• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Windows 10 Update: Game Mode for Audio Playback?

Sal1950

Grand Contributor
The Chicago Crusher
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
14,068
Likes
16,598
Location
Central Fl
Pretty sure it would work for any app. Windows has no way of knowing what an app really does.
I'm not sure it will be available for non-game apps but that would be nice? I see it as specially useful for those using a computer that's doing it's own DRC. I'll give it a try also after the update comes down the pike.
windows-10-game-mode-100716324-orig.jpg
It does seem to be working as you thought. I couldn't figure out how to get a screenshot of the Game Mode settings window like above but it's working here. I think I got it set correctly to recognize my Clementine media player as a "Game", it launches a Game Mode question bar each time I restart it now. Will let the Windows guys here and online figure out the little tweaks it can use.. You may actually have to have a X Box to get a couple options working???
 

Sal1950

Grand Contributor
The Chicago Crusher
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
14,068
Likes
16,598
Location
Central Fl
Sal, Me and You ...

Wow, who'd thought we're both Windows Insiders ...
ME, A Windoz insider? No idea how that happened? Oh the shame of it. :eek:

This install has kind of a gray history.
I bought a $100 used corporate trade-in laptop from NewEgg, it came with a fresh builders Win 7 edition installed.
Took that harddrive out of the lappy and put my old Linux drive in it.

Win 7 lappy drive was laying around so I plugged it into my main tower to take a look and play. Since it had never been authenticated on the lappy, it config'd to the towers hardware, registered itself with MS and all was well. ;)
I was long past the free Win 7 to 10 update cutoff, but read if I went to the MS Assistive Technology link I could still do it, that worked too. LOL

It's been thru one or two other updates since but,
Now it's a fully updated Creator install for running my Quicken finance software. wOOt
I did need something newer as the Win XP install I'd been using for many years was now failing to run Quickens financial institutions log-ins and returning errors since MS hasn't been issuing security updates to XP for some time.
Nice when things work out. :cool:
 
D

Deleted member 65

Guest
It does seem to be working as you thought. I couldn't figure out how to get a screenshot of the Game Mode settings window like above but it's working here. I think I got it set correctly to recognize my Clementine media player as a "Game", it launches a Game Mode question bar each time I restart it now. Will let the Windows guys here and online figure out the little tweaks it can use.. You may actually have to have a X Box to get a couple options working???

I've tried the Windows 10 Creators Update (1703) "Game mode" using Roon as application. Initiating Game mode in Roon works just fine. I've evaluated the impact on Game mode in my environment:
Roon Core: MediaPC, Intel i7, SSD, 16GB.

Roon Bridge (in listening/evaluation room): RaspBerry Pi (thx Watchnerd), iFi iDAC2, Onkyo A5-VL, Evolution Acoustics MMMicroOne.

and my Windows 10 Creators Update Game mode conclusion is as follows:

Background blacks are even blacker now, all previous hiss are gone, three dimensionality is expanded, sopranos (see Barbara Hannigan) sound more soprano than ever and bass singers (see Bryn Terfel) are more bassie then ever before.

Summary & Recommendation: Go for it! ;-)
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,381
Location
Seattle Area
Background blacks are even blacker now, all previous hiss are gone, three dimensionality is expanded, sopranos (see Barbara Hannigan) sound more soprano than ever and bass singers (see Bryn Terfel) are more bassie then ever before.
I knew it! My only worry is that a veil has not been removed. And that you didn't say your system was high resolution enough to show this type of improvement.
 

Sal1950

Grand Contributor
The Chicago Crusher
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
14,068
Likes
16,598
Location
Central Fl
OH OH, Look out!
I just got a message from Micro$off that a BIG update with new features was coming, asking me options on when I wanted to install it.
I was done with my Quicken work so I told it to go ahead and do it now.
It's been grinding away for about 15 minutes now and on first reboot.
We'll see what it ends up as.
Yea, I'm scared. :eek::D
 

Sal1950

Grand Contributor
The Chicago Crusher
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
14,068
Likes
16,598
Location
Central Fl
After 3 boots and about 20 minutes I just got to the desktop again.

Welcome to the Fall Creators Update
New ways to link to your portable devices
Some kind of 3D modeling in Office docs.
Oh boy, I'm so excited.
Booting back to Linux now.
 

Sal1950

Grand Contributor
The Chicago Crusher
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
14,068
Likes
16,598
Location
Central Fl
Knowing that you like Linux better, they left you last to upgrade!!! :D Mine was done a couple of months ago.
Could be, we know you have Favored Nation status. ;)
 

Sal1950

Grand Contributor
The Chicago Crusher
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
14,068
Likes
16,598
Location
Central Fl
Warning.
Windoz 10 has another 3 reboot update waiting for you! It took control of my computer for about the first 20 minutes at startup today. :mad:
 

Blumlein 88

Grand Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Messages
20,521
Likes
37,050
Warning.
Windoz 10 has another 3 reboot update waiting for you! It took control of my computer for about the first 20 minutes at startup today. :mad:

Last weekend Sal, I put Manjaro linux on a new SSD. It took about 20 minutes including the time to download a few items. Then I was ready to rock and roll. I guess you would say one reboot. (it would have been several minutes less, but my internet connection is pitifully slow)

Wait until MS leases you the OS, and manages it for you.
 
