Many wizened PC enthusiasts will be waiting for a sign that the time is right to transition some of their computer fleet to Windows 11. Microsoft’s Windows 11 is still pretty new, and recent patches offer weighty helpings of fixes and tweaks, validating user choices to stick with Windows 10 “for now.” Another, perhaps flippant, observation of the unfinished state of Windows 11 is that it has only been a fortnight since Microsoft got around to making the BSOD screen blue again…
The factor of the greatest importance to would-be Windows 11 upgraders that are reading will probably be performance. Ahead of its launch, quite a few benefits of Windows 11, performance-wise, were touted by Microsoft. We were told about optimisations of the scheduler for the latest hybrid processors, and another big uplift would be in gaming with support for new DirectX features like DirectStorage, AutoHDR and more.
Unfortunately, the reality of the situation was/is that some of Windows 11’s security features (e.g. VBS and HVCI) can be a significant drag on gaming performance – but there are workarounds. AMD processor issues with Windows 11 have largely been cleared up by firmware and software updates, so seem irrelevant now.
Improving UI
Moving along to our headlining news, Microsoft recently signalled that it is working hard to improve the overall UI performance for Windows 11 users. In a Reddit thread started by a user concerned with the slowing down of the Windows UI across Windows versions to the present day, an official Microsoft rep talked about work behind the scenes.
“Performance will be an area of focus for us in 2022,” wrote the unnamed MS Dev. “A lot of that focus will go into startup/launch performance.” In a later reply the MS representative indicated that Microsoft was working in multiple teams on UX performance; one is working specifically on UX framework performance, and another is looking over the performance of the user experience in a more holistic way.
If you have any particular issue with Windows 11, Microsoft recommends telling it directly via the Feedback Hub. Meanwhile, if/when you do decide to jump to Windows 11, as an existing Windows 10 user it is generally recommended to go for a clean install, and start afresh. Club386 has put together a handy guide for this very task: How to clean install Windows 11 from a USB drive.
