Windows 10’s nasty bug which messes with gamers is still hanging around, according to reports, even though the latest cumulative update for July (released just over a week ago) was supposed to cure it.
This particular bug causes stuttering frame rates and generally ‘lower than expected performance in games’ as Microsoft describes it, and has been plaguing a minority of gamers (running Windows 10 21H1, 20H2, or 20H1) since this year’s April (preview) update, according to the software giant.
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The fix arrived in preview back in June, and fully rolled out with July’s round of Windows 10 patching by Microsoft – update KB5004237 – but seemingly that doesn’t resolve the gaming glitches for everyone.
As Windows Latest reports, there are several complaints on Reddit that the bug is still around. One such post observes: “Once again, I am still having gaming performance issues since KB5000842”.
And a reply states: “Yep, I can confirm. Nothing has changed since KB5000842. I have submitted feedback, I have talked with Microsoft developers, etc... Months of hearing from Microsoft that they have a fix coming or that KIR patch fixed it but nothing changes.”
Plan side-step
Windows Latest notes that the problem seems to be a bug with Windows 10 power plans not functioning as they should, and this is underlined in the above Reddit thread, where the original poster observes that setting their power plan to ‘high performance’ is a workaround.
The tech site further notes that Microsoft is aware of these complaints and the company is working on another update to smooth over the gremlins in the works. That patch is now in testing on the Release Preview Ring, apparently, so hopefully it’ll arrive in the near future to come to the rescue of those suffering frame rate drops in Windows 10.
Until then, the aforementioned power plan workaround is your only apparent recourse.
Analysis
Windows 10 bugs have been a consistent thorn in the side for some users, and worse still, the phenomenon where a patch to solve an issue fails to do so – as is seemingly the case here in some instances – or introduces another entirely new problem seems to have happened far too often with Microsoft’s OS.
Even this far down the line with Windows 10 – which is now six years old – this is still happening, and it’s a pretty frustrating ongoing situation, not to mention a sizeable blot on Microsoft’s reputation as we’ve pointed out in the past.
With Windows 11 now on the horizon, as a fresh start (of sorts), maybe Microsoft should be looking at ensuring the new OS works more smoothly when it comes to patching and updates, and ramping up the thoroughness of its quality assurance processes in general. Never mind giving the desktop a coat of fresh paint and rounding the corners of boxes.
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