Windows is Fighting to Stay the Home of PC Gaming
Microsoft has made it clear it wants Windows to remain the main platform for PC gaming, even as competition from Valve’s SteamOS and general frustration with Windows grows. In a recent update, Microsoft outlined what it has done for PC gamers in 2025 and where it wants to go next.
The work falls into three big areas:
- Better support for handheld gaming PCs
- Making games run more smoothly on Arm based Windows laptops
- Improving graphics performance through new DirectX and AI features
On paper it is an impressive list. The question is whether these upgrades are enough to keep gamers happy at a time when SteamOS and Linux are starting to look like faster and cleaner alternatives.
Handheld PCs and Faster Game Launches
Handheld gaming PCs like the Asus ROG Ally series are one of the hottest parts of the PC market, and Microsoft clearly does not want to lose them to other operating systems. Two key Windows features landed on these devices in 2025.
The first is the full screen experience, or FSE. This mode is designed to make Windows feel more like a console when you are playing on a handheld. It strips back background tasks and noise from the operating system so that:
- Games get smoother frame rates
- Performance is more consistent
- The interface feels less like a desktop and more like a dedicated gaming device
If you have ever had a background update or random app steal CPU time while you are mid match, you can see why this matters on lower power portable hardware.
The second big improvement is Advanced Shader Delivery, or ASD. Shader compilation is one of the main reasons new games can stutter or take ages to load the first time you run them. ASD tries to fix that by delivering precompiled shaders at install time rather than making your PC compile them on first launch.
Microsoft is already pointing to strong numbers here. In Avowed, first run load times reportedly dropped by over 80 percent, and in Call of Duty Black Ops 7 they fell by over 95 percent. Dozens of games are said to support ASD now, and Microsoft plans to extend it further. For players this simply means less waiting and fewer annoying hitches when trying a game for the first time.
Arm Laptops and Anti Cheat Support
The second front is Windows on Arm. Arm based chips from Qualcomm and others are becoming more common in thin and light laptops, especially in the new Copilot branded PCs. Historically though, gaming on Arm Windows has been rough due to compatibility and performance issues.
Microsoft highlights three improvements for Arm gamers.
First is local gameplay through the Xbox PC app. Certain Arm devices can now download and run supported titles directly rather than relying purely on cloud streaming. Microsoft says this includes the majority of games in Xbox Game Pass. At the moment, this feature is still limited to Windows Insiders, but it shows where things are heading.
Second is an expanded Prism emulation layer. Most PC games are still built for x86 processors from Intel and AMD, so Arm machines depend heavily on emulation. Prism now supports AVX and AVX2 instruction sets, which were a big missing piece before. That should mean more games and apps at least start up and run, instead of just failing due to missing CPU features.
Third is anti cheat support. Easy Anti Cheat has added Windows on Arm compatibility thanks to work between Epic and Qualcomm. Microsoft says that as a result, many anti cheat systems and their games now run properly on Arm, including Fortnite. Since anti cheat is often the single thing that blocks a game on a new platform, this is a key step.
DirectX, Neural Rendering and Auto Super Resolution
The last category is pure graphics technology through DirectX. Microsoft has introduced new ray tracing capabilities such as Opacity Micromaps and Shader Execution Reordering. These techniques aim to use GPU hardware more efficiently and reduce wasted work during ray tracing.
Microsoft claims these advances can deliver up to 2.3 times better performance in some scenarios. As more games adopt them, players with compatible GPUs should see higher frame rates or be able to use better ray traced settings without such a huge performance hit.
Looking further ahead, Microsoft has also previewed its plans for neural rendering, essentially inserting AI based rendering into the graphics pipeline. Details are still early, but the goal is the same trend we have seen with technologies like DLSS and FSR: use machine learning to get better looking frames for less GPU cost.
On that note, Microsoft is building its own OS level AI upscaling called Auto Super Resolution or Auto SR. This is Windows built in answer to Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR. Rather than each game needing to integrate a specific vendor’s tech, Auto SR lives at the operating system level.
Auto SR first appeared on Copilot Plus PCs with Snapdragon X Arm chips. Microsoft says a public preview is coming in early 2026 to the ROG Ally X, which uses an AMD Ryzen AI NPU. The interesting part will be seeing how Auto SR compares to what the big GPU vendors already offer and whether developers and gamers actually trust an OS driven upscaler.
Can Windows Keep Gamers from Jumping Ship?
All of these features show that Microsoft is still heavily invested in PC gaming. DirectX remains the standard. Handheld specific tweaks like FSE and ASD genuinely help portable gaming PCs. Arm support is improving in real and measurable ways.
At the same time, there are real concerns hanging over Windows. SteamOS, built on Linux, has shown better performance in a growing number of titles, and many players are tired of what they see as clutter, aggressive upselling, constant updates and unwanted AI features built into Windows itself.
The core argument from critics is that the problem with Windows gaming is not the gaming technologies. It is the overall Windows experience. If the operating system feels heavy, intrusive and slow, better shader delivery and ray tracing tricks can only do so much to win back trust.
That is why many PC gamers are watching Valve closely. If Valve ships a fully supported, general purpose version of SteamOS that runs smoothly on a wide range of desktop and laptop hardware, it could give Windows its first serious gaming rival in years. Even if most people stay on Windows, a strong alternative would pressure Microsoft to focus more on performance, polish and user control instead of just monetization.
For now, Windows is still the main platform for PC gaming, and the 2025 upgrades are real improvements. Whether they are enough to stop more gamers exploring Linux and SteamOS will be the big story over the next few years.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/software/windows/microsoft-wants-to-make-windows-the-best-place-to-game-no-matter-where-you-play-but-linux-and-valves-steamos-have-other-ideas/
