[STEAM] Even Microsoft Seems to Know Gaming on Windows 11 Isn't Great These Days

[Steam 0]

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It's no secret that gaming on Windows 11 has been a little rough in recent years. Performance and usability

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for a while now, but it seems like

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is finally trying to do something about it.

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has kicked off an internal initiative codenamed Windows K2, according to

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. Rather than being a version of Windows itself, this project seems to aim to change the design philosophy of future Windows updates instead.

Over the past several years,

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has been focused on releasing new features as fast as possible, which has led to some incredibly awful updates. Just look at Recall, a

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which uses AI to save screenshots of literally everything you do on your PC so that you can reference them later. Back in 2024,

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tried to rush that out super quickly, only to have to hold it back due to obvious security issues.

With K2,

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slowing things down a bit and trickling out updates with a higher bar of quality. We've already seen evidence of this program, with the recent AutoSR update coming to the Xbox Ally X nearly six months after its release.

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could have just shipped the feature without making sure it worked properly – after all, it's been available for

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.

Hopefully this means that

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will have some semblance of restraint when comes to shoving new features into Windows 11. Or, at the very least, less frequent updates that make you restart your

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.

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Wants PC Gaming Back

PC gaming on Windows is obviously still huge, with

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's operating systems making up for 92% of gaming PCs, according to the

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. While Windows does have a comfy majority, Linux gaming is growing at an incredible rate, thanks in large part to the Steam Deck, and other handhelds that are now running SteamOS or Bazzite.

Just last month, the amount of people running Linux on their gaming PCs has gone up 3% to 5.33% of Steam's install base. Certainly a big part of that is there are more devices out there that come with SteamOS these days, but right now Linux just has better gaming performance than Windows, especially on low-end hardware.

It seems like

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is aware of this. As

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,

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is now looking at SteamOS as the benchmark for gaming performance, trying to match its performance with comparable hardware. Hell, even in my testing, I've definitely noticed that handheld gaming PCs running on Valve's operating system have a bit of a lead, which is why the

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can still hold its own against the

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and the

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despite having a slower chip.

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paying more attention to its operating system's efficiency and performance is a good sign, but it'll be some time yet before we see whether or not this renewed push for quality pays off. However,

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, so hopefully

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carries this K2 initiative forward to its next major OS launch.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her

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