Microsoft has finally fixed a problem in the Windows 11 22H2 update that was causing sluggish performance for certain games and apps.
On Tuesday, the company released the fix through a preview release dubbed KB5020044. In the release notes, Microsoft mentions that the update “addresses an issue that affects some games and applications. This issue is related to GPU performance debugging features. This lowers the expected game performance.”
Redmond first alerted users about the bug on Nov. 10 in a support page. For some reason, the Windows 11 22H2 update can trigger additional debugging software processes while gaming, which can result in a performance drop, including stuttering.
The company has not explained the exact cause of the error or what specific games are affected. But the issue was serious enough for Microsoft to halt releasing the Windows 11 22H2 update to affected devices when uptake of the operating system remains relatively low. According to Steam’s hardware survey, only 23% of gamers on the platform have adopted Windows 11. Meanwhile, Windows 10 dominates with a nearly 69% share.
It was only on Nov. 22 when the company began partially removing the block on rolling out the Windows 11 release to target a smaller number of affected devices. Specifically, Microsoft said: "The safeguard hold ... has been updated to only safeguard Windows devices which have one of the small subset of games and apps which are still affected by this issue."
Users on Windows 11 22H2 can download the fix as an optional update. This involves going to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. In the Optional updates section, there should be a link to download and install the update. The KB5020044 preview release also contains a host of other bug fixes and improvements to speed up performance.