Ian LeGrow, Corporate Vice President, Windows + Devices, Windows Experience Blog https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience Tue, 09 Dec 2025 18:00:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.4 https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/cropped-browser-icon-logo-32x32.jpg Ian LeGrow, Corporate Vice President, Windows + Devices, Windows Experience Blog https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience 32 32 Windows PC gaming in 2025: Handheld innovation, Arm progress and DirectX advances https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2025/12/09/windows-pc-gaming-in-2025-handheld-innovation-arm-progress-and-directx-advances/ Tue, 09 Dec 2025 18:00:17 +0000 https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/?p=180112 For decades, Windows has been the platform for PC gaming: open, flexible and built with players in mind. From the days of classics like Diablo to today’s cutting-edge experiences powered by DirectX and AI-driven graphics, Windows has part

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]]> ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, expanded gaming capabilities for Windows-powered Arm laptops and shipped DirectX advances that boosted ray tracing performance by up to 2.3× on supported hardware, paving the way for neural rendering. Together with the gaming community, our commitment is to make Windows the best place to game—no matter where you play—by continuing to innovate and deliver experiences that enable players everywhere. Here’s a closer look at the innovations that shaped this year.

Handheld innovation

The freedom of Windows, combined with the power of Xbox and deep partnership with ASUS and AMD, brought the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X powered by AMD Ryzen Z2 Series processors. These collaborations elevated handheld gaming, where performance, power efficiency, input latency and access to your games are critical. This partnership has made gaming on Windows better across all devices, and many of this year's innovations stem directly from those efforts.

Xbox full screen experience (FSE) for handhelds

Shipping with the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds, Xbox full screen experience is a controller-first, optimized gaming experience. It creates a console-like home that puts your games at the center of the experience, while minimizing background activity and deferring non-essential tasks. The result is smoother frame pacing and more consistent performance when every watt counts. Today, the full screen experience is available on the ROG Xbox Ally, ROG Xbox Ally X and other Windows 11 handhelds currently in market.

Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD)

As a player, there is nothing more exciting than starting a new game for the very first time. Advanced Shader Delivery on the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds gets you into the fun faster by delivering precompiled shaders at install time, eliminating most of the wait time and stuttering when you launch a game for the first time. The numbers speak for themselves: in Avowed, first-run load time dropped by over 80% and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 dropped by over 95%. Dozens of titles on the Xbox PC app now support ASD, with more on the way—thanks to the collaboration between AMD and Microsoft. For developers, ASD is supported in the Agility SDK, giving studios tools to prepare and validate precompiled shader bundles within their existing game development routines, opening up ASD to even more games.

System-level performance

The ROG Xbox Ally also pushed us to deliver console-style performance on Windows 11, treating responsiveness as a system-wide priority optimized end-to-end in partnership with game developers. In 2025, this included:
  • Tuned power management and CPU frequency profiles for the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, improving efficiency without sacrificing performance
  • More efficient unified memory behavior on Ryzen APUs, reducing frame-time variance and memory contention
  • Lower CPU overhead across controller input, RGB lighting services, graphics drivers and background processes
Much of this shipped jointly with AMD and ASUS. AMD shipped driver optimizations, improved UMA performance, reduced CPU overhead in the graphics stack and provided game-specific fixes through driver releases. These improvements began with handhelds but now benefit the broader Windows ecosystem.

Windows on Arm

In 2025, we focused on laying the foundation for a broader, more diverse Windows gaming experience on Arm. This included enabling local game installs through the Xbox PC app, expanding compatibility and performance in the Prism emulator and delivering native anti-cheat solutions from partners including Easy Anti-Cheat.

Local gameplay with Xbox PC app (Insiders)

In August, we enabled Windows Insiders on Arm devices to download and play supported titles directly from the Xbox PC app, including the majority of games included in Xbox Game Pass. This means local play for a much larger number of titles without relying on cloud streaming.

Expanded Prism compatibility

Prism, the emulator that runs x86/x64 software on Arm, now supports AVX and AVX2 extensions to the x86 instruction set. Because modern games increasingly rely on these extensions, this significantly expands both compatibility and performance for emulated games.

Native anti-cheat support

Anti-cheat has long been a barrier to competitive gaming on Arm. This year, Easy Anti-Cheat added Windows on Arm support through collaboration between Epic, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Microsoft—joining BattlEye, Denuvo and XIGNCODE3. Many widely used anti-cheat systems and their games now support Arm, including Fortnite. These anti-cheat providers, across Arm and x64 alike, are strengthened by Windows security features like Virtualization-Based Security (VBS), Secure Boot, TPM 2.0 and remote attestation, which establish a hardware-rooted, verifiable trusted state. Leading titles leverage these protections to make it harder for unauthorized code to take hold and to validate that PCs are configured for trust. As more games adopt these standards, players benefit from fairer matches across the entire Windows ecosystem.

