Microsoft appears to have decided to jump on the upscaling train in a big way. The latest Windows 11 24H2 Insider build just showed up, sporting a new feature: AI-powered automatic super resolution tech. While the blurb underneath the feature indicates that it was made for games, it might be even more useful outside of them. However, there’s a major downside — it won’t be as widely available as it may seem.
The feature was first spotted by PhantomOcean3 on X (formerly Twitter), and it was quite a significant find, considering that Microsoft is apparently keeping this one pretty well hidden. To enable it, users have to go through the following path: Settings > System > Display > Graphics. While it’s perhaps not very intuitive to find, the feature itself could turn out to be quite promising. The so-called “Auto SR” can be enabled across the board or only in certain apps. One of the screenshots shared by PhantomOcean3 shows it being enabled in Microsoft’s Camera app. It’s easy to imagine that using Auto SR within these types of apps will prove to be more useful than using it to upscale AAA games.
Upscaling has become a big deal in gaming, but most modern games already feature some type of super resolution tech, be it Nvidia’s DLSS, AMD’s FSR, or Intel’s XeSS. However, Microsoft’s new solution could be helpful in apps like media players or browsers, not to mention older games that will likely never receive support for DLSS or FSR.
The new tech will require a GPU with tensor cores, meaning one of Nvidia’s top GPUs from the RTX 20 series or later. Alternatively, a processor with NPU cores can be used, like the recent Intel Meteor Lake or the upcoming Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake CPUs. Seeing as the hardware required to run Microsoft’s Auto SR is all quite new, the potential for using it in gaming scenarios is limited. Most people using Auto SR will also have access to, presumably, better upscaling tech from GPU vendors. However, Auto SR may turn out to be useful as a feature that affects most apps without needing to rely on Nvidia’s RTX Video or AMD’s FSR.
The Windows 11 24H2 build is said to come out later this year. While many expected this major update to be called Windows 12, Microsoft has recently confirmed that we’re getting a patch to Windows 11 as opposed to a whole new operating system. We’ll have to wait and see whether Auto SR makes it into the final update.
Microsoft’s February 2025 cumulative update brings much-needed relief to Windows 11 users, fixing Auto HDR issues that caused game crashes, audio output disruptions, and USB webcam detection problems, as reported by Bleeping Computer. The patch, KB5051987 for Windows 11 24H2 users and KB5051989 for 23H2 addresses these irritating bugs and is mandatory. The update fixes the Auto HDR problem that interfered with the colors and caused game crashes, improving the gaming experience. Furthermore, the update fixes a bug that cut off audio output, especially if you were using a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), though others were affected. Moreover, a rare issue displayed a “This device cannot start” message, but you may not have seen that one.
Microsoft is making clear that its strategy to retire Windows 10 later this year will proceed as planned, and that its primary focus after that will be Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs. To that end, the brand shared all the developments we can expect in a forward-looking blog post. Considering how focused Microsoft is on getting people to finally upgrade to Windows 11, it’s hard to imagine that Windows 12 is anything more than a distant prospect at this point. “Windows 10 will reach the end of its life cycle on October 14, 2025. After this date, Windows 10 PCs will no longer receive security or feature updates, and our focus is on helping customers stay protected by moving to modern new PCs running Windows 11,” says Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer.
The latest Windows 11 update, codenamed 24H2, has been a troubled rollout for Microsoft, but one thing’s been clear from the beginning: PC gamers should wait to install it. Let’s add another issue to the list, shall we? As spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft has confirmed in an update to its Windows 11 24H2 problems page, that Windows 11 24H2 is causing issues with its Auto HDR feature. The result of the bug is that incorrect colors are being displayed or, even worse, are breaking games entirely and causing them to not be responsive.
