Why Windows 10 needs a specialized gaming edition - younglitheng

Jared Newman / IDG

If there's a future for the consumer version of Windows, it credibly involves much of gaming. Microsoft Chief operating officer Satya Nadella advisable as untold to industry analysts in January, calling out PC play is a Florida key column of the companionship's consumer strategy.

But while Microsoft has already tried to boost PC gaming in Windows 10 with features care Game Mode, a free game transcription tool, and DirectX 12, the company could go even further as it starts oblation more differentiated versions of Windows. We already love Microsoft will offer a stripped-down "S Mode" for Windows adjacent class, and the company is as wel reportedly considering an "Advanced" version of Windows 10 Home with new features for higher-end hardware. Instead of organism a one-sizing-fits-all operating organization, Windows is becoming one that adapts to different uses.

So here's an mind: Or else of treating gaming as a mere have of Windows, why non survive the basic concentre in a gambling edition of Windows 10? Similar to how the "Pro" version of Windows offers supernumerary security and device direction features for business users, a Windows 10 Gaming Edition could offer features that single add up for Personal computer gamers. This edition could cost a bit much a standard version of Windows 10, but would besides eliminate elements that gamers might not want.

Hera's how it all could work.

Usability tweaks

In this suppositional version of Windows, games would be faster to launch and easier to mange. Recent games and Xbox Live activity could appear directly on the Windows 10 lock screen for active access. Microsoft could also greatly expand the Brave Bar overlay that appears when you adjure Win-G or the center button on an Xbox controller. While the current Game Bar shows merely a few screen capture and broadcast options, an expanded version would resembled the Xbox One Guide with Recent games, friend activity, achievements, and messages.

win10gamelock — Who needs shortcuts to calendar appointments and email alerts when you could start playing games instead?

To a-ok a step further, this version of Windows could offer a full-screen game rocket launcher connatural to the Xbox One household screen and Steam clean's Heavy Image Mode. This would allow users to launch games from whatever source—not just the Microsoft Store (formerly called the Windows Store)—on with media apps much as Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify. The entire user interface would be optimized for both controller and mouse-and-keyboard input, allowing you to build a front room Microcomputer that's more powerful and open than any Xbox console.

Amended carrying into action

Microsoft's Game Mode already squeezes out modest performance gains by minimizing play down processes and granting more CPU threads and GPU cycles to gaming. A Windows 10 gaming version could dramatize the "Last Carrying into action" fashion coming to Windows 10 for Workstations in the future, and make further improvements by optimizing the PC's software and ironware in other ways.

windows 10 ultimate performance — The Ultimate Carrying into action mightiness plan.

For starters, Microsoft could remove all of its own bloatware that takes up space and distracts from play. That substance no longer "Get Office" nags, pre-installed productivity apps like OneNote, bloatware like Confect Crush, or "Recommended Apps" like Flipboard.

Microsoft could too offer more performance tweaks when information technology recognizes that a game is functioning. The company has already hinted at an increased Game Mode, which might curb memory use by non-play applications and stop them from hogging network bandwidth. And for multi-monitor setups, Windows could mechanically turn off the bit screen, then restore it to its former specify after the gaming session concludes. (You can presently usage the Pull ahead-P shortcut to disable extra monitors manually, just Windows forgets your app positioning whenever you do sol.)

Mayhap a Windows 10 gaming edition could even offer some built-in overclocking and framerate monitoring tools. While ordinal-party software package already exists for these purposes—including the highly-regarded MSI Afterburner and Fraps—a Microsoft version could integrate with Game Mode to ensure that overclocking only occurs while gaming. Users could also tweak their settings through with Microsoft's existing game overlay bill of fare instead of having to throw out to a separate app. Microsoft might even comprise able to suggest the best overclock settings for your machine, drawing on all the information the troupe has about PC setups and usage.

msiafterburner — MSI's Afterburner is an valuable tool for overclocking, but there's room for Microsoft to offer something simpler.

Modern support

While most of the ideas above could apply to all games heedless of source, Microsoft is clearly trying to push its own Microsoft Store over unusual storefronts such equally Steam, GOG, and Origin. The problem is that the Microsoft Store and Universal Windows Chopine games still have every kinds of rudimentary problems, including forced Xbox Live consolidation, no refund policy (despite some pilot examination lastly year), and no support for multiple graphics cards.

[ Further reading: The best nontextual matter cards for Microcomputer gaming ]

But maybe the biggest yield with the Windows Store is its miss of mod support. Although Microsoft hinted at a form of modding for Windows Store games back in 2016, the company has been quiet on the topic ever since. On the face of it, the company is concerned that an anything-goes mod system would invite malware, and that the risks aren't worth the potential drop rewards.

A gambling edition of Windows 10 would exist the perfect venue for casting those worries aside and creating a system for Windows Store mods. Even if information technology's a limited system like Valve's Steam Workshop, mod support in the Windows Store would help create some goodwill among PC gamers, patc besides making store exclusives like Annulus Wars 2 ($40 on the Microsoft Store) and Gears of War 4 ($40 on the Microsoft Memory boar) much more riveting.

steam workshop 2 — A managed scheme for mods like Steam Workshop would give Microsoft's Windows Lay in more credibility.

Given, Microsoft could offer a lot of these features in Windows 10 without spinning them into a separate version, but at approximately point the company would just be creating throwaway bloat for the rest of its users. Besides, there are signs that the PC gaming business is still growing, just as the overall PC market declines. Every bit Microsoft tries to make Windows 10 more all-mains with new versions and "Modes," it's about time PC gaming got many special attention.

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Jared Newman covers personal technology from his removed Cincinnati outpost. He also publishes deuce newsletters, Advisorator for technical school advice and Cord Cutter Weekly for help with ditching cable's length or satellite TV.