Microsoft is currently testing a brand new performance-enhancing feature in Windows 11.
Microsoft, too, is introducing something to Windows 11 called “low latency profile” and it this will work irrespective of the processor, be it AMD64 CPUs like Intel or AMD or ARM64 ones like from Qualcomm. Essentially what this new tech will do is apply a maximum available clock frequency boost for a very small span of time, like for one to three seconds, when a user launches any app. The idea is that the app launch time will reduce while the quick clock burst should not impact the overall efficiency of the system by much.
↫ Sayan Sen at Neowin
Unsurprisingly, boosting the processor’s clock speed to its maximum for a few seconds will make a menu or application open a little faster. I’m not entirely sure why anyone seems surprised by this, but here we are. Yes, the Start menu will load faster and applications will be ready quicker if you boost the processor to its full potential, but that does raise the question of why Windows 11 would need to do that just to open a menu or load an application in the first place.
According to Microsoft’s Scott Henselmann, who defended Microsoft’s approach (weirdly enough he did so on a nazi platform called “Twitter” that I’m obviously not linking to), every other modern operating system does the exact same thing, pointing specifically to macOS and GNOME and KDE on Linux. He also pointed out that the Start menu today does a lot more than the same Start menu back in Windows 95, including making network requests and rendering everything in HiDPI.
I just want a cascading menu of stuff I can run and don’t want my launcher to make network requests, but alas, I guess I’m old.
Anyway, I don’t know enough about the intricacies of how modern processors work to make any statements about how this affects battery life, but instinctively, you’d think this would not exactly be conducive to that. I also wonder if this will trigger a lot of laptops to spin up their fans whenever you open the Start menu, because the few seconds your processor goes full tilt raises its temperature just enough to make that happen. Once this new feature comes out of testing and is generally available, I’d be quite interested in seeing battery tests, as well comparisons to other operating systems to see how it fares.
The “JavaScript” fluff aside…
I’m surprised they were not already doing this. Even Linux back in the day was discussing using higher priority for interactive tasks. (Though not as drastic, and to be fair with better algorithms)
Basically on a desktop operating system, you want the OS use maximal resources to respond to user input. Key press, mouse click, menu popup.
Windows adding real time priority to Start Menu popup is not surprising, again the surprising part is them doing it too late.
Meanwhile, Haiku OS on a single core 2006 potato boots in five seconds and launches menus so fast your mouse hasn’t even finished the release movement before the menu pops up.
Manipulating hardware is not the way to make up for shitty, bloated software.