Windows 11 has had a rocky start. From the controversial hardware requirements to missing features, Microsoft has made quite a lot of missteps. And one such blunder is the generally poor performance of Windows 11's UI.
Let's see how Microsoft is planning to fix these performance issues in 2022.
How Microsoft Is Fixing Windows 11's UI Performance Issues
Microsoft has overhauled the Windows 11 UI to quite a large extent. But there are still elements that have moved from previous generations of Windows.
During a recent Reddit AMA with the Windows 11 team, a user pointed out that the new UI framework, WinUI, builds on the old user interface from Windows 10, resulting in poor performance.
For instance, the user noted that opening the new terminal feels slow. Another user chimed in that the UI elements aren't just slow, they also consume a lot of GPU resources. As proof, they gave an example of how a stopped hidden loading bar uses up 13% of GPU performance.
Following these complaints, the Windows 11 team detailed how they will address these UX (user experience) performance issues in 2022.
They said most of their efforts would focus on increasing the startup and launch performance of Windows, ensuring the OS boots up quickly.
This includes making sure that all UI elements behave as they should at launch. They even say that they've tested launch performance with over 10,000 buttons on the screen.
Here's the full quote:
Performance will be an area of focus for us in 2022. A lot of that focus will go into startup/launch perf; in terms of UI elements rendering on the screen (after the framework is loaded), we’ve tested the scalability of doing things like putting 10k buttons on the screen, etc.Most of the UI elements render pretty quickly already, but it would be good to understand if there are specific UI element scaling/slowness issues you’re experiencing and we could take a look into that specific scenario.
When one user detailed more issues they encountered with Windows 11, the Windows dev team said that some of the points raised were unrelated to their work but were valid concerns nonetheless. They said an internal team is tackling these things holistically, so it's better to report these issues on the Feedback Hub.
Here's the full quote:
Internally, in addition to wanting to focus some of our our UX framework’s time on perf in 2022, we also have a dedicated team formed recently to tackle this topic more holistically. So there’s multiple things we’re collectively doing here to try and make sure we have a good perf story.
All in all, the Windows 11 team plans to focus more on UX performance and framework in 2022, along with other feature requests. But don't expect significant changes to land early next year.
Windows 11 Is Awesome But Clearly Needs Polishing
Windows 11 updates the previous version with a modern design and robust feature set. Microsoft did excellent work for the most part, but it also has a few issues here and there.
The one thing Microsoft needs to focus on at the moment is bug fixes and community-requested improvements. If Microsoft can get down in the trenches and work on these, Windows 11 could turn out to be a great operating system.