DirectX and audio leadership

DirectX has powered PC gaming for over thirty years. 2025 marked 25 years since DirectX 8 introduced programmable shaders and 10 years since DirectX 12 brought low-level GPU control. This year, we shipped new capabilities that improve ray tracing and set the stage for the future of neural rendering. We also continued advancing Windows' leadership in gaming audio, from spatial sound to next-generation wireless technology.

DirectX Raytracing 1.2 (DXR 1.2)

DXR 1.2 introduced two key features:
  • Opacity Micromaps accelerate ray traversal through alpha-tested geometry like foliage and fences.
  • Shader Execution Reordering lets the GPU regroup similar rays for better coherence and utilization.
On compatible hardware, these features can deliver up to 2.3× performance gains in supported scenarios, making advanced ray tracing more practical in real games.

Neural rendering (preview)

We’re building the foundation for integrating efficient ML models directly into the rendering pipeline, enabling tasks like denoising, upscaling and material enhancement. These capabilities are available in preview today through cooperative vectors in Shader Model 6.9, and we’re expanding toward a broader linear algebra feature set to reach more audiences in the future.

Bluetooth LE Audio

Since adding support for the modern LE Audio standard to Windows 11 in 2023, we've improved audio quality and expanded accessibility for gamers.
  • Lower-latency audio reduces the delay between on-screen action and what you hear compared to Bluetooth Classic A2DP audio, ensuring audible cues can be heard and with time to react.

Man talking to someone over his headset while working at a desk with a laptop computer, monitor and keyboard.What's next for PC gaming with Windows 11

The enhancements and improvements we introduced this year are shaping the future of gaming. We’re building experiences designed to empower players to play what they want, with whom they want, wherever they want—and we’re excited to deliver even more in the year ahead.

Xbox full screen experience (FSE) for Windows 11 form factors, available in preview today

FSE started on handhelds.  It is now expanding beyond handhelds and will be coming to even more Windows devices. Currently available in preview, Windows and Xbox Insiders can try it on Windows 11 PCs: desktops, laptops and 2-in-1s. The experience delivers a controller-first interface for navigation, intuitive game launching and minimized distractions on any PC. It’s a gaming-first, full-screen environment where players can easily browse and launch titles from across their game library—including most popular PC storefronts. We’re excited to hear your feedback, so please keep them coming.

Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) expansion

ASD preloads game shaders during download, allowing select games to launch faster, run smoother and use less battery on the first play. We're continuing to add ASD support to more games on the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, and we've begun early integration work to support additional hardware and storefronts.

Auto Super Resolution (Auto SR) preview

Auto SR is our OS-level AI upscaling feature: delivering sharper visuals and smoother framerates in DirectX games running at lower resolution, with no developer work required. Auto SR first shipped on Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X processors, and in early 2026 we're bringing a public preview to the ROG Xbox Ally X, running on AMD's Ryzen AI NPU.

Performance fundamentals

We’re committed to making Windows the best place to play, and we will continue refining system behaviors that matter most to gaming: background workload management, power and scheduling improvements, graphics stack optimizations, and updated drivers.

Explore what’s next  

Update to the latest Windows 11 build, join the Windows and Xbox Insider programs for early access to full screen experience on PC, and look for ASD-enabled games for faster first-run load times. Auto SR arrives on the ROG Xbox Ally X early next year. And if you’re heading to GDC in March, keep an eye on the schedule—we look forward to sharing more as we continue to shape the future of PC gaming.]]> Windows for IoT adds expanded silicon support and new intelligent edge capabilities to accelerate digital transformation https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2019/10/14/windows-for-iot-adds-expanded-silicon-support-and-new-intelligent-edge-capabilities-to-accelerate-digital-transformation/ Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:00:35 +0000 https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/?p=173030 The world of IoT is more exciting than ever, transforming every business on the planet, and that transformation is accelerating. Advances in AI and ML are helping companies across industries gain efficiencies; reduce downtime, waste, and errors; and improve customer satisfaction by harnessing the power of the Intelligent Edge and Intelligent Cloud. Windows has been […]

