Microsoft introduced its Game mode optimisations with Windows 10 Creators Update. Ahead of its introduction we were teased with tales of the mode yielding up to 5 per cent performance improvements and other cool gaming orientated features. However the Creators Update didn't fare well on some gamer PC systems, though some stuttering issues were quickly fixed by users adjusting Xbox app DVR functionality.
Now a Microsoft engineer has acknowledged the game stuttering issues in Windows 10 Creators Update. It wasn't all from Game DVR either, as fiddling with that setting didn't work for all PC users. In the Microsoft Feedback hub on the topic of 'FPS drops since Windows 10 Creators Update', via MSPowerUser, Microsoft responded as follows:
"Thank you everyone for providing feedback and submitting traces. We have been analyzing the traces from your feedback and have identified several different problem sources surfacing as stutter in games. We have a fix for one of them in the Windows Insider build that flighted to the 'Fast' ring (build 16273 and above). You can find instructions on joining the Windows 10 Insider Program here: https://insider.windows.com/en-us/how-to-pc/. We are actively investigating the remaining stutter causes and appreciate your patience on this issue."
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will start to roll out from 17th October. Hopefully these gaming fixes can be rolled into that release for all users.
Windows Store device limit changes for some
Microsoft continues to adjust the number of devices a single user can install Store apps upon. When the Windows Store first opened its virtual doors back in 2012 there was a limit of five. That limit could easily be approached, if you had a Windows phone, tablet, laptop, desktop and HTPC, for example.
In 2013 Microsoft reconsidered its miserly policy - after all it must want people to buy and use multiple Windows powered devices, rather than alternative options. The limited was thus adjusted to 81 Windows 8.1 release). With the launch of Windows 10 Microsoft backpedalled again and shifted the max number of devices to 10.
Just ahead of the weekend Windows Central reported, backed up by screenshots, that the Windows Store device limit "appears to have been increased from just 10 to 2,000". However, the increase doesn't look to be that widespread, looking at page comments, most respondents say they are still limited to 10 apps, maximum. Only 3 or 4 out of 50+ commenters say that they are also on the 2,000 app limit. I've just checked my account and I am also on a 10 limit, even though I had six Windows 10 devices listed as active (two phones, three computers, and a Surface - but I don't have an Xbox One).
