Microsoft officially introduced Windows 11 Thursday. The new operating system or OS is set to arrive as an update to Windows 10 PCs this holiday season. If you’re looking forward to the update to the new Windows OS, here are a few things you need to know. In this guide, we are going to explain the new features, system requirements for installation, and more about Windows 11. 
Windows 11: What’s new?New Start Menu








​​The new windows start menu appears by default in the middle of the screen, though you can change a setting to make it appear on the left. Gone are the live tiles, replaced with simple, colorful icons.
Snap Layouts and Snap Groups


On Windows 11, hovering over the minimize/maximize button gives you a choice of different snap layouts, based on your screen size. So, for example, if you have three apps open and enough room, you’ll be offered the option to split evenly between all three or have one take up half the screen and the other two take up a quarter each.
If you have to interrupt your workflow by, for example, responding to an incoming email, you’ll be able to restore your snapped layout by clicking on an icon on the taskbar. Icons for these “snap groups” will appear next to app icons so you can easily switch back to a complete layout in one click.
Teams Integrated with Windows


 The Teams icon will be on the taskbar and you’ll be able to use it to make calls to anyone else who uses Teams on any device, including Android and iOS devices. You’ll also be able to send and receive SMS messages from the taskbar.
The news feed adapts to you, trying to bring in feeds that you want, based on your preferences. There’s also a feature that lets you give some content creators a tip.
Windows Widgets


A slide-out pane on the left side of the screen shows you “Windows widgets” a set of curated news, weather, and stock information. This is a clear evolution of the weather and news bar we see in recent versions of Windows 10.
New Touch Experience
Say goodbye to “tablet mode.” When you go into tablet mode on a 2-in-1, you’ll see slightly more space between icons and larger touch targets, but the interface will remain largely the same. You’ll be able to use the same gestures — a three-finger swipe for example — that you use on a Windows Precision touchpad as well.
The pen experience has been updated to allow haptic feedback as you write. The touch keyboard is all-new and will let you customize its look and feel while also using emojis. Voice typing has also been improved and automatically adds punctuation while taking voice commands such as “delete that” to help you edit
Auto HDR for Gaming


If your monitor supports HDR but your game doesn’t, Windows 11 will convert the color and lighting. During a demo, Microsoft’s Sarah Bond showed how this feature made Skyrim look much more colorful and lifelike. This feature originated on the Xbox and is now coming to the PC.
Android Apps Coming to Windows 11


You will be able to launch Android apps directly within Windows and find them in the Microsoft store via Amazon’s app store. Windows will use Intel’s Bridge Technology, a run-time post compiler, to allow the Android apps to run natively and be treated like any other Windows app that you can snap, pin-to-start, etc.
Microsoft Store

​


The new Microsoft Store is your single trusted location for apps and content to watch, create, play, work, and learn. It’s been rebuilt for speed and with an all-new design that is beautiful and simple to use.
Windows 11: What are the system requirements?
Like Windows 10 before it, Windows 11 will be a free upgrade for anyone who has a recent prior version of Windows and the right hardware. According to Microsoft’s, the minimum system requirements are:

• CPU: 1-GHz or faster with 2 or more cores on a 64-bit processor.
• 4GB of RAM
• 64GB of storage
• UEFI BIOS with Secure Boot
• TPM 2.0
• 9-inch or larger screen with 720p resolution
• Internet connectivity and an MS account. No offline installs.
• GPU compatible with DirectX 12

These exceed the Windows 10 system requirements in several ways. Microsoft lists those as 1-GHz CPU (but not dual core or 64-bit), just 1 or 2GB of RAM, a mere 16 to 20GB of storage space and a GPU that is capable of DirectX 9 with a minimum resolution of 800 x 600.
The TPM 2.0 requirement could shut out some users, particularly those with home-built PCs. Not every motherboard comes with a TPM module on-board, though some motherboards are upgradeable with a TPM module you can buy after the fact. Many systems have TPM on board but it comes disabled so you’ll need to turn it on your BIOS.

This is now available to Walter PC gaming!

