10, with a feature called Full Screen Optimizations, to allow games to run in an optimized borderless windowed mode. This article at the Microsoft Dev Blog explains it quite nicely.

The other factor that plays a major role in the performance of games, is Vertical Synchronization, aka V-Sync. Full screen mode lets you control V-Sync, but if the game is running in windowed mode, you may notice that the V-Sync option gets grayed out or un-clickable. That's because V-Sync doesn't work with windowed programs.

Why is this important? Most modern games have a frame rate slider in the settings, that lets you cap the FPS to a certain limit. e.g. 30FPS, 45FPS. 60FPS. Some games don't have this option, if you have a monitor with a higher refresh rate, say 75Hz, you can enable V-Sync. Enabling this option helps prevent screen tearing by limiting the frame rate to that of your monitor. Setting a frame cap can also reduce the load on your GPU, thus improving the performance of the game. E.g. If a game is taxing your graphics card, try reducing the FPS limit, and you will experience a constant flow instead of spiking to a higher frame rate and dropping to a lower value from time to time.

The issue is, not every game has the options to toggle V-Sync, Frame Limiter, or set the screen mode, which is why Microsoft is introducing a new way to manage your games, Optimizations for windowed games.

Image courtesy: Microsoft

Per-game graphics settings in Windows 11


Gaming desktops and mid-range/high-end laptops have two graphics cards, one that is integrated in the CPU (Intel iGPU or AMD), and a dedicated one such as an NVIDIA or Radeon graphics card. While games usually pick the dedicated GPU correctly, some titles may not detect it, and default to the weaker integrated option instead.



Windows 11's new presentation mode will allow you to manage the graphics settings of each game from the Settings app. The options are available from the System > Display > Graphics page, with an option to choose the GPU. This isn't a particularly new option, as you can do the same with your graphics card's software, like the Nvidia Control Panel (not Geforce Experience app, which is garbage).



The other options in Windows 11's new mode, seem to be interesting, the operating system gives you the choice to select whether a game should use Auto HDR, providing you have the hardware for it. In addition to this, you may toggle variable refresh rate for games that don't support the feature by default. The setting for Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling was introduced in Windows 10, but frankly, I've never observed a major difference in the performance with the option enabled or disabled.

There is another setting in the new mode, that acts as a global switch for Optimizations for Windowed Games. If you are running into issues in the game, you can toggle the option to see if it gets you better results. If you switch the option off, you can still manage the options on a per-game basis.

The graphics optimizations will be available for games that rely on DirectX 10 and 11. Games that run on DirectX 12 already support the new presentation mode. The announcement article says that Windows 11 will deliver the best settings by default, i.e., it will manage the optimizations automatically. The new options are available in Windows 11 Build 22557 that was released last week.

I haven't faced any issues while playing games on Windows 11. If you are experiencing lags while gaming, you may want to update your operating system, as KB5008353 which was released about a month ago solved the issue that was slowing down the performance of SSD. And of course, you should always update to the latest graphics driver from Nvidia or AMD's official website.

What tweaks have you made to improve the performance of games in Windows 11?

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Microsoft introduces optimizations for windowed games to reduce latency in Windows 11 appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

read more...

 

Microsoft to Introduce Windows 10 Pro for Workstation PCs

Microsoft is seemingly going to introduce another version of their Windows 10 operating system. After introducing Windows 10 S earlier in the year, followed by the "Chinafinitive" Windows 10 China Government Edition, the company is seemingly responding to specific market demands of professionals and enterprises. The new Windows 10 Pro for Workstation PCs (which was first leaked by Microsoft itself through an erroneous upload to the Insider Program) will apparently come in two variants, a standard variant, and the N variant, which is built to comply with EU regulations.

The new Windows 10 Pro for Workstation PCs will introduce ReFS, the successor to the tried and true NTFS file system. The new ReFS is designed for fault-tolerance and is optimized for handling large data volume, including auto-correcting capabilities and backwards-compatibility with NTFS. Additionally, Microsoft is baking in SMB Direct protocol file sharing in Windows 10 Pro for Workstation which allows for high throughput, low latency and low CPU utilization when accessing network shares. It will also introduce support for systems with up to four CPUs (up from Windows 10 and Windows 10 Pro dual CPU limit) and 6 TB of RAM.





Source: ETeknix

 

Disk optimization scheduling in Windows 10

Hi,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I suggest you to follow the below steps and check if it helps.

• 
  In search select Defragment and optimize drives
  
• 
  Click on change settings
  
• 
  In optimization schedule
  
• 
  In frequency select the options accordingly.
  

