Even Microsoft Seems to Know Gaming on Windows 11 Isn’t Great These Days

It’s no secret that gaming on Windows 11 has been a little rough in recent years. Performance and usability problems have been plaguing the OS for a while now, but it seems like Microsoft is finally trying to do something about it.

Microsoft has kicked off an internal initiative codenamed Windows K2, according to Windows Central. 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, Microsoft has been focused on releasing new features as fast as possible, which has led to some incredibly awful updates. Just look at Recall, a Copilot+ feature which uses AI to save screenshots of literally everything you do on your PC so that you can reference them later. Back in 2024, Microsoft tried to rush that out super quickly, only to have to hold it back due to obvious security issues.

With K2, Microsoft 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. Microsoft could have just shipped the feature without making sure it worked properly – after all, it’s been available for Windows ARM systems for more than a year.

Hopefully this means that Microsoft 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 gaming PC.

Microsoft Wants PC Gaming Back

PC gaming on Windows is obviously still huge, with Microsoft’s operating systems making up for 92% of gaming PCs, according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey. 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 Microsoft is aware of this. As Windows Central reports, Microsoft 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 Lenovo Legion Go S can still hold its own against the Xbox Ally X and the Legion Go 2 despite having a slower chip.

Microsoft 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, Windows 12 is lurking somewhere on the horizon, so hopefully Microsoft 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 @Jackiecobra