There are a few post-manufacturing processes that might be taken on by some gaming enthusiasts or other PC users to improve performance, and one of these is known as overclocking. While the technical details of this method might be a bit too complex for this space, it involves the boosting of components over and above their factory defaults within a computer, and may have several benefits – but also could come with some downsides in some settings.
At Walter, we’re happy to offer a wide selection of gaming laptops, gaming desktops, workstations and other high-quality computing devices, plus assistance with many of the upgrades our clients often want to make to their machines. What is overclocking, which components within a given computer setup are generally eligible for it, and what are some of its benefits and drawbacks depending on your needs? Here’s an extensive primer, including how to determine whether or not overclocking is worth your time and effort.
Overclocking Basics and Uses As we noted above, overclocking is the boosting of a computer component so it performs at a higher level than its factory defaults. The primary boosted aspect here will be clock speed, which speaks to the precise speed of the component, but it won’t always be the only area that’s adjusted.
By boosting clock speed, the goal is to get greater performance out of them. There are a few different components you can consider overclocking for your computer, which we’ll go over next.
Eligible Components There are a few different computer components you can overclock:

• Processor: Also called the CPU, you may be able to overclock the processor on your machine – if this is something that’s acceptable on the manufacturer end. Take AMD, for instance, which is largely compatible with overclocking – most of their CPUs are capable of overclocking, including their recent Ryzen series. Intel, on the flip side, is highly restrictive in their allowances for overclocking, mostly limiting this to their K-series or X-series processors while other products cannot be overclocked. If you’re able to overclock the CPU, and especially if you use a high-end cooling solution, you could be exposed to major performance improvements – but this process is also relatively complex, and might not even be possible if you haven’t been trained on how to perform it.
• RAM: RAM can also often be overclocked, but the level of benefit you’ll see from this may vary. If you’re upgrading to newer RAM standards such as DDR4, overclocking could easily be viable and show you major changes in applications; in many other cases, though, overclocking RAM doesn’t actually lead to much change at all. And in a totally different bin, there are certain AMD APUs where overclocking the RAM is absolutely vital and highly recommended.
• Graphics card: Abbreviated GPU, the graphics card in your computer is also usually capable of being overclocked. No major manufacturer locks these – however, just like RAM, there are often questions about how much benefit you’ll really see from overclocking the GPU. Performance gains tend to be moderate at best, and results are inconsistent across various GPUs. It’s totally possible that you’ll see improvements here, but just as possible you’ll actually see your GPU get worse due to overclocking. But due to software like MSI that makes it easy to overclock a graphics card, plus many resources online for this purpose, this is probably the most common form of overclocking done today.
• Monitor: In some cases, you can overclock the display on your computer. This is often a process of running it at a higher refresh rate, and it often relates to monitors that are marketed to have a certain refresh rate, but are actually known to have higher capacity based on product reviews and tests. There are simple tools within AMD or NVIDIA monitors to overclock them, allowing you to test out various refresh rates and find the best one.

Benefits of Overclocking Here are some possible benefits of overclocking computer components:

• Performance: In many cases, overclocking elements of the computer allow for improved performance. This can be especially true for CPU and RAM overclocking.
• Savings: While this was truer a decade ago than it is today, you can find savings through overclocking. For instance, take the Ryzen 2600 and 2600X – these are basically identical products, but the X comes at a higher cost. But if you simply overclock the 2600, it will close this gap and function identically, so you can save the money on the 2600X.

Possible Downsides of Overclocking At the same time, there could be some basic downsides of overclocking:

• Temperature increases: Higher performance naturally means more power is needed, and this tends to increase temperatures. Many overclocking setups must come with high-quality cooling to compensate for this.
• Lifespan: If your overclocking is stable, you don’t have to worry about this. However, if you’re not cautious when overclocking and allow for an unstable overclock, component lifespan will decrease.
• Stability: While these situations are rare, there are sometimes issues with stability for overclocks.
• Spending: If you want to overclock many components, especially CPU or RAM, you will have to have a compatible motherboard. This, in turn, will cost more money in a lot of cases.

Is it Worth It? So given all these factors, is overclocking worth it to you? The answer really depends. In many cases, GPU and display overclocking are definitely worth it due to their low costs; RAM overclocking costs more and is more complex, and there are many scenarios where you’ll just want to buy more RAM instead, but there are also others where overclocking will be beneficial. CPU overclocking, meanwhile, is the most expensive, but also the type that tends to bring the greatest performance benefits – this honestly depends on the specifics of your situation and how much you’re willing to spend.
For more on whether overclocking is the right choice for your gaming computer or any of our other products, or to learn about our custom laptops, desktops and workstations, speak to the staff at Walter today. Shop now @ https://www.waltercomputer.com/?store-page=search​
​

