Ever since around December 2020, every time Windows 10 installs Windows updates, FFXIV loses a great deal of performance. With every Windows update, FFXIV ran slower and slower.

Windows 10 installed updates yet again last night and now FFXIV lags so bad that it is literally unplayable. It took more than 10 minutes to even load into the game. And when I tried to do an expert roulette, the party members were complaining that it was taking so long for the duty to commence. This was because it took five minutes just for me to load into Paglth'an. In Paglth'an, the sound was cutting in and out constantly, AoEs and other mechanics were shown anywhere from 10 seconds to 30 seconds after they happened.

I did not even get to participate in the Lunar Bahamut fight, the music cut just before the dragons that you have to ride and none of the four dragons even loaded for me. By the time those dragons loaded for me, the other three completed the instance. And as soon as those dragons did load for me, my dragoon made a bunch of attack animations. Assuming those were delayed from the trash mobs just before the dragon ride.

FFXIV NEVER ran like shit before. It was getting slower with every Windows update, but last night's update made it far worse. It is literally unplayable.

With a PC that has specs well over the required for FFXIV, and the fact that in August 2020, I could stream the game and have zero lag, it is obvious that Microsoft is deliberately slowing down FFXIV with their updates.

I know other people play FFXIV on Windows, so I gotta ask, what do you all do to combat Microsoft deliberately slowing down the game? There has got to be something that you all are doing that reverses Microsoft's slow down that they put in their updates.