- Windows 11 has a new optional update
- It fixes a bunch of bugs that have been annoying gamers
- One of the most annoying glitches causes the monitor screen to go black for up to a few seconds when playing games, and it’s now resolved
Windows 11‘s latest patch makes some important improvements for PC gamers, including the resolution of a seriously frustrating black screen glitch, and some useful changes are provided elsewhere, too.
This is the optional update for June (known as KB5060829) and, as Windows Latest reports, it introduces the mentioned fixes for gamers, as well as speeding up the performance of a common task under Windows 11 – namely, unzipping files.
Let’s look at those gaming-related solutions first, though, and the highlight here is that Microsoft has cured a problem where “unnecessary display resets” were happening to some folks.
This bug manifests as the screen going black for up to a few seconds when gaming, and also in everyday use. As one Redditor puts it: “So this might fix that issue where my screen just randomly blinks black for a split second while browsing certain websites and playing games?”
That’s very much the hope, and plenty of other Windows 11 gamers chime in to say they’re suffering at the hands of this bug. There are a couple of reports from users claiming the fix has indeed worked, so that’s a hopeful early sign. (Also remember that these fixes are gradually being rolled out, so not everyone will get the cure immediately.)
Microsoft also lets us know that there’s a further fix for a problem whereby when graphics settings are changed in a game (or some apps), any off-putting screen flashing that occurs should be reduced.
Another resolution applied in the ‘graphics’ category for this optional update is the fix for some displays going “unexpectedly green,” which I’m guessing is a reference to green screen crashes, rather than a visual corruption, though it could be the latter, and Microsoft doesn’t clarify this. Either way, that’d be an annoying problem to face, and it should be vanquished now.
As already mentioned, also noteworthy here is better performance when unzipping files that are compressed in the 7z (7-Zip) or RAR formats that are natively supported in File Explorer with Windows 11. The speed boost is most noticeable in cases where large numbers of files are compressed, and they should be extracted more swiftly- Windows Latest observes that this happens up to 15% faster.
Other nifty moves with this preview update include the taskbar automatically resizing icons to fit in more apps when it gets crowded, and interestingly, we’re also getting our first glimpse of the new PC-to-PC migration experience. The latter is provided in the Windows Backup app, and it’s been in testing previously, offering an easy way to switch over to a new PC.
This is just the initial rollout, mind you, and the PC-to-PC migration feature won’t be fully enabled yet. To begin with, we’re just getting the landing page as a “first look at what’s coming,” and Microsoft notes that: “Support for this feature during PC setup will arrive in a future update.”
However, near term, this will be more of a key feature for Windows 10 PCs, and Microsoft will want to push it through for those devices with the operating system‘s end-of-support deadline looming large. (Microsoft is very keen on getting those folks to upgrade to a new Windows 11 PC, which has caused quite some controversy in recent times).
Finally, another useful touch for gamers with this patch is a fix for some apps freezing up when Alt-Tabbing out of the game running in full-screen. A note of caution here: Windows Latest explains that a couple of folks testing this patch have experienced other weirdness when Alt-Tabbing out of games – like the mouse cursor lagging – but at this point, these are just scattered reports. I wouldn’t read much into them yet.
Analysis: Take a chance, or wait it out?
Of course, this is a preview update, and as such, bugs – like the potential fresh problems with Alt-Tabbing – can be expected. Microsoft is still testing this patch ahead of its release next month, and that’s why it’s optional.
Because of this, I usually advise Windows 11 users to ignore these patches, especially as there isn’t long to wait before the full update is deployed, and any last-minute bugs will (hopefully) be ironed out. In fact, this time around, the wait is particularly short, and the full update for Windows 11 in July arrives in just over a week.
Still, if any given issue is really driving you bananas, you may want to take your chances with the optional update right now (and hope you get lucky in terms of the rollout timeframe). And judging from the feedback on Reddit, a lot of people are really suffering at the hands of the bug causing the screen to go black for a second or three. If this happens at a crucial juncture of a game, it can be seriously frustrating, of course.
Indeed, plenty of Redditors are saying that this bug has been causing them to wonder what on earth is going wrong with their PC, and to suspect a fault with the GPU driver (which, given Nvidia’s current woes along those lines, is an obvious conclusion to reach). At least we now know the problem is with Windows 11, and fingers crossed that this patch (and by extension the July release) fully resolves these temporary black screen dropouts.
