MS to start bundling Windows 10 drivers with Windows Store downloads

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pxc

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ahahahahahahaha, what could possibly go wrong?

Microsoft Details Gaming Enhancements Coming With Windows 10 Creators Update

And finally, Microsoft will start bundling drivers with Windows Store games to improve the performance of the game once downloaded. This will work by the game download trigging Windows Update to acquire the minimum driver requirements to make sure that application works as intended.

This may perturb some users who like having complete control over the driver updates for their hardware as this auto-download mechanism will overwrite the existing installation of the driver. Of course, you can still roll-back the update but hopefully Microsoft gives us a way to stop the auto-download of the driver via the Windows Store when this feature arrives.
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For some reason MS has confused the idea that a PC is a gaming console. Sadly, this is just another bit of proof that MS considers the OS installed on YOUR computer to be under complete MS control.
 
pxc said:
ahahahahahahaha, what could possibly go wrong?

Microsoft Details Gaming Enhancements Coming With Windows 10 Creators Update



For some reason MS has confused the idea that a PC is a gaming console. Sadly, this is just another bit of proof that MS considers the OS installed on YOUR computer to be under complete MS control.
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I know there's a lot of anti-MS sentiment here, but this whole idea will probably be fine for 98% of users. Anytime a new big game drops, Nvidia and AMD release their new drivers optimized for that title. It sounds like MS is just including that driver update into the game download itself, making sure people get the optimum experience (as defined by Nvidia and AMD).

While this might piss off the probably <2% of users who need a particular driver version for some reason, I'd imagine it'd be a nice feature for everyone else.
 
For earlier comment: I don't think it necessarily involves buying anything since many store games are supported by other than a purchase price (free to play or ad supported, for example). Any game on the store could flag that it needs the latest drivers, triggering an unwanted update.

For last comment: the driver downloads available directly from MS are not the same as the packages available directly from the GPU vendors. The problem here is that it's going to annoy exactly the segment of gamers it supposedly tries to help, which is hilarious.
 
At first I like the idea since the "experience" process required to get updates through Nvidia for instance is a pain, more registration etc. But then I think about my experiences this past year with many titles on my gaming pc and I can't think of a time where game has failed to launch or has run poorly. Also, the last time I checked MS only offered paired down drivers that are generally stable but short on performance and features. They better have a way to turn this off in all Windows 10 editions.
 
Oh joy. What new mystery Microsoft Marketing Malware will these "driver" updates come infested with...

Maybe first they should actually fix Windows 10 and get it stable, then drain the swamp that is the windows store and have the update process there actually work, before they go throwing more unwanted crap at users.
 
The problem is, installing the latest drivers may allow the newly downloaded game to run well while an older game already installed may stop running altogether.

The latest and greatest isn't always ideal.
 
Bandalo said:
I know there's a lot of anti-MS sentiment here, but this whole idea will probably be fine for 98% of users. Anytime a new big game drops, Nvidia and AMD release their new drivers optimized for that title. It sounds like MS is just including that driver update into the game download itself, making sure people get the optimum experience (as defined by Nvidia and AMD).

While this might piss off the probably <2% of users who need a particular driver version for some reason, I'd imagine it'd be a nice feature for everyone else.
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The important thing for that 2% will be an option to turn this off. I think that most of the updating stuff is the right thing to do for average users but it obviously it's not perfect and does generate a LOT of blowback.
 
BulletDust said:
The problem is, installing the latest drivers may allow the newly downloaded game to run well while an older game already installed may stop running altogether.

The latest and greatest isn't always ideal.
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This can get complicated with enough games especially if you're playing a lot of newer games.
 
heatlesssun said:
This can get complicated with enough games especially if you're playing a lot of newer games.
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Sometimes you just suck it up and compromise. The latest drivers may get an extra 15fps out of the latest title, but if it means you can't play another favourite as the latest drivers cock everything up you just stick with older drivers and live with 15fps less when playing the latest and greatest.