Please let us know if you need further assistance.

Thank you.

`

 

Windows OS Builds List

Windows Operating Systems Builds List by Matthew Smith
*Many Builds Are Subject To Change Due To Various Sources
NOTE: the listing titles are in order from the order in the actual list, anything added in v8 will show which beta it was updated in to keep you guys informed on what changes were made where, as of 8.0 BETA 8, 7.1 is obsolete, but will keep it up to show how many changes I've made.


NOTE 2: each new list version doesn't just come up with more builds but might come with renaming/removing/replacing of the builds aswel to show proper release names such as,
Release Candidate, RTM, Pre-Beta, etc.
Enjoy


Windows OS Builds Lists - http://www.T4CFantasy.com/WOS/
Currently 5583 Builds Listed
Microsoft DOS / OS/2 (Currently 118 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft BASIC (Currently 5 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Xenix (Currently 4 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft DOS 1.x (Currently 6 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft DOS 2.x (Currently 18 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft DOS 3.x (Currently 27 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft DOS 4.x (Currently 6 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft DOS 5.x (Currently 23 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft DOS 6.x (Currently 24 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft DOS 7.x (Currently 4 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft DOS 8.x (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1

Microsoft Windows Emedded CE (Currently 138 Builds Listed)
- Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 1.x (Currently 4 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 2.x (Currently 9 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 3.x (Currently 6 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 4.x (Currently 9 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 5.x (Currently 45 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.x (Currently 3 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7 (Currently 32 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 8 (Currently 30 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1

Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (Currently 5316 Builds Listed)
- Microsoft Windows 1.x (Currently 14 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows 2.x (Currently 10 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows 3.x (Currently 59 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows 3.x For Workgroups (Currently 7 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows For Pen Computing 1.0 (Currently 5 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 4
- Microsoft Windows For Pen Computing 2.0 (Currently 1 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 3
- Microsoft Windows NT 3.1x (Currently 31Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows NT 3.5x (Currently 78 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows BackOffice Server 1.5 (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows NT 4.x (Currently 104 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows BackOffice Server 4.0 (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows BackOffice Server 4.5 (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Terminal Server 4.0 (Currently 3 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows BackOffice Small Business Server 4.0 (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows BackOffice Small Business Server 4.5 (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows 95 (Currently 224 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows 96 / Nashville (Currently 7 Builds Listed) 8.2.0 Alpha 4a
- Microsoft Windows 97 / Memphis (Currently 12 Builds Listed) 8.2.0 Alpha 4a
- Microsoft Windows 98 (Currently 151 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Me (Currently 58 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows 2000 (Currently 279 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows BackOffice Server 2000 (Currently 2 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 9
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2000 (Currently 2 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Neptune (Currently 8 Builds Listed) 8.2.0 Beta 2
- Microsoft Windows XP (Currently 1226 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows XP Embedded (Currently 3 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 6
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Currently 186 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Currently 2 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows .NET Server 2003 R2 (Currently 5 Builds Listed) 8.0.0 BETA 4
- Microsoft Windows Embedded for Point of Service (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 2009 (Currently 2 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Vista (Currently 713 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (Currently 483 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows 7 (Currently 580 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (Currently 364 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 5
- Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 (Currently 8 Builds Listed) 8.0.2 BETA
- Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 (Currently 12 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 5
- Microsoft Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 (Currently 5 Builds Listed) 8.2.0 Beta 1
- Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 (Currently 2 Builds Listed) 8.0.2 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 (Currently 3 Builds Listed) 8.0.2 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.0.3 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 (Currently 3 Builds Listed) 8.0.1 BETA 2
- Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (Currently 14 Builds Listed) 8.0.2 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Foundation (Currently 1 Build Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 6
- Microsoft Windows Home Server (Currently 20 Builds Listed) 8.0.2 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 (Currently 10 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 7
- Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 (Currently 2 Builds Listed) 8.0.0 BETA 5
- Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 (Currently 6 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 7
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (Currently 4 Builds Listed) 8.0.3 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011 (Currently 7 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7 (Currently 6 Builds Listed) 8.0.3 BETA
- Microsoft Windows Embedded POSReady 7 (Currently 3 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 5
- Microsoft Windows Thin PC (Currently 3 Builds Listed) 8.1.0 BETA 5
- Microsoft Windows 8 (Currently 419 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (Currently 161 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Essentials (Currently 2 Builds Listed) 8.4.0 Alpha 1