Performance Improvements Archives

Winsage

August 15, 2025

40 years of Windows: How Windows 7 cleansed the sins of Vista

In October 2009, Microsoft launched Windows 7, which was seen as a significant upgrade from Windows XP and a response to the shortcomings of Windows Vista. Windows Vista had faced performance issues and user frustration, leading to a negative reputation for Microsoft. Windows 7 addressed many of these issues, featuring a refined Aero Glass interface, improved stability, enhanced security, and a modern driver stack. It introduced new features such as the redesigned "Superbar" taskbar and "Aero Snap" for easier window management. Additionally, Windows 7 included "Windows XP Mode" for business users to facilitate the transition from Windows XP. Overall, Windows 7 was viewed as a polished iteration of Vista, restoring user confidence in Microsoft's operating system.

AppWizard

August 8, 2025

Id Software kicks off QuakeCon with a surprise release of Heretic + Hexen, an ‘enhanced’ bundle with cross-platform multiplayer, mod support, and more

id Software and Nightdive Studios released the Heretic + Hexen bundle, which includes the original games Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, and Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, along with two new episodes: Heretic: Faith Renewed and Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur. The bundle features a total of 117 campaign maps and 120 deathmatch maps, performance improvements, an enhanced soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult, local and online multiplayer options, and built-in mod support. It is available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch for £13.49 / €15 on Steam and GOG. Players who own the original games can upgrade for free. GOG announced a temporary two-hour unavailability for purchase prior to the launch.

Winsage

August 2, 2025

Boost Team Productivity and Security With Windows 11 Pro, Now $15 for Life

The author upgraded to Microsoft Windows 11 Pro, currently priced at .97 (regularly 9) for a lifetime license. Windows 11 Pro offers significant performance improvements, refined multitasking capabilities, and robust security features, including faster boot times, seamless app transitions, and improved cloud service integration. It includes productivity tools like Snap Layouts and virtual desktops, built-in BitLocker encryption, and remote desktop access. The Pro version provides essential features such as Group Policy, Hyper-V virtualization, and enterprise-grade identity management, making it suitable for small business owners and freelancers. The upgrade includes the AI assistant, Copilot, powered by ChatGPT-4o. The one-time purchase eliminates subscription fees, offering predictable costs and reduced licensing complexities.

Winsage

August 2, 2025

Nvidia extends Windows 10 support, adds G-Sync monitors

Nvidia has released a new GeForce Game Ready Driver that enhances support for Windows 10 devices and optimizes select games and G-Sync compatible displays. This driver extends support for GeForce RTX GPUs until October 2026, coinciding with Microsoft's end of support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Nvidia is also extending support for older GPUs, with Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta-based GeForce cards receiving quarterly security updates until October 2028. The update introduces support for 62 additional G-Sync compatible monitors and performance improvements for games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Mafia: The Old Country, releasing on August 8th.

Winsage

July 28, 2025

I ditched most of the Windows start-up chaos and sped up my boot times without any third-party tools, here’s how

As computers age, performance often declines due to the accumulation of installed applications, saved files, and the number of startup tasks running in the background, particularly in Windows 11. New programs frequently set up tasks that launch at startup, leading to longer boot times and increased resource consumption. Users can manage these startup tasks using Task Manager, which allows them to view and disable unnecessary programs that run automatically upon login. Disabling these tasks does not delete applications but prevents them from launching automatically, improving startup efficiency. Additionally, Task Scheduler can be used to identify and manage tasks that may still launch at login. Managing startup tasks can lead to significant performance improvements, such as reducing boot time from approximately 25 seconds to just 31 seconds for a fully loaded desktop.

AppWizard

July 28, 2025

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ latest patch accused of faking internal render resolution to boost FPS — game runs at ‘Quality’ upscaling even when the render scale is set to 100% native

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has experienced performance issues since its launch, leading to player frustration despite positive reviews. Publisher 505 Games has released patches to improve performance, but these updates may have misled players about the game's graphics settings. Hardware analyst Daniel Owen found that the internal rendering resolution is capped below native levels, even when the resolution scaling slider is set to 100%. The patch notes for version 1.3 included vague references to adjustments in super sampling resolution limits, which some believe obscured the true nature of the changes. Instead of providing a real performance boost, the update seems to have implemented a forced upscaling mechanism that inflates frame rates while reducing visual quality. This has resulted in a softer or more pixelated appearance for players, despite maxed-out settings. The optimization patch has only yielded a modest 2-3 FPS improvement at non-native scaling. The lack of clear communication from 505 Games regarding these changes may provoke further backlash from the gaming community.