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]]> "Windows for IoT connects the dots for you" in text next to an image of a woman pressing a large touch-screen Windows has been powering enterprise-grade embedded devices for more than two decades, and during the keynote today at CEATEC Japan, I shared Microsoft’s strategy for how Windows for IoT helps device builders of all sizes quickly create IoT solutions that bring digital transformation to life for customers with smart and secure IoT devices. With a special focus at CEATAC on the evolution of smart cities, smart buildings and smart infrastructure under the “Society 5.0” framework, we’re excited that Windows for IoT delivers a scalable family of operating systems as the foundation for building intelligent edge devices. This family includes:
  • Windows 10 IoT Core is built for small-footprint smart devices, while still offering the manageability and security expected from Windows, and along with Windows 10 IoT Core Services ensures long-term OS support and services for managing Over-the-Air (OTA) device updates and device health. A great example of how Windows 10 IoT Core is being used is Hourfleet, a ride-sharing platform addressing urban mobility challenges faced by many cities, towns, and communities. The Hourfleet platform is a globally deployable, robust and cost-effective product underpinned by Windows 10 IoT Core and Azure IoT.
  • Windows 10 IoT Enterprise This full-featured edition of Windows 10 IoT delivers enterprise manageability and locked-down capabilities for fixed-function smart devices. Companies like City Beacon are building next-generation intelligent infrastructure based on Windows 10 IoT Enterprise. City Beacon has built a Smart Hub that can be located on city streets and venues; these multifunctional kiosks house a variety of IoT devices, connected to fast networks providing citizens with access to hyperlocal apps and services.
  • Windows Server IoT 2019 Windows Server IoT is for the most demanding edge-computing workloads, for connecting, storing and analyzing data from large databases of connected applications, networks and web services.
Expanding silicon choices Today we are announcing the General Availability of the Windows 10 IoT Core Board Support Packages for the NXP i.MX family of processors, including i.MX6, i.MX7, i.MX 8M and i.MX 8M Mini application processor families. NXP is a leader in highly secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications and bringing NXP i.MX and Windows 10 IoT Core together provides device builders with additional choices for building secure, commercial-grade, connected devices. Windows 10 IoT Core enables secure, power-optimized devices for the Intelligent Edge. Developers can quickly build new intelligent devices using the familiar and powerful Windows development environment and commercialize them using our powerful Azure IoT platform. By embracing the NXP family of processors, we’re bringing a whole new range of industrial-grade silicon choices to IoT project engineers. “We are pleased to have reached the General Availability milestone and continue to build our partnership with Microsoft,” says Jeff Miles, vice president of Business Development, Secure IoT Edge to Cloud Products at NXP. “With this addition, NXP customers now have access to industry-leading edge-computing solutions, from i.MX 6 to i.MX 7 and i.MX 8M across Windows 10 IoT Core for advanced industrial and IoT applications, harnessing the full power of Azure in their intelligent edge products.” Customers adopting NXP i.MX and Windows 10 IoT Core We are already seeing boards and devices using the NXP i.MX processors with over 15 boards available or in development from the partner ecosystem. As an example, Diagramics has built an NXP i.MX8-based solution with Windows 10 IoT Core to build rich client devices, certified by Azure IoT Device Catalog, and enable IOT plug-n-play registration of these devices with Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service. More information can be found on the boards and solutions. During the keynote I also shared a brand-new solution from Smart Tower based on the combination of Windows 10 IoT Core, NXP, and Azure IOT. The solution is designed to improve reliability and reduce downtime for critical public infrastructure, such as cell towers or electricity distribution networks. Smart Tower designed the solution to take full advantage of edge processing, creating a sensor module attached to the tower and a ground control unit that analyzes the health of the tower in real time, supporting high latency or disconnected scenarios. Additionally, the solution leverages Azure IOT Hub to manage and connect the devices and enables historical analysis across the whole network of towers being monitored. Smart Tower chose the combination of NXP, i.MX and Windows 10 IoT Core because of the extreme operating conditions the device would endure, and the familiar Windows IoT platform reduced the development costs and time to market. Continued Innovation at the edge Earlier this year, we enabled support for Azure IoT Edge on Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and Windows Server IoT 2019. This makes it easy and seamless to integrate the IoT Edge runtime, making it possible to move machine learning algorithms and other similarly complex computing functions from the cloud to edge devices. Windows for IoT also supports Windows Machine Learning and Windows Vision Skills, which allows you to run advanced AI algorithms developed in Azure on any Windows for IoT