Microsoft targets SteamOS-level gaming performance with Windows K2

Microsoft is reportedly using SteamOS as a direct benchmark for Windows 11 gaming performance under an internal quality initiative called Windows K2. In an April 26 report, Windows Central said the project is not a new boxed release of Windows but a longer-running effort to fix performance, reliability, and general Windows 11 bloat through a stream of platform changes.

The gaming angle is the part that matters most to PC players. According to the report, Microsoft believes Windows should be able to compete head-to-head with SteamOS on identical hardware within the next year or two, with foundational work beginning to land in the coming months. That is a notable admission because it suggests Microsoft no longer treats Linux gaming as a niche curiosity. SteamOS is now being framed internally as the performance target Windows has to catch.

K2 is broader than frame rate alone. Windows Central said the initiative also covers sluggish system behavior in places like File Explorer, a stricter internal quality bar before new features reach public builds, and a wider push to reduce the sense that Windows 11 keeps adding overhead without fixing basics. In other words, Microsoft appears to be tying gaming performance to a larger cleanup of latency, responsiveness, and operating-system trust.

The Reddit reaction was split in a predictable way. Some players welcomed the competition and said any move that cuts wasted overhead is good news. Others argued that raw performance gains will not matter much if Windows 11 keeps shipping unwanted background features and extra bloat, and several comments pointed out the irony that Linux can sometimes run Windows games faster through Proton than Windows does natively. That skepticism is precisely why K2 matters. If Microsoft cannot show real gains on the machines people already own, “SteamOS as benchmark” will read as a slogan rather than a reset.