Microsoft’s huge update to Windows 10 is harmless to my games. But…
On 2nd August 2016 Mircosoft released the Anniversary Update to their latest operating system Windows 10. As with most major updates, a gamer would wonder how would this affect the performance of their favorite game. In today’s blog post I will tell you a few stories about how smooth it works on my PC and what games and tools I tested it for and with. There were a few bumps, but nothing serious and unexpected after such a big update.
The Update Itself
Took me about 20-30 minutes to download and install it all (on an SSD that is), the PC needed a few reboot cycles to finish it all. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update doesn’t bring ground breaking changes, but a lot of smaller and desperately needed ones. Included with it is the new Skype app with a Dark Theme. Oh, right, the Windows 10 Dark Theme is now available too. Finally. All in all my System Drive lost ~10 GB after the installation. Some other notable features worth mentioning are the improved visuals here and there, the slightly redesigned Start Menu, extensions support for Edge and Windows Ink.
To get the new update all you have to do is let Windows 10 ask you for it or if you have automatic updates disabled, just check manually for it via the integrated Windows tools. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated about this process.
The Games I play on Windows 10
I am not a typical gamer that would play a ton of games on daily basis. I have a very tiny list of favorite games. Since the new release I have played extensively SWTOR, The Witcher 3 and Doom 2016. None of these games showed any difference in performance. They all load and play the exact same way they did before the Update. There is no delay, nor an improvement in loading times of higher/lower FPS. Absolutely nothing.
It’s probably worth mentioning that for older games, such as SWTOR, you might want to have DirectX 9 installed as it might help improve the game’s performance in some cases. It cannot hurt it, that’s for sure.
For more information on that, check my Install DirectX 9 on Windows 10 for SWTOR blog and video.
The new Skype and Edge
I’ve decided to only speak of Skype and Edge because those are the two most important improvements to me and I honestly don’t care about Windows Ink. Not in the slightest bit.
Well, I have to mention this. The new Skype is cool! It’s sleek, it’s shiny, it’s dark (well, could be, if you wanted it to) and it’s quicker and faster. I absolutely advice you all to take a look. The new Skype App uses Microsoft’s cloud and isn’t based on P2P any more. This helps improve the speed of the service a lot. There are far too few settings for the moment, but I am sure Microsoft will be improving it in the future. The fact that this app is several times lighter and faster than the old standard Skype for Windows, is enough of advertisement to give it a go.
The new Edge browser (that isn’t so new any more) finally gets support for extensions (those pesky AdBlock tools that helps you stop seeing ads… ads that help pay hosting bills and other things every website has to take care of :P). On another note, the Edge seems even faster than before. I am not the guy who would even bother comparing speed of loading of anything else that is comparable between Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge. I use them both for different reasons and am happy to see Edge getting good updates.
The Issues I had
The only issue I experienced after the update is that pretty much all my sound settings and sources were kind of messed up and/or reset to default. I use a Virtual Audio Cable setup for my microphone as well as 2 sources for Outgoing Audio signal (one to headphones, another to speakers). It was all reset, including on OBS and the video editing tools and programs I use. Nothing serious, indeed. Just felt like after a clean new Windows installation. And, on the bright side, most normal users would never have that issue, I suppose. After all, not everyone has an Integrated and dedicated sound cards working at the same time plus VAC and so on and so on.
Final words
Absolutely loved the update. Despite all the hate Windows 10 since its release, I am glad I purchased it and its updates so far have been all in the right direction (functionality wise, let’s not get into the topic of Microsoft spying on us and the security of the operating system :P)