device. Industry-leading ML at the edge: New Windows ML Container The new Windows ML container, available today as an insider preview, is specifically designed for delivering AI-inferencing workloads built using the Windows ML API. Windows ML container gives businesses a fast and agile platform to build enterprise-grade IoT solutions. It combines the advanced features of Windows with the security of the Windows 10 IoT platform and the manageability of the Azure IoT Edge service. Windows ML containers provide hosted AI workloads with hardware acceleration and direct access to the host’s peripheral devices. Hosted workloads can use sensors or cameras connected using USB, I2C, SPI or GPIO. Hardware acceleration is available using any DirectX 12- capable GPU or Microsoft Compute Driver Model-compliant ASICs attached to the host. By optimizing the container specifically for AI workloads, the on-disk size of the container is approximately 350 MB, significantly smaller than any other GPU-enabled inferencing container in the market. With this smaller size, customers can manage Windows ML containers more easily and at lower cost. Find out more about the Windows ML container Insider Preview. Introducing SQL Server IoT 2019: Data storage and analytics on Windows for IoT SQL Server has been available for embedded usage for many years, and we are excited to bring the latest SQL Server 2019 capabilities to embedded device builders. We are introducing SQL Server IoT 2019, which is the binary equivalent to SQL Server 2019 and will be licensed through the OEM channel and is specifically designed for dedicated-use, server-class edge appliances running application software. Coupled with Windows Server IoT 2019, Microsoft SQL Server IoT 2019 provides a comprehensive database platform for mission-critical data analytics and unmatched scalability, industry-leading performance and security and intelligence over all your data. SQL Server IOT brings real-time analytics on operational data with in-memory technologies with higher concurrency and scale through persistent memory. Microsoft SQL Server IoT 2019 will be available before the end of the year. Microsoft is making substantial investments in cloud connectivity and using the power of Windows to accelerate our customers’ journeys to the cloud and the intelligent edge. The innovations we announced at CEATAC and the real-world IoT solutions being built by our customers and partners are just the start of the exciting path ahead for Windows for IoT. If you’re at CEATEC this week, be sure to visit Microsoft booth A012 to experience these Windows IoT solutions firsthand or on the web. The world of IoT is more exciting than ever, transforming every business on the planet, and that transformation is accelerating. Advances in AI and ML are helping companies across industries gain efficiencies; reduce downtime, waste, and errors; and improve customer satisfaction by harnessing the power of the Intelligent Edge and Intelligent Cloud. "Windows for IoT connects the dots for you" in text next to an image of a woman pressing a large touch-screen Windows has been powering enterprise-grade embedded devices for more than two decades, and during the keynote today at CEATEC Japan, I shared Microsoft’s strategy for how Windows for IoT helps device builders of all sizes quickly create IoT solutions that bring digital transformation to life for customers with smart and secure IoT devices. With a special focus at CEATAC on the evolution of smart cities, smart buildings and smart infrastructure under the “Society 5.0” framework, we’re excited that Windows for IoT delivers a scalable family of operating systems as the foundation for building intelligent edge devices. This family includes:
  • Windows 10 IoT Core is built for small-footprint smart devices, while still offering the manageability and security expected from Windows, and along with Windows 10 IoT Core Services ensures long-term OS support and services for managing Over-the-Air (OTA) device updates and device health. A great example of how Windows 10 IoT Core is being used is Hourfleet, a ride-sharing platform addressing urban mobility challenges faced by many cities, towns, and communities. The Hourfleet platform is a globally deployable, robust and cost-effective product underpinned by Windows 10 IoT Core and Azure IoT.
  • Windows 10 IoT Enterprise This full-featured edition of Windows 10 IoT delivers enterprise manageability and locked-down capabilities for fixed-function smart devices. Companies like City Beacon are building next-generation intelligent infrastructure based on Windows 10 IoT Enterprise. City Beacon has built a Smart Hub that can be located on city streets and venues; these multifunctional kiosks house a variety of IoT devices, connected to fast networks providing citizens with access to hyperlocal apps and services.
  • Windows Server IoT 2019 Windows Server IoT is for the most demanding edge-computing workloads, for connecting, storing and analyzing data from large databases of connected applications, networks and web services.