For computer gamers who play games that involve large amounts of text or graphics, you may have experienced a common issue known as bottlenecking. Referring to a situation where your FPS (frames per second) rate drops due to an overload of graphics or text that cannot be processed properly, bottleneck is known to take place for both CPU and GPU situations – but there are things you can do about it.
At Walter, we’re proud to offer not only a wide selection of custom gaming computers, including limited edition options, but also assistance with graphics, FPS and any other issues your machine may be dealing with over time. What are CPU and GPU bottlenecks within a gaming computer, how are they caused, and how can you both monitor for them and reduce their likelihood? Here are some basics to keep in mind.
CPU and GPU Bottle neck In a broad sense, bottleneck within a CPU or GPU speaks to a situation where the data being sent for processing – or the data that can be processed in the processor simultaneously) – is limited. There is not enough capacity within the system to return processed data based on the amounts of data being sent out.
Within this realm, bottlenecks can take place both within the CPU (processor) and the GPU (graphics card). Here are some basics on each:

• CPU bottleneck: When the processor in your machine is too slow to process and transfer the data that’s being sent to it, CPU bottleneck can take place. In most of these cases, the graphics card will be too advanced for the processor that’s being used, and the CPU will not be able to process every game action, physics, UI, audio and other processes in real-time. CPU bottlenecking often takes place because data transfer speed has been capped.
• GPU bottleneck: On the flip side, pairing a high-level processor with a slower graphics card may also lead to bottlenecking, but within the graphics card. The processor will be moving so fast that the GPU does not have time to return processed data back.

Dependencies and Bottleneck Causes There’s a myth among some within the gaming world that the actual game you’re playing has nothing to do with your risks of a bottleneck – this simply isn’t true, and is a harmful misconception. While the processor or graphics card may both play a role, so might the games you choose.
To get a bit more specific, computer games today are either CPU- or GPU-dependent:

• CPU-dependent: Games that tend to have high FPS rates but low-resolution graphics, such as Minecraft, various iterations of Civilization, the Assassin’s Creed series, and others.
• GPU-dependent: Games that have higher frame rates and resolutions, and are paired with a high-end graphics card, are GPU-dependent. Examples include Dying Light, The Witcher 3, Borderlands 2 and many others.

If you play one of these types of games significantly more than the other, your machine should be tuned appropriately. Your setup should be based in large part on the games you play, meaning you won’t have to upgrade components.
Checking for Bottle necks For those who have experienced bottlenecks in the past, or are concerned about them moving forward, there are methods available for monitoring. Specifically, there are several forms of software, including those like MSI Afterburner, that will perform this monitoring for you. It will help you log both CPU and GPU usage while gaming – you can either do this manually or even keep the program monitoring window open while playing, seeing real-time updates on every load your CPU and GPU performs.
If you are reading your monitoring software and note high CPU usage and low GPU usage, this is often a sign of a CPU bottleneck – this often takes place for CPU-dependent games. On the flip side, if you see high GPU loads with low CPU usage, this is likely a GPU bottleneck based on a GPU-dependent game.
Methods for Remedying Bottleneck Concerns As we alluded to above, the solution for any CPU or GPU bottleneck is actually fairly simple: Balancing out the processing loads of both components so they are similar. When these two are in the same range and can handle the same capacities, neither will overload.
Now, the actual methods you use to remedy bottlenecks may vary. Here are some of your options:

• Increase resolution: For issues of CPU bottlenecks, one of the simplest and most common solutions is to increase the processing usage of the GPU – that is, to increase the resolution of the game’s graphics. Moving your graphics up to 4k resolution, if it’s lower than this to begin with, will cause the GPU to take more time to render processed data, putting it more in line with the CPU speed-wise.
• RAM overclocking: RAM and CPU processing are closely related, and one strategy here is overclocking RAM. This will boost performance and FPS.
• CPU overclocking: Another form of overclocking is for the CPU, which will offer more breathing room for the processor.
• Background processes: Another common method for CPU bottlenecks is to close out background processes that might be eating into your speeds. You might be surprised how much your FPS will increase once you’ve done this.
• Lower CPU-bound settings: Within many games, you can lower CPU-bound settings if you’re dealing with bottlenecks that don’t have other solutions. Settings like draw distance, vegetation, population density and others can be adjusted.

For more on how to deal with CPU or GPU bottlenecks in your gaming computer, or to learn about any of our custom computing or workstation options, speak to the staff at Walter today.