This is how Microsoft combines Windows and Xbox for laptops

Microsoft and Asus have just announced two ROG Xbox Ally devices which include a new Xbox experience with full screen for pocket computers. After promising to combine “The best of Xbox and Windows together“For pocket computers at the start of this year, Microsoft now reveals exactly how it revises the Xbox application, the game bar and the windows itself to better compete with Steamos.

Microsoft has necessary to respond to Steamos Since the launch of the steam game three years ago, and it has regularly refined its Xbox application and the Xbox game bar on Windows to make the two most user -friendly. But there has always been a more important overhaul of windows, and we are starting to see games today.

“The reality is that we do 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 At Moment that we just really excited to put the hands of players,” Says Roanne Sons Corporate vice president of gaming devices and ecosystem at xbox, in a briefing with The penis.

Microsoft has demonstrated this friendly combination of Windows and Xbox in a briefing earlier this week, but it was a virtual demo, so we have not been able to try it completely. It all starts by starting directly in a new Xbox full screen experience on these Rog Xbox Ally devices which focuses on the Xbox application and the game bar, as well as the launcher for all your PC games – Yes even those with steam.

“We have been able to take people who have worked on the Xbox OS for 20 years or more and make them work directly on the Windows code base and start reinventing what this operating system is like for this shape factor,” explains Jason Beaumont, vice-president of experiences at Xbox. “These two things have combined led us to build a lot of features.”

The full screen experience Xbox is actually the compact mode of the Xbox application taking total control of the Rog Xbox Ally devices, instead of the Windows desktop and the familiar taskbar. “When the player puts himself in the full screen experience, there are a whole bunch of Windows stuff that are not loaded,” explains Beaumont. “We do not load the office wallpaper, the taskbar or a bunch of processes that are really designed around productivity scenarios for Windows.”

You can always leave this full screen mode and start the full version of the Windows desktop, but by default, it will be hidden. “We have reduced many notifications and pop-ups, and we will continue to listen to players’ comments to make continuous improvements,” explains Sons.

The Xbox application itself in full screen mode looks very much like what exists on Windows at the moment, except that the library is now full of all your Steam PC games and other stores, alongside Xbox Play AnyWhere and Game Pass. Where it becomes really interesting is the game bar.

“We have made many improvements to the game bar in the past year, and she was really going to this device,” said Brianna Potvin, principal in software engineering in Xbox. A short press the Xbox button on the Ally Xbox devices displays the play bar interface, and you can use it to access the device settings such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, the Asus control center interface and even Microsoft’s new Gaming co -pilot. If you press the Xbox button for a long time, you will even get a more user -friendly task switch, which allows you to the ALT + tab between applications and games using the controller.

I will have to try this new interface entirely to really have an idea of ​​Windows changes here, but Microsoft promises that it is not only lipstick above Windows. “These are not changes at the surface, we have made significant improvements,” explains Potvin. “Some of our first tests with the components that we deactivated in Windows, we get about 2 GB of memory to return to games while operating in the full screen experience.”

This is a good step to improve the performance of windows on pocket computers, but one of the large feedback pieces around the pocket experience is the sleep situation where the devices fed by windows often attract far too much battery life when inactive.

“If you start your device in the full screen experience and put it down and you are going to sleep, it draws a third of the slower draw if it was starting the same device in the desktop experience (Windows),” says Potvin. Microsoft is still focusing on battery life and electrical efficiency for this full screen mode, so we could even see other improvements before the devices are dispatched later this year. Microsoft has also made improvements to the Windows locking screen, so you can use a controller to log into a PIN code or navigate this part of Windows.

This Xbox Update application will now work as a launcher for all your PC games, but you can always interact with Windows applications and these other launchers freely in this full -free screen experience. Let us say that Microsoft “works in close collaboration with the main windows to have them optimize their experience in full screen”, to allow everyone to easily play a complete library of PC games in Steam, Epic Games Store and elsewhere.

“The Associate Games Library in Xbox on PC will be available for all Windows 11 devices,” explains Sones, you will soon be able to see all your Steam games in the Xbox application on any PC.

Microsoft also creates its own version of Valve’s Valve Steam Deck program, allowing you to see which games are optimized for pocket computers like Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. You can also access your full Xbox console library, but most console games will not play native, unless there is a PC version or their PC version.

The best part of all these Windows changes is that you will not necessarily need a new device to benefit from it. “The full screen experience Xbox will first arrive at the Rog Xbox Ally and the Rog Xbox Ally X, and our next goal will be to update the Ally Rog Ally and the Rog Ally X,” explains Sones. “Similar Xbox experiences will be held on other Windows porting computers, from next year.”

The valve is also Support Steamos on the ally RogWe should therefore be able to compare the valve and the portable operating systems of Microsoft on the same equipment soon. We do not yet know if Microsoft has done enough to prevent other PC manufacturers from being tempted in Steamos Like LenovoBut Microsoft’s efforts are really putting a battle between Windows and Linux for the future of portable games.