I can't see how this is going to work. It's bad enough that Windows 10 downloads and installs driver updates with Windows updates - Something I've noticed is now harder to fully disable with the anniversary update.
 
Nothing can go wrong. Go wrong. Go wrong...

Windows 10 is a disaster and my favorite games are all Linux native. Microsoft is going to lose the desktop if they keep this BS up.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Nothing can go wrong. Go wrong. Go wrong...

Windows 10 is a disaster and my favorite games are all Linux native. Microsoft is going to lose the desktop if they keep this BS up.
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I seriously, seriously, seriously, doubt that will ever happen. They might lose more of the bleeding-edge gamers, and people who really care about driver configurations, but that's <1% of their PC market.
 
Bandalo said:
I seriously, seriously, seriously, doubt that will ever happen. They might lose more of the bleeding-edge gamers, and people who really care about driver configurations, but that's <1% of their PC market.
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What could a bleeding edge gamer use these days besides Windows 10? If you want to play all of the latest and greatest titles for the PC with the latest and greatest hardware like VR, Windows 10 is the only option. And for the vast majority of people in this situation, the latest drivers are much more often than not a must. I do get that forcing the latest drivers can be problematic under some situations and hopefully there is a good way to control this. I've not encountered any situations where Windows 10 Update replaced any drivers I installed manually. I have on occasion gone back and tested older drivers for certain things. Things do break but then games themselves get patched which break things with older drivers.

There honestly isn't anything ideal about people having to pick and choose specific drivers for specific games unless it was virtualized. That really is the way to address this issue and I think local software virtualization is going to become a thing.
 
heatlesssun said:
What could a bleeding edge gamer use these days besides Windows 10? If you want to play all of the latest and greatest titles for the PC with the latest and greatest hardware like VR, Windows 10 is the only option. And for the vast majority of people in this situation, the latest drivers are much more often than not a must. I do get that forcing the latest drivers can be problematic under some situations and hopefully there is a good way to control this. I've not encountered any situations where Windows 10 Update replaced any drivers I installed manually. I have on occasion gone back and tested older drivers for certain things. Things do break but then games themselves get patched which break things with older drivers.

There honestly isn't anything ideal about people having to pick and choose specific drivers for specific games unless it was virtualized. That really is the way to address this issue and I think local software virtualization is going to become a thing.
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I tend to agree, but the "bleeding edge" types are also the ones who are most vocal in their complaints about Win10. I've been running it since release and can't say I've had more or less problems than I've had with XP, 7 or 8.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Microsoft is going to lose the desktop if they keep this BS up.
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Death by 1000 marketing missteps and unfinished, untested patches. Microsoft has already lost the consumer, now they're slowly and methodically losing businesses, power users/enthusiasts and loyal longtime users in general. They're squandering the last remaining vestiges of built up goodwill.

A new Windows version used to be something exciting, with new features that were not only useful, but were actually new features. Now in this Metro era identity crisis of suck, MS seems to be doing all they can to make that impossible. It's hard to be a fan anymore.
 
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Bandalo said:
I tend to agree, but the "bleeding edge" types are also the ones who are most vocal in their complaints about Win10. I've been running it since release and can't say I've had more or less problems than I've had with XP, 7 or 8.
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I'd say most of the bigger Windows 10 critics are more traditionalists than bleeding edge. Not trying to imply anything there other than traditionalists tend to want things to work essentially the same as they have for years.
 
heatlesssun said:
I'd say most of the bigger Windows 10 critics are more traditionalists than bleeding edge. Not trying to imply anything there other than traditionalists tend to want things to work essentially the same as they have for years.
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There seem to be two camps...people who don't like it for the perceived privacy issues. I don't really think it's a big deal, but some people are more sensitive to those things. The other camp doesn't like the technical issues. Those I don't agree with, since it seems like it's no better or worse than any other MS OS in it's first year.
 
I just want a desktop operating system that doesn't advertise to me or spy on me unless I dig through menu's turning off default settings.

It'd also be nice to have at least some useful control over the updating process.
 
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