Microsoft Fixes DirectX 9 Performance, Consolidates Startup Apps In Latest Insider Build

It took a few revisions of Windows, but Microsoft is finally providing a consolidated and user-friendly way of managing applications the run at startup. Previously, you’d have to use Task Manager / msconfig or a third-party tool to do this easily, but come a future update of Windows 10, you’ll be able to do it via the in-built Settings console.

Users will get their first peek at the new screen via Insider Preview Build 17017, according to Microsoft’s Dona Sarkar.

The main benefit of packing this feature into Windows 10’s Settings console is that you’ll no longer have to hunt it down, otherwise, it works pretty much has it has since Windows 8, including boot-time impact:

As part of our ongoing effort to consolidate our settings experience, now you can configure them in Settings! In our new Startup page under Settings > Apps, you can see all startup tasks installed for the current user, and enable/disable each of them. We will also display the impact they have on your startup time, as shown in the below picture.

Of course, power users will stick with third-party utilities, or even dive into the Registry or Task Scheduler, but if you just want a simple way of keeping an eye on startup apps, it’s a nice addition.

Build 17017 also comes with a bunch of fixes (including one that addresses problems with high-framerate DirectX 9 games), all of which are listed below:

• We fixed an issue a small percent of Insiders were experiencing where uninstalled apps might unexpectedly reinstall after a reboot.
• We fixed an issue where wallpaper changes might not roam to devices on the Windows 10 Creators Update with “Sync your settings” enabled.
• We fixed an issue from the previous flight where Storage Settings would crash on launch.
• We fixed an issue where changing time zones would result in the lock screen clock being incorrect until logging out and back in.
• We fixed an issue where the Action Center wouldn’t scroll with touch if you started the scrolling motion on top of a notification.
• If a notification doesn’t support being dismissed into the Action Center, the toast will now show an X instead of an arrow.
• We fixed an issue where the touch keyboard might unexpectedly auto launch after a system restart on non-touch PCs if you’d used the touch keyboard prior to restarting.
• We’ve updated the language settings icon in the input flyout to be consistent with that used in the touch keyboard.
• We fixed an issue where the “2” character wasn’t rendering correctly in some apps when using the Courier New font.
• We fixed an issue where duplicate icons might be displayed in the Volume Mixer when playing certain games or online videos.
• We fixed an issue causing reduced performance in some DirectX 9 games running at high framerates. If you’re a fan of gaming, please take a moment to try playing your favorite games on this build and share feedback.
• We fixed an issue where certain graphics drivers might result in night light displaying with unexpected colors when enabled in recent builds.
• Going forward from this build, the settings to disable hibernate and Fast Startup will be preserved across upgrade.
• We fixed an issue some Insiders were experiencing where after upgrading to recent flights their optical drive wouldn’t be listed under This PC.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders seeing 0x80070005 when trying to upgrade to the last few flights.
• We fixed an issue from recent flights where you might see code 0x80070002 when trying to update apps from the Store.
• We fixed an issue where Hyper-V couldn’t create a VM on 3rd party network storage.
• We fixed an issue where for the first few minutes after clean installing a non-English build many inbox app names might unexpectedly appear with English app names.
• We fixed an issue where gaming apps using WebView with heavy use of HTML canvas might have unexpectedly had very low FPS in recent flights.

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17017 for PC [Microsoft, via Liliputing]