Microsoft adds telemetry to monitor Windows 11 sluggishness in latest beta, dev builds — logs reportedly only sent when users submit feedback

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Microsoft seems to be taking Windows 11's performance more seriously, particularly feedback regarding the operating system's responsiveness. The company has introduced new telemetry that logs system sluggishness in preview builds of Windows. According to a blog post, Microsoft has incorporated new telemetry into the latest dev and beta builds of Windows 11 that monitors and records OS sluggishness. Windows 11 25H2 will also reportedly have the feature built in.

Windows 11's new sluggishness telemetry will automatically detect performance hiccups and log them to the %systemRoot%\Temp\DiagOutputDir\Whesvc folder. The logs are designed specifically for the Feedback Hub, and will be included when users submit feedback within the app regarding slowness/performance-related problems within Windows 11. The new telemetry changes should help Microsoft track down performance-related issues and provide accelerated updates featuring performance improvements for Windows 11.

Of course, from Microsoft's perspective, the company has been focusing on improving Windows 11's performance since the operating system came out. In 2021, Microsoft detailed how Windows 11 was faster than Windows 10, featuring a number of under-the-hood changes to make the OS more snappy. One of these features included an improved resource management system that gave foreground functions greater priority compared to prior versions of Windows.

However, despite these changes, Windows 11's performance improvements have been controversial, even if Microsoft's optimizations are legitimate. A quick Google search on the topic reveals a number of forum posts, articles, reports, and more complaining about performance issues in Windows 11, ranging from gaming performance issues to general sluggishness surrounding Windows 11's UI.

Not helping matters is Microsoft's latest attempt to tell users that Windows 11 is over twice as fast as Windows 10, using different hardware to compare each operating system. Its latest attempt used the Geekbench 6 multi-core benchmark to test Windows 10 PCs sporting Intel 6th - 10th Gen Core i-series processors against Windows 11 PCs sporting significantly newer 12th and 13th Gen Core i-series processors.

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

6 Comments Comment from the forums

Alvar "Miles" Udell

One of the biggest things Microsoft could do is ditch the monthly cumulative updates and go back to the "One issue, one patch" system of Windows 7 (prior to the change) and earlier, with every annual or semi annual update acting as a full update rollup, similar to the Update Rollup or service packs of generations prior. It may take initial setups a little longer, but the ability to easily troubleshoot and remove only issue causing updates instead of delaying installing everything is a win for both consumers and developers.

The biggest thing, of course, is to let people strip down the OS of everything non critical the way Windows used to be, because update for feature A which you may not even use may cause issue with feature B that you do. Tis why I think Windows 2000 was and is still peak Windows design.
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Dr3ams

logs reportedly only sent when users submit feedback
If you believe that, then I have some lakeside property on the moon I'd like to sell you.
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mikeebb

Probably useless anecdata, but I have (edit: Windows 11 in) a 10th gen i5-10400F in a desktop and a 11th gen i7 in a Lenovo laptop. i5 has 16G RAM and all (except one NVME stick used mainly for Linux dual-boot) standard SATA-3 6GB/s SSD boot and spinning rust data disks. The i7 has 8G RAM and a 1/2-GB NVME SSD. Once Windows is selected from the GRUB menu, the desktop starts up seemingly quicker than the laptop, with both set to avoid "fast shutdown" which really isn't. Hard to get firm, repeatable timings though; they're close.

One other issue affecting real-world (not just boot to desktop) timing is "sysmain." In the laptop, it (now disabled, and startup works much better) would tie things up with disk access and enough CPU drain to run the fan up to hurricane, leading to kind of funky response to other apps for a couple of minutes. The desktop, which is an upgrade from Windows 10 (years ago) not a clean install, doesn't have that and is ready to use once logged in. If you have a SSD boot disk, even a plain-SATA model like in my desktop, you don't need sysmain (once known as "Superfetch" in the dark ages).

As for updates, why not go the Linux route and post individual updates whenever they're ready, for you to review and choose a good time (if ever) to apply?

Edit2: more specific SATA description
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USAFRet

What part of "beta tester" is unclear?

This is not (yet, if ever) in the prod release.
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Alvar "Miles" Udell

USAFRet said:
What part of "beta tester" is unclear?

This is not (yet, if ever) in the prod release.

Honestly I'm surprised this hasn't always been a thing for Windows Insiders, but perhaps that's why so many, sometimes major, bugs make it though the Insider program and into the general release, not enough telemetry.
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baboma

Looking through rumors to 25H2 update, all of the non-AI adds (new Start Menu, CPU power saving, admin protection security, etc) are non-perf related. That leaves only AI adds--AI integration to Photos/Paint/File Explorer/etc, plus the infamous Recall--as having perf impact.

My takeaway is that the AI features will have significant overhead, and MS is monitoring how much, to balance AI load on client systems vs cloud. This will be ongoing, extending beyond 25H2 to Win12. It's a significant incentive for MS to mandate some built-in AI capability for the next wave of PCs.
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