What you need to know
- Windows has released the July 2023 update for Windows 11 (KB5028185).
- The update snuck in some benefits for PC gaming by reducing stutter on high polling gaming mice.
- Additional changes in the update include new features for Task Manager and improving the task bar.
If you look at the change log for Windows 11's July cumulative Update (KB5028185) you will see a list of reasonable changes for a standard update. New features will be coming to the Task Manager, and the taskbar is also getting some improvements. One particular change reported by Windows Latest didn't even garner a mention in the patch notes, but it is still important if you're a player who uses a high polling mouse as a gaming input.
Microsoft has reported that users who have been playing games with a Surface Laptop Studio combined with a 1000 Hz mouse were experiencing significant stuttering problems. As it turns out, the background listeners for these high polling mice put an increased demand on Windows' input stack—forcing the computer to spend an exceptional amount of time processing input—and that led to an impact in the PC's ability to render the game.
To remedy the excessive input Microsoft has optimized the processing time for handling these requests by coalescing the raw mouse listeners running in the background and capping their message rates. The limited input handling for background listeners subsequently frees up more cycles with which Windows can use to render games thereby improving the immersive experience for gamers by reducing stutters.
If you've been using Windows 11 and one of the best gaming mice for your PC gaming sessions, its likely you've noticed stutters and you can expect to see an improvement with the July update which will roll out with Moment 3 and a whole host of other features and changes. Other gaming features are also in the pipeline at Microsoft, including a Dynamic Lighting hub to allow you to control all of your RGB from one centralized location within Windows.
