For a while now Windows 10 has had a “Game Mode” feature. I’m rather mixed on the feature myself, but generally find it strange.

I’ve never been a fan of the “Game Booster” software phenotype; it seems like it is largely snake oil fakery, and where it does have an effect, it is really just a result of the same sort of adjustments that can be made manually via services or other configuration options. Game Mode does have an advantage, here; the first is that it sort of puts those applications “out of business”, and, being built into the OS, it is a much safer implementation, and it’s  goals are less extreme. On the other hand, it does sort of legitimize the concept, which I’ve always found crazy, that such applications are in any way worth using.

I tend not to use the feature, however I can see it having benefits for some users and some systems. To me, overlay features such as the Game Bar that are used in this case feel like a sort of “chaff”; It is better than older approaches like the “Games for Windows Live” featureset, and better implemented as well, but I’ve found that- at least for now- it’s not really for me. This may be partly because I’m not a particularly heavy gamer, though- I seldom play games on my PC- nowhere near what I expected.

I also tend to enjoy older titles. Interestingly, I’ve found many older games- even going back to Win98 Games, run surprisingly well on Windows 10, most issues I’ve encountered with older titles tend to be a result of either lack of 16-bit compatibility (with much older titles) or are a result of the hardware being far in excess of what the game ever expected. A lot of older titles don’t have support for 2560×1440 for example because it is such a high resolution, requiring minor patches. Windows 10 is surprisingly backwards compatible in this regard. Even better than previous Post-Vista Windows releases, including Windows 7 which had an interesting explorer palette realization issue. that tended to cause problems with games that used 256-color modes.