The ROG Xbox Ally is ashamed of Home windows

Home windows 11 goes gamer mode

Scratch the floor of the brand new Xbox Ally and also you’ll see it’s operating Home windows, which comes with as many issues because it solves (or extra). Now that we now have the Legion Go S, we are able to run head-to-head assessments on similar handhelds operating official builds of Home windows 11 and SteamOS—and SteamOS is healthier by a substantial margin, even should you don’t care about longer battery life or a smoother interface. (And on a tool that’s constructed on simple, quick entry to video games, you most likely do.) 

So what’s the answer should you’re Microsoft? Or, certainly, any of its {hardware} companions who wish to promote Home windows-powered handhelds? For the higher a part of a yr, we’ve been listening to about how Home windows goes to get higher on these low-power, gaming-focused devices. The total-screen Xbox app interface is a giant step, which is clearly attempting to adapt a few of the work Valve has put into SteamOS. And it’s not going to be unique to the ROG Xbox Ally, as Microsoft has already mentioned it’ll be obtainable to different handheld gaming PCs in 2026, shortly after the Asus launch. 

A recent UI is sweet information for anybody who dreads having to edit .ini information on a 7-inch touchscreen. The second a part of the equation is slimming down Home windows itself. In keeping with Microsoft VP Jason Beaumont, the ROG Xbox Ally is basically operating a slimmed-down model of Home windows 11 when it boots into that Xbox interface.

Home windows 11 Dwelling continues to be there, ready simply beneath the gaming veneer. However plenty of the gears that hold Home windows suitable with software program that was written 30 years in the past are saved dormant till you turn to the common desktop mode. “When the participant boots into the full-screen expertise, there’s a entire bunch of Home windows stuff that doesn’t get loaded,” Beaumont advised The Verge. “We’re not loading the desktop wallpaper, the taskbar, or a bunch of processes which are actually designed round productiveness situations for Home windows.”

“Gamers,” not “customers,” I discover. And although Xbox-branded software program and the Xbox Sport Cross service can be front-and-center within the interface, it’ll routinely populate your recreation library with titles from Steam, Epic, and different digital storefronts. This aggregated omnibus of native and streaming video games would be the new customary for the Xbox app, on desktops and handhelds. And based on Beaumont, different Home windows-powered handheld PCs will get the slimmed-down, gaming-focused launcher mode in 2026, too.