Last edited:

Sal1950

Grand Contributor
The Chicago Crusher
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
14,068
Likes
16,598
Location
Central Fl
Last weekend Sal, I put Manjaro linux on a new SSD. It took about 20 minutes including the time to download a few items. Then I was ready to rock and roll. I guess you would say one reboot. (it would have been several minutes less, but my internet connection is pitifully slow)

Wait until MS leases you the OS, and manages it for you.
Not familiar with Manjaro, what made you chose it, let me know how you like it.

The lease bit wouldn't surprise we. I am amazed at Win10's rolling release model, normally they would have charged at least twice for the updaters as new versions
 

Blumlein 88

Grand Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Messages
20,521
Likes
37,050
Not familiar with Manjaro, what made you chose it, let me know how you like it.

The lease bit wouldn't surprise we. I am amazed at Win10's rolling release model, normally they would have charged at least twice for the updaters as new versions

I put Mint on my current desktop almost 3 years ago. It was 17 the LTS version. It has gone to 17.3 by now, and I've updated kernals 4 times (which Mint can do without a reboot). It has been flawless. I've not had any issue with it for the whole time. There are things you can't do like run my Canon scanner, but the OS has been exemplary. They recently released Mint 19 as the newest LTS. So why would I abandon it? I haven't fully.

Manjaro is a rolling release like PCLOS. Only based upon Arch. Arch itself is too hands on fiddly to me. Manjaro basically turns Arch into a pussycat to use. I was installing linux on a laptop, and decided to try Manjaro after seeing some really good reviews. I liked it so much I decided to add an SSD to my desktop and put Manjaro on it. I'll have the original HD to go to Mint 19. So far so good on Manjaro. Its only been a few days.

Manjaro using the KDE desktop is a plus to me. KDE has been my preference. On Mint I used Cinnamon which I like pretty well, but its no KDE. Manjaro also seems a bit easier on resources. Not by a huge amount, but somewhat better.

So I'll give Manjaro a month and then decide if I'm staying with it or switching back to Mint 19. Hard drives are cheap and having one for each is no big deal in my desktop. I can keep both. An abundance of good choices. You can imagine how I feel when I've need of firing up the Windoz cluster.
 

Grave

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
382
Likes
204
I have game mode on all the time because I have a gaming PC. Also, it seems you can use the recording function in the game bar to record anything, not just games. I do not think a silent PC would be any good for gaming, but you can get fans which are specifically made to be quiet.
 

TBone

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 16, 2016
Messages
1,191
Likes
348
Optimizing windows for less background traffic seems to be the "thing" to do by many digital audio tweakers. I have never been a fan of such optimizations because they disable so much stuff that make Windows hard to use. And at any rate, you are then beholding by someone's tweaks to Windows.

Agreed, but my luv for Win10 has declined much since being an early adopter. Win7 was lightning fast in comparison. The constant updates can be crippling, if my computer is offline for any period of time, the next update bogs down the system to the point of being useless. Thank God the ever changing menu structures have finally become more consistent. At one point, I couldn't find/access the control panel, no matter what I tried.

I've attempted to lean out Win10, but it only seems to stall the inevitable; certain applications that cannot be defeated seem to loop, endlessly, eventually grinding the entire system to a halt. A hard reboot is required, startup times can range from a few minutes to what seems like an eternity. It hasn't played nice with the latest changes with Firefox either, but perhaps that's another issue, not related to MS.

The thing is, when it comes to computer audio, I really should dedicate one specific computer for that task alone. But if I do just that, I'll forgo Win10 completely, while attempting to forget my past frustrations with Linux ...
 

Blumlein 88

Grand Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Messages
20,521
Likes
37,050
Agreed, but my luv for Win10 has declined much since being an early adopter. Win7 was lightning fast in comparison. The constant updates can be crippling, if my computer is offline for any period of time, the next update bogs down the system to the point of being useless. Thank God the ever changing menu structures have finally become more consistent. At one point, I couldn't find/access the control panel, no matter what I tried.

I've attempted to lean out Win10, but it only seems to stall the inevitable; certain applications that cannot be defeated seem to loop, endlessly, eventually grinding the entire system to a halt. A hard reboot is required, startup times can range from a few minutes to what seems like an eternity. It hasn't played nice with the latest changes with Firefox either, but perhaps that's another issue, not related to MS.

The thing is, when it comes to computer audio, I really should dedicate one specific computer for that task alone. But if I do just that, I'll forgo Win10 completely, while attempting to forget my past frustrations with Linux ...

