News, Reviews & Betas which includes large community peer support This week in Microsoft Weekly, we look at all things Windows 11 as the OS is now generally available. We also look at some new apps incoming, new Xbox Game Pass titles, and more in our digest.
With the passage of another week, it’s time to look at all the Microsoft-related news that happened. This week, the news cycle in the Redmond giant’s world was dominated by the release of Windows 11. The next-gen OS from Microsoft began rolling out in a staggered fashion and brought with it a barrage of news and interesting observations. Along with the rollout also came a few app updates, some gaming-related news, and an interesting report from the firm. All this and more in our weekly Microsoft digest for October 3 – October 9. As promised by the firm, Windows 11 began rolling out to select users starting October 5, depending on the geography. Interestingly though, documentation for the offering’s support lifecycle notes the start date as October 4. As was expected, the release is a staggered, measured one, meaning a small set of eligible users receive the upgrade as an optional package. With time, more users will begin being offered the OS. The firm has also started showing a banner on the Windows Update Settings page notifying users that their PC is compatible. Of course, users can force the upgrade using the Media Creation Tool (MCT) and the like. Additionally, the Redmond company also made Windows 11 available to businesses customers as a Cloud PC in the Windows 365 Enterprise subscription. However, the OS did release with a few known issues, some that serve to be blocking bugs, meaning that the firm has placed a hold on rolling out the OS to devices that might be affected by the issues. This is why the firm also advises against installing the OS using the Installation Assistant or via the MCT to avoid any problems. However, those that upgraded to Windows 11 and wished to go back to Windows 10 can do so from within the OS itself. Refer to our handy guide that provides a walkthrough of that process. Not all was well with the rollout, as some users began reporting errors while trying to install the OS, especially when using the Installation Assistant. The most common of them were 0x8007007 and 0x800F0830, which could mostly be fixed using a simple workaround. Users of Windows Mixed Reality were also treated to issues on upgrading to the OS, with some users reporting that setting up the feature before installing was the best way to get it to work. Some users that successfully installed Windows 11 on systems running AMD processors were also in for a surprise, thanks to an announcement by AMD acknowledging that there might be some performance issues caused by the L3 cache latency. The impact could vary from a drop in performance of anywhere between 3% and 15%. Additionally, another issue affects processors with eight or more cores caused by the inability to schedule threads on a processor’s fastest core.