Tech Optimizer

July 22, 2025

PostgreSQL services from hyperscalers raise downtime conerns

Recent research shows that 82 percent of PostgreSQL users are concerned about cloud region failures, with 21 percent experiencing such failures in the past year. In the first half of 2025, PostgreSQL gained over 13 points in database popularity rankings, becoming the fourth most popular database. A survey found that 91 percent of organizations using PostgreSQL expect no more than four minutes of downtime per month, with 24 percent aiming for less than 30 seconds. Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google offer various PostgreSQL services, while alternatives like CockroachDB and YugabyteDB focus on reliability. PlanetScale recently launched a PostgreSQL service that is 100 percent compatible with open-source PostgreSQL. Convex is transitioning from AWS Aurora to PlanetScale for better performance. pgEdge offers a multi-master distributed database for high availability. AWS claims its Amazon Aurora DSQL is designed for up to 99.999 percent availability, while its Aurora for PostgreSQL guarantees 99.99 percent uptime.

Winsage

July 12, 2025

Windows 11 Build 27898 introduces taskbar icon scaling and system recovery improvements

Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27898 to the Canary Channel, introducing several new features aimed at enhancing usability and recovery. Key features include: - Taskbar Icon Scaling: The taskbar will automatically reduce icon sizes when it reaches capacity, with three customizable options for users regarding icon size. - Quick Machine Recovery: This feature allows automatic recovery from boot issues using the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), connecting to the internet for targeted fixes from Windows Update. - Accessibility Enhancements: Users can add custom words to the voice access dictionary, and a new Screen Curtain feature for the Narrator screen reader enhances privacy by blacking out the display. - Energy Saver Feature: An adaptive energy saver mode is being rolled out for battery-powered devices, managing energy saver settings based on power state and system load. - Sharing Features: The Windows share window now shows visual previews of shared content and allows users to select compression settings for images. - Performance Improvements: Enhancements have been made to file extraction for large archives, and the Snipping Tool now has a shortcut for launching the text extractor. - Default Browser Management: Users can set their default browser to handle PDFs and pin it to the Start menu and taskbar. The build also addresses various issues within File Explorer and Settings, although some known problems remain, such as display distortion in Remote Desktop on Arm64 PCs.

Winsage

July 11, 2025

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27898 (Canary Channel)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27898 has been released to the Canary Channel. Key features include: - Taskbar Icon Scaling: Icons on the taskbar can automatically resize when the taskbar is full, with options to keep them at original size or always small. - Quick Machine Recovery: This feature identifies and resolves common issues automatically via the Windows Recovery Environment, reducing downtime. - Custom Words in Voice Access: Users can add custom words to the voice access dictionary to improve dictation accuracy. - Screen Curtain in Narrator: This feature blacks out the display for privacy while using Narrator. - Privacy Dialogs Update: Privacy dialogs for app permissions have been redesigned for better focus. - Accessibility Enhancements: Text descriptions for assistive technologies have been added to the Accessibility flyout. - File Explorer Improvements: Dividers have been added to the context menu for better organization. - Adaptive Energy Saver: An opt-in feature that manages energy saver settings based on power state and system load. - Windows Share Updates: Visual previews are now shown when sharing links or web content. - Expanded Voice Access Support: Voice access now supports Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese. - Narrator Guidance: Narrator will guide users through its features with modal windows. - Settings Adjustments: The selected country or region during setup is now displayed in Settings. Fixes include performance improvements in File Explorer, resolution of input issues with the touch keyboard, and fixes for crashes in Settings. Known issues involve potential loss of Windows Hello PIN on new Copilot+ PCs and graphical issues with Remote Desktop on Arm64 PCs.

Tech Optimizer

July 8, 2025

How TimescaleDB helped us scale analytics and reporting

At Cloudflare, PostgreSQL and ClickHouse are used as primary databases for transactional and analytical workloads. PostgreSQL is preferred for product development due to its speed, versatility, and reliability, with hundreds of instances running in various configurations. ClickHouse, introduced in 2017, allows ingestion of tens of millions of rows per second with millisecond-level query performance but comes with trade-offs. The Digital Experience Monitoring (DEX) product was developed with a focus on simplicity and rapid shipping, utilizing a team of three engineers and collaboration with other teams. DEX's initial launch included fleet status logs uploaded every two minutes and synthetic tests with usage caps, leading to a successful MVP launch ahead of schedule. The architecture included an HTTP API, PostgreSQL for storing configurations, and a React UI in the Cloudflare Dashboard. PostgreSQL was chosen for analytics due to its ability to handle structured logs, with a table created for device state logs lacking a primary key but optimized with unique and standard indexes for common queries. The UPSERT query was used for data insertion, and the order of columns in multicolumn indexes was optimized for performance. After launching DEX, the system scaled to 1,000 inserts per second, leading to performance degradation. Precomputed aggregates were implemented to improve query performance, resulting in up to a 1000x improvement. Table partitioning was considered but ultimately not pursued due to its manual management requirements. TimescaleDB was explored as an alternative to enhance query performance, offering features like automatic partition management, continuous aggregates, and compression. A side-by-side comparison with PostgreSQL showed significant performance improvements, particularly for longer time windows. TimescaleDB's integration allowed for efficient data retention and aggregation, simplifying the infrastructure. Following the success of DEX, other teams at Cloudflare began using TimescaleDB for analytics and reporting, consolidating data from various sources and managing high ingestion rates effectively by optimizing data handling techniques such as switching to COPY for bulk inserts and adjusting replication settings.