Microsoft's released a quick check to see whether your PC is ready for DirectStorage and next-gen gaming
You can check if your system is ready for DirectStorage(opens in new tab) right now thanks to a new preview of the Microsoft Game Bar feature in Windows 11. The Gaming Features tab in the settings menu will tell you whether your system is ready for DirectX 12 Ultimate, allow you to enable HDR and Auto HDR without diving into the myriad Windows settings screens, and now shows which parts of your system are and aren't ready for the next-gen DirectStorage feature.
It feels like we've been banging on about DirectStorage for an age, without there actually being anything to show for it. But that doesn't stop us from being genuinely excited about a new feature that will actually make the most of the speedy SSDs we've been jamming into our systems for years.
You can check for yourself how ready your system is for the new feature using an Insider preview build of Windows Game Bar. Don't worry, you don't need to switch your whole Windows installation around to a potentially flaky dev build, though you will need to enable Insider access on a Microsoft account. It's free, and simple to register for(opens in new tab).
Then you just need to download the Xbox Insider Hub from the Windows Store. Yeah, sorry, I'm going to make you go into the Store, I know that's not ideal. On one of the Windows 11 installs I tried this on my Store refused to download or install anything, no matter what I tried. So, apologies if you bang your head against that particular brick wall, too.
On my main system, however, Xbox Insider Hub installed immediately. So you might get lucky.
Once that's installed, click on the Preview tab and select the Windows Gaming preview. Once your signed up for that, you can then go back into the Library page of your Store and
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