Expanding silicon choices Today we are announcing the General Availability of the Windows 10 IoT Core Board Support Packages for the NXP i.MX family of processors, including i.MX6, i.MX7, i.MX 8M and i.MX 8M Mini application processor families. NXP is a leader in highly secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications and bringing NXP i.MX and Windows 10 IoT Core together provides device builders with additional choices for building secure, commercial-grade, connected devices. Windows 10 IoT Core enables secure, power-optimized devices for the Intelligent Edge. Developers can quickly build new intelligent devices using the familiar and powerful Windows development environment and commercialize them using our powerful Azure IoT platform. By embracing the NXP family of processors, we’re bringing a whole new range of industrial-grade silicon choices to IoT project engineers. “We are pleased to have reached the General Availability milestone and continue to build our partnership with Microsoft,” says Jeff Miles, vice president of Business Development, Secure IoT Edge to Cloud Products at NXP. “With this addition, NXP customers now have access to industry-leading edge-computing solutions, from i.MX 6 to i.MX 7 and i.MX 8M across Windows 10 IoT Core for advanced industrial and IoT applications, harnessing the full power of Azure in their intelligent edge products.” Customers adopting NXP i.MX and Windows 10 IoT Core We are already seeing boards and devices using the NXP i.MX processors with over 15 boards available or in development from the partner ecosystem. As an example, Diagramics has built an NXP i.MX8-based solution with Windows 10 IoT Core to build rich client devices, certified by Azure IoT Device Catalog, and enable IOT plug-n-play registration of these devices with Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service. More information can be found on the boards and solutions. During the keynote I also shared a brand-new solution from Smart Tower based on the combination of Windows 10 IoT Core, NXP, and Azure IOT. The solution is designed to improve reliability and reduce downtime for critical public infrastructure, such as cell towers or electricity distribution networks. Smart Tower designed the solution to take full advantage of edge processing, creating a sensor module attached to the tower and a ground control unit that analyzes the health of the tower in real time, supporting high latency or disconnected scenarios. Additionally, the solution leverages Azure IOT Hub to manage and connect the devices and enables historical analysis across the whole network of towers being monitored. Smart Tower chose the combination of NXP, i.MX and Windows 10 IoT Core because of the extreme operating conditions the device would endure, and the familiar Windows IoT platform reduced the development costs and time to market. Continued Innovation at the edge Earlier this year, we enabled support for Azure IoT Edge on Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and Windows Server IoT 2019. This makes it easy and seamless to integrate the IoT Edge runtime, making it possible to move machine learning algorithms and other similarly complex computing functions from the cloud to edge devices. Windows for IoT also supports Windows Machine Learning and Windows Vision Skills, which allows you to run advanced AI algorithms developed in Azure on any Windows for IoT device. Industry-leading ML at the edge: New Windows ML Container The new Windows ML container, available today as an insider preview, is specifically designed for delivering AI-inferencing workloads built using the Windows ML API. Windows ML container gives businesses a fast and agile platform to build enterprise-grade IoT solutions. It combines the advanced features of Windows with the security of the Windows 10 IoT platform and the manageability of the Azure IoT Edge service. Windows ML containers provide hosted AI workloads with hardware acceleration and direct access to the host’s peripheral devices. Hosted workloads can use sensors or cameras connected using USB, I2C, SPI or GPIO. Hardware acceleration is available using any DirectX 12- capable GPU or Microsoft Compute Driver Model-compliant ASICs attached to the host. By optimizing the container specifically for AI workloads, the on-disk size of the container is approximately 350 MB, significantly smaller than any other GPU-enabled inferencing container in the market. With this smaller size, customers can manage Windows ML containers more easily and at lower cost. Find out more about the Windows ML container Insider Preview. Introducing SQL Server IoT 2019: Data storage and analytics on Windows for IoT SQL Server has been available for embedded usage for many years, and we are excited to bring the latest SQL Server 2019 capabilities to embedded device builders. We are introducing SQL Server IoT 2019, which is the binary equivalent to SQL Server 2019 and will be licensed through the OEM channel and is specifically designed for dedicated-use, server-class edge appliances running application software. Coupled with Windows Server IoT 2019, Microsoft SQL Server IoT 2019 provides a comprehensive database platform for mission-critical data analytics and unmatched scalability, industry-leading performance and security and intelligence over all your data. SQL Server IOT brings real-time analytics on operational data with in-memory technologies with higher concurrency and scale through persistent memory. Microsoft SQL Server IoT 2019 will be available before the end of the year. Microsoft is making substantial investments in cloud connectivity and using the power of Windows to accelerate our customers’ journeys to the cloud and the intelligent edge. The innovations we announced at CEATAC and the real-world IoT solutions being built by our customers and partners are just the start of the exciting path ahead for Windows for IoT. If you’re at CEATEC this week, be sure to visit Microsoft booth A012 to experience these Windows IoT solutions firsthand or on the web.]]>