Microsoft: help us test new gaming tech on Windows 10 1903 but we don't tell you anything about it
Microsoft released a new build to the Windows 10 Fast Ring Insider Channel yesterday evening. The new build, build number 18334, is a bug fix release mostly.
Microsoft does advertise one new feature on the Windows Experience blog though stating that it is "excited to bring technology tailor-made for gaming to Windows".
The company wants users who run Insider builds of Windows 10 to help "validate these systems" to make sure they "work as expected".
It hands out limited copies of State of Decay for that, and published instructions for Insider build users on how to get access to the game and play it. Microsoft promises that it will increase the number of available slots in the coming weeks.
Users who participate in the testing are asked to report any install or game launch issues using the Feedback Hub.
Microsoft does not reveal anything about the "technology tailor-made for gaming" on Windows 10 devices. The entire article, and the linked copy on the Xbox site, offer no information so that users are left in the dark.
Is it related to how games are installed and started? The request to provide feedback if install or start issues are experienced suggests that this could be the case.
We don't know, however, and it could be something unrelated or something else (or an addition) entirely. It could be the test of a streaming gaming service on Windows 10 as well, as it is also related to installing and running games.
Lack of information
It is possible that Microsoft does not want to reveal the gaming technology yet that it plans to implement in Windows. It could have said so in the article, however if that is the case.
Whatever the reason may be, the lack of information will surely turn away some users who might be interested if Microsoft would have revealed anything about the new gaming technology that it wants tested in the new build.
The request to test is not the first time Microsoft failed to provide essential information. Update information, known issues for instance, often lack vital information as well.
The company could improve its relationship with administrators and customers by providing essential information; it would drop support requests and questions, and help everyone involved including Microsoft itself.
Now You: What is Microsoft's secret gaming tech that it tests in the new build?
Aren’t companies supposed to first test their products/services themselves before selling to the public, eg test-pilots to test new planes, crash-test dummies, etc.? And if they need the public to help test their products/services voluntarily, they usually offer some kind of material/financial reward, eg trials/tests for new drugs etc.
Instead, M$ have forced every Win 10 users to be their “test-pilots” or guinea pigs or lab rats through forced auto-collection of Telemetry & Data, esp Win 10 Home users or “slaves”. This was why M$/Nutella shutdown their Windows Test Division in April 2014 = to save costs = make more money at the expense of Windows users.
Seems, there are now not many Windows Insider volunteers to help test Win 10 for M$ for free, compared to when Win 10 alpha/preview was first introduced in late 2014. The novelty of playing with a shiny, virginal and new Win 10 OS has gone.
.
.
P S – Telemetry updates were quietly sneaked into Win 7/8.1 computers by M$ at around Nov 2015, eg KB2952664.
Is this new shit related to UWP? Just use LTSB and avoid such crap.
State of Decay, AKA State of Windows!
What they are likely referring to is an update to the game engine or a new version of DirectX, not an entirely new type of technology. They can only work within the standards set by GPUs.
It’s a secret.
id rather switch to linux + proton/wine anyday before im a MS guineapig. Something you can safely place bets on, is that MS tries to implement some “feature” that help them keeping users dependent on then and increasing their control, removing even more from the users. Besides MS store, Gamestreaming is one of that technologies that reduce gamers to consumingmachines. So, no thx, id prefer to tinker around, mod my games at will, and do multiplayer w/o beeing monitored like a testrat. (GoG 4tw). So whatever they bloat into the next win10 release.. idc.
The last windows OS is win7, everything later is some spycrap as a service, Customers need to get aware that they have the power to change that if they have enough discipline to deny the baits ms throws.
ot: just look at the smartphone landscape, every 2 app is full of spyware, ofc only in the users interest to increase his experience, – no one of the zombies care. that was different before millenium.
only question is.. is it a steam key? XD not using windows store no matter what.
The request to test is not the first time Microsoft failed to provide essential information.
I think people should read the TOS when they participate in the Fast Ring. In a nutshell, it basically says that anything you do can be provided to Microsoft as part of the test process.
It would be best practice to detail the information sent, but but clicking that “agree” button, you have already consented to providing whatever information that MS wants to obtain.
What is interesting to me is will I be able to remove all the GBs of disk space this gaming improvement will “bring”.
I have v1803. According to “Update & Security” I’m up to date.
Yeah, me too. Me four, counting the 3 other laptops with it. Suddenly, we won’t be with dire consequences predicted, I suppose. Bunch of three year olds running tech.
Since they killed off their testing division, they have been racketeering people to do their testing for them … for free … under the pretext that they get to test the new stuff before everyone else and are helping shape the future of Windows… what a bunch a baloney…
Microsoft are currently a bunch of lazy incompetent crooks and that Anita Sarkar should get her fat ass off Twitter and start buckling up the work on Windows or just leave cause she isn’t doing anything productive there.
Many Windows 10 users (gamers) have problem with games; they won’t start or crash during startup. That can be the reason why Microsoft is doing this.
That’s just false.
I’ve been using Windows 10 since Consumer Preview build and I don’t think I ever had a game that’d refuse to start or crash due to Windows.
I don’t deny the possibility that some people may have issues with games because there’s an enormous amount of PC configurations out there. But “many users” is an overstatement.
@Zer0: “But “many users†is an overstatement.”
How can you be so confident in that? “Many” is a very imprecise term. If even 1% of Win 10 gamers had such issues, that would be many people.
What Microsoft could do to improve the gaming expericence is to fix the standby memory bug present for more than two years. Windows 10 (1809) is still affected by the issue.
Within a couple of decades books will be written on how Microsoft lost the consumer computing market by not communicating with customers. They focus on enterprises, who pay big bucks for their attention. Consumers will move into management positions over the coming decades and bring Chromebooks and smartphones with them as primary work devices. Al that enterprise focus MS is giving now will not help them in the future, except for the companies that will stay on legacy systems for whatever reasons. They’ll take a few years longer to migrate.
They are telling you all about it, Microsoft is gaming their customers, very appropriately the game is called state of decay …
Yeah Microsoft threw PC gamers under a proverbial bus more than a decade ago with stunts like making Halo 2 Vista exclusive, when the game itself was last generation and three years old by that point (and some modders eventually got it running on Windows XP). But the damage to the game was done, it never took off on the PC because the reality is that people didn’t want to upgrade their whole computer just to play a three year old game!
Microsoft sees gamers as nothing more than people to push around and mistreat. Remember how Xbox One was going to mandate Internet connectivity literally daily or else games would stop working? They abandoned this when it caused a huge public outrage.
Because of their past behavior I won’t go anywhere near their store.
You don’t add more crap on top of the existing one, and call it an improvement. The best gaming experience Windows 10 could possibly offer is found on the Enterprise LTSB SKU. The lighter the OS the better. Even then, still worse than Windows 7, LTSB is considerably heavier.
Probably a desparate try to get some (or, more likely, any) people to install something from the Windows store…