Steve Dispensa, Microsoft's VP for the Windows Management team, recently explained some of the hidden changes they make Windows 11 more responsive, responsive and performing than Windows 10. The video, posted on Microsoft Mechanics' YouTube channel, aims to show how closely related hardware and software are and the steps Microsoft has taken to ensure Windows 11 improves the user experience.
Windows 11 has a improved resource management system: now I'm here higher priority levels attributed to foreground functions (essentially, the program window you're currently active on), reducing the amount of processing power consumed by background processes. This priority to the work that interests the user at that precise moment also extends to the browser: Windows has now improved its ability to pause inactive tabs, thereby reducing the amount of resources required of the underlying system - and increasing performance on the active card. The improvements in this area are by no means to be underestimated: Steve Dispensa states that the system will use up to 32% less memory and reduce CPU usage by 37% thanks to this new tab suspend feature.
Microsoft also has optimized the code that calls the hardware functions, reducing the delay between user input and actual execution of instructions, thus decreasing the downtime and improving the reactivity perceived by the user. This also has a knock-on effect on memory usage and overall performance - optimized instructions reduce memory footprint and improve resource management from inactive to active.
Microsoft has also implemented new compression techniques which have decreased the overall disk usage of the operating system and extended this technique to the update functions of Windows 11. Thanks to the new update engine, Microsoft promises that updates will not require as many resources as they currently do. You will also have performance management capabilities and smarter, faster update delivery that will reduce overall file size by 40%.
Finally, Steve Dispensa talked a little bit about how this set of improvements has led to a philosophy of sleep state that is closer to phones and what Apple has done with macOS. Now reactivation is 25% faster, which leads, according to his words, to an almost instant recovery from suspension for most users, with an additional benefit inherent in energy savings for mobile devices that comes from the possibility of entering standby states more quickly without compromise the work done.
