- Microsoft has an initiative to improve the quality of drivers
- Intel's new Wi-Fi driver for Windows 11 contains the first glimpse of this
- More should come soon from Intel and others, and the initiative should help not just with stability, but also the performance of Windows 11
Remember Microsoft's plan to improve the quality of drivers in Windows 11? Work is well underway on this scheme, and Intel appears to be ahead of the rest of the pack in implementing this.
It's broadly known as Microsoft's Driver Quality Initiative (DQI), and Windows Latest reports that Intel has already begun to follow these new rules with its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers for Windows 11.
The tech site has dug into Intel's wireless drivers and notes that they "follow early DQI practices", although the full scope of this initiative has yet to be implemented.
Nonetheless, it's good to see that the cogs are whirring on this effort, and in Intel's release notes for a recent Wi-Fi driver for Windows 11 (v24.50.0), the company said that it was applying "enhancements aligned with Microsoft's Windows ecosystem quality initiative."
With any luck, a couple of months down the line we'll see this work come to fruition, and Intel's GPU drivers should be due for the same treatment.
Windows Latest observes that Intel is set to work on its Arc drivers and knock them into shape for the DQI, too — and Team Blue has already added support for Windows 11 26H2 with its October graphics driver update.
PC hardware makers are already testing their drivers and working on DQI compliance actively. However, so far Intel is the only company to actually release an update to the computing public running Windows 11 that has benefited from this polishing.
Analysis: better quality goes beyond stability
What does the Driver Quality Initiative really mean? It should usher in a new era of more stable drivers for Windows 11, and therefore fewer crashes with the OS. Microsoft is focusing on upping the bar for reliability with Windows drivers that are provided by third-party hardware makers like Intel, but DQI goes beyond that.
This isn't just about preventing crashes, or wonky Windows 11 updates, but also ensuring tighter security, and that there's a higher quality of drivers coming through which don't drag down performance levels (or cause overheating issues with laptops, meaning combating excessive battery drain, too). Outdated drivers, or those that don't meet the new quality bar, will be unceremoniously ditched from Microsoft's OS.
It sounds like a big step forward for stability with Windows 11 in general, and as I've long argued now, this is an area where Microsoft has a serious problem in terms of the public perception of its desktop OS. I still think Microsoft must address issues around policing its own updates for Windows 11, though, and internal QA and testing processes.
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