What you describe sounds like a bug I've seen on several upgrades to Win10. If you look in Task Manager, you see the hard drive saturated at 100% for quite some time (20 minutes). Yet the amount of transfer to the HD is a small amount that shouldn't saturate the HD. But it sure acts like it is saturated. Everything is dead slow, sluggish, may take minutes to open. If you leave it long enough, it will settle down and act more or less normally showing low % of HD access. Unless an update comes along and it'll act that way until the update is done.

Sometimes this can be fixed in the registry by changing some settings. Sometimes not. You'll have to search forums on your specific model of machine or motherboard to find the fixes if there are any. A couple machines I couldn't fix. So I ended up rolling back to Win 8.1 on which they work fine. And once it stabilized I find I like Win 8.1 better than 10. Most machines run faster on it. Win 8.1 also runs better than Win 7. It has a messed up UI in places. But hey they don't call it Winblows for nothing.
 

TBone

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 16, 2016
Messages
1,191
Likes
348
What you describe sounds like a bug I've seen on several upgrades to Win10. If you look in Task Manager, you see the hard drive saturated at 100% for quite some time (20 minutes). Yet the amount of transfer to the HD is a small amount that shouldn't saturate the HD. But it sure acts like it is saturated. Everything is dead slow, sluggish, may take minutes to open. If you leave it long enough, it will settle down and act more or less normally showing low % of HD access. Unless an update comes along and it'll act that way until the update is done.

Hi Dennis, thanks for the tips ...

That's what's happening, except in my case, it stays sluggish until a reboot.

It all started around feb, a late night update turned into an overnight update. In the morning, it was evident the computer had crashed at some point during the update. The subsequent reboot sent it right back into update mode, but this time it completed within a half-hour. During this time, I had my DAC plugged into the usb port. Later that evening, when I went to play some music, I realized the computer wouldn't recognize the DAC anymore. I did the usual driver replacements, but soon realized the DAC was fried. Plugging the DAC into a variety of other computers, Windows & Linux, confirmed its death. Not certain it was caused by the update, but ...

I've borrowed other DACs since, no problem or issues, however I've waived purchasing the replacement because I'm concerned long term. In reality, I could get a Linux based machine, and lucky for me, a good friend, and long time Linux user / part time audiophile (considers latency an issue) would be more than happy to make that adjustment for me. But since I'm married to Foobar, the entire plan has stalled.

Sometimes this can be fixed in the registry by changing some settings. Sometimes not. You'll have to search forums on your specific model of machine or motherboard to find the fixes if there are any. A couple machines I couldn't fix. So I ended up rolling back to Win 8.1 on which they work fine. And once it stabilized I find I like Win 8.1 better than 10. Most machines run faster on it. Win 8.1 also runs better than Win 7. It has a messed up UI in places. But hey they don't call it Winblows for nothing.

I've searched the net, and made some registry changes, only to revert the reg back because it didn't work. I've learned to "live" with the issue day by day, and make the appropriate adjustments. By chance, were any of the machines you could not fix HP models?
 

Blumlein 88

Grand Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Messages
20,521
Likes
37,050
Hi Dennis, thanks for the tips ...

That's what's happening, except in my case, it stays sluggish until a reboot.

It all started around feb, a late night update turned into an overnight update. In the morning, it was evident the computer had crashed at some point during the update. The subsequent reboot sent it right back into update mode, but this time it completed within a half-hour. During this time, I had my DAC plugged into the usb port. Later that evening, when I went to play some music, I realized the computer wouldn't recognize the DAC anymore. I did the usual driver replacements, but soon realized the DAC was fried. Plugging the DAC into a variety of other computers, Windows & Linux, confirmed its death. Not certain it was caused by the update, but ...

I've borrowed other DACs since, no problem or issues, however I've waived purchasing the replacement because I'm concerned long term. In reality, I could get a Linux based machine, and lucky for me, a good friend, and long time Linux user / part time audiophile (considers latency an issue) would be more than happy to make that adjustment for me. But since I'm married to Foobar, the entire plan has stalled.



I've searched the net, and made some registry changes, only to revert the reg back because it didn't work. I've learned to "live" with the issue day by day, and make the appropriate adjustments. By chance, were any of the machines you could not fix HP models?

Yes, one was an HP Elite laptop. Many Lenovo's have the problem, but registry fixes work on some of them (but not all).
 

Sal1950

Grand Contributor
The Chicago Crusher
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
14,068
Likes
16,598
Location
Central Fl

Dialectic

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Messages
1,738
Likes
3,090
Location
a fortified compound
I'd recommend a good divorce attorney. ;)

Foobar works well under Wine on Mac and Linux. The Ubuntu app store will even install Windows Foobar and Wine together for you automatically. All the Foobar plugins work fine for me under Mac and Linux.
 

Sal1950

Grand Contributor
The Chicago Crusher
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
14,068
Likes
16,598
Location
Central Fl
Foobar works well under Wine on Mac and Linux. The Ubuntu app store will even install Windows Foobar and Wine together for you automatically. All the Foobar plugins work fine for me under Mac and Linux.
That's good to know, thanks. I may have to try Foobar one day.
 
Top Bottom