Microsoft adds telemetry to monitor Windows 11 sluggishness in latest beta, dev builds — logs reportedly only sent when users submit feedback

Microsoft seems to be taking Windows 11's performance more seriously, particularly feedback regarding the operating system's responsiveness. The company has introduced new telemetry that logs system sluggishness in preview builds of Windows. According to a blog post, Microsoft has incorporated new telemetry into the latest dev and beta builds of Windows 11 that monitors and records OS sluggishness. Windows 11 25H2 will also reportedly have the feature built in.

Windows 11's new sluggishness telemetry will automatically detect performance hiccups and log them to the %systemRoot%\Temp\DiagOutputDir\Whesvc folder. The logs are designed specifically for the Feedback Hub, and will be included when users submit feedback within the app regarding slowness/performance-related problems within Windows 11. The new telemetry changes should help Microsoft track down performance-related issues and provide accelerated updates featuring performance improvements for Windows 11.

Of course, from Microsoft's perspective, the company has been focusing on improving Windows 11's performance since the operating system came out. In 2021, Microsoft detailed how Windows 11 was faster than Windows 10, featuring a number of under-the-hood changes to make the OS more snappy. One of these features included an improved resource management system that gave foreground functions greater priority compared to prior versions of Windows.

However, despite these changes, Windows 11's performance improvements have been controversial, even if Microsoft's optimizations are legitimate. A quick Google search on the topic reveals a number of forum posts, articles, reports, and more complaining about performance issues in Windows 11, ranging from gaming performance issues to general sluggishness surrounding Windows 11's UI.

Not helping matters is Microsoft's latest attempt to tell users that Windows 11 is over twice as fast as Windows 10, using different hardware to compare each operating system. Its latest attempt used the Geekbench 6 multi-core benchmark to test Windows 10 PCs sporting Intel 6th - 10th Gen Core i-series processors against Windows 11 PCs sporting significantly newer 12th and 13th Gen Core i-series processors.