Windows 10 build 10122 marks the arrival of something like a first beta Build of Windows 10.  (Build 10130 has a bit more polish, new icons, but has the same issues as 10122.) As such, one can now start to ask the question how will my favorite games fare under Windows 10?  Back when Windows 8 came out many people from corporate IT to Gamers said "We'll wait for Windows 9".  Microsoft has skipped to 10 and kept the live tiles and touch friendly aspects of the interface it was fashionable to hate about Windows 8 and 8.1.  Leaving aside the cosmetic changes needed for a world where people will interact in ways that aren't mouse centered, but still use a mouse from time to time, Windows 10 is a absolute improvement over Windows 7 and 8 for most purposes. 

Gaming is different from most uses of a computer. 

Gaming requires hardware fit for simulating real life science and engineering situations.  A modern game will be online and multi player meaning it has to be able to pass high bit rate data streams.  High frame rate 3D simulations with realistic physics have to be rendered in real time and kept in sync.  Since Windows 8 Mobile Class games have been native to the PC.  Those games have different needs some are comparable to 3D games on a PC. 


My informal test

For my informal test I used a sample of three games which are representative of games the average gamer is likely to have.  

Microsoft Flight Simulator X released in 2006 when Windows XP SP2 was current and Windows Vista was in development.  

Creative Assemblies Shogun 2 Total War released in the last days of Windows 7 and Windows 8 was about to come out.  Windows 8 had some problems running it, but updates fixed those. 

Creative Assemblies Rome 2 Total War released in 2013.  It is a couple of years old but it is a Windows 8 aware game typical of most such games.  It even has provided for touch based interaction.  That is unusual for a traditional PC game. 

My data and observations are in this video.  (An updated video showing build 10130 is on the way.)



Flight simulator X would not work until the setting was changed to force it to use Direct X 10.  Shogun 2 shows graphics corruption no matter what settings I choose.  Rome 2 works as expected.  Same results with 10130.



Conclusions 

Games which use Direct X 9 will will have problems with Windows 10.  Games which use Direct X 10 or latter will fare better in Windows 10.  Some games will need to be patched for it by the developer.  Unsupported but still playable older games may suffer in the transition to Windows 10.  

Since Windows 10 will be the last Windows ever according to Microsoft.  This could be a problem.  Gamers should consider keeping a Windows 7 or 8 PC, or dual boot with those OS's, to game on and ensure that older DirectX 9 and earlier games will work as intended. 


One more thing:
The most significant change for most common computer use will be that Windows now has a good HTML5 compliant browser.  It even works for writing a blog here.