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This is how Microsoft is working with handheld PCs

The Xbox PC app: Where are we coming from? What are we going? What is going on with the XBOX PC app?

Something strange is going on with Microsoft’s Xbox app on Windows. The xbox PC app has begun showing console games inside the library. Alan Wake can be found if you own it as part of the “My PC Games” list on the Xbox PC app.

I don’t believe this is a simple bug, but more the result of Microsoft’s plans to more closely combine its Xbox and Windows stores. I wrote about this effort in March, when I revealed in Notepad that Microsoft is working with Asus on a Project Kennan handheld. At the time, I stated that it was part of a larger effort by Microsoft to unify Windows and Xbox towards a universal library of games for both PCs and consoles.

Over the past 12 months, Microsoft has been working to make the Xbox app the home of PC gaming and recently started referring to its XBOX PC app as simply “Xbox PC.” The new PC branding was first seen in an announcement by Microsoft of Gears of War: Reloaded and a new trailer for MIO: Memories In Orbit.

Valve is also supporting SteamOS on the ROG Ally, so we should be able to compare Valve and Microsoft’s handheld operating systems on the same hardware soon. It is not yet known if Microsoft has done enough to stop other PC makers from using SteamOS, but it is setting up a battle between Windows and Linux for the future of handheld gaming PCs.

“The reality is that we’ve made tremendous progress on this over the last couple of years, and this is really the device that galvanized those teams and got everybody marching and working towards a moment that we’re just really excited to put into the hands of players,” says Roanne Sones, corporate vice president of gaming Devices and ecosystem at Xbox, in a briefing with The Verge.

The Xbox full-screen experience is very much the compact mode of the Xbox app taking full control of the ROG Xbox Ally devices, instead of the familiar Windows desktop and taskbar. “When the player boots into the full-screen experience there is a whole bunch of Windows stuff that doesn’t get loaded,” says Beaumont. We are not loading the wallpaper, the taskbar, or the processes that are designed for Windows productivity scenarios.

You can still exit this full-screen mode and launch the full version of the Windows desktop, but by default it will by hidden away. “We’ve reduced many notifications and pop-ups, and we will continue to listen to feedback from players to make continued improvements,” says Sones.

Overview of the Xbox Ally Operating System, a Ubiquitous Gaming System, and the Playing of Windows on Windows 11 Devices

The improvement of Game Bar has been the main factor in the development of the device, says Brianna Potvin, a principal software engineering lead. A short press on the Xbox button on the Xbox Ally devices brings up the Game Bar interface, and you can use this to access device settings like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, Asus’ Command Center interface, and even Microsoft’s new Gaming Copilot. If you press on the button, you will get a task switcher that makes it easier to use the controller to switch between games and apps.

I’ll need to try this new interface fully to really get a feel for the Windows changes here, but Microsoft is promising that this isn’t just lipstick on top of Windows. Potvin says that the changes are not surface-level changes. We can run games while the components are turned off in Windows because we get 2 gigabytes of memory back to the games.

The sleep situation where Windows-powered devices draw too much battery life when they’re not being used is one of the big feedback points around the handheld experience.

“The aggregated gaming library within Xbox on PC will be available for all Windows 11 devices,” says Sones, so you’ll soon be able to see all of your Steam games within the Xbox app on any PC.