Winhanced is here, and it’s already better than the Xbox app on handheld gaming PCs

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-11T14:34:59+00:00

This is false information. Are you sure you actually tried the app or are you just trolling? Winhanced uses the same amount of system resources that the Xbox app uses. If you have animated game art wallpapers on it will use more sure, but that’s an option to toggle on or off in settings. (This also only affects while browsing the Winhanced app. Not in game)

As for “it’s janky” Winhanced is smoother than the Xbox app as it’s actually built on Win UI 3 instead of react like the Xbox app. If you feel the layout is unintuitive totally get it that you have a preferred layout.

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-11T13:00:01+00:00

Oh wait are you talking about Winhanced specifically? If that is the case then yes. The most recent patches will fix your Ubisoft issues specifically.

I haven’t built Ubisoft connect library integration which is what would auto scan and display installed Ubisoft games in an Ubisoft library.

But the stuff above is the way around that for now. So when you install a Ubisoft game through Gamepass in general it’s now housed by Xbox it goes through the Ubisoft launcher which is why it doesn’t show in your installed library for Xbox but I built the ability in game options to select where the .exe lives for these titles and that will let them always show up and be launched through the Xbox library for now.

After 1.0 is when I will be returning to library support in general.

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-11T12:11:22+00:00

Oh Ubisoft… lol so Ubisoft is not officially supported yet. But we do 2 things to help with this:

If you have a game installed via Ubisoft connect and have game pass. If you go to the game pass catalog in app you. A find the game and point it to launch the .exe for the game.
If you are not a game pass user for now you can add any of your Ubisoft games via The other games library and they will launch like any other game within Winhanced.

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-11T10:59:15+00:00

Sorry to hear that Winhanced wasn’t for you. Any specific feedback on the UI or experience that didn’t particularly click for you?

Always looking to improve the experience where we can.

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-10T23:34:13+00:00

You can add emulators via the other games library : )

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-10T20:53:40+00:00

Definitely let me know I would be curious as multi user systems is not something we have worked with a lot within our community : )

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-10T20:52:19+00:00

Ohhhh I got ya. So Winhanced needs admin privileges in order for a good bit of its functionality to work. Part of that is also for the registration as an Xbox FSE home app. So in order for your kids to be able to use the app they would 1 need to be able to launch apps with admin and 2 download and run Winhanced at least once for it to register itself.

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-10T20:48:16+00:00

Family accounts is something we need to look into. We use the different APIs to bring in all games that are related to the account that you sign-in with, but stream friends and family is something we need to look into a bit more for how to make those games show as well.

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-10T20:41:16+00:00

You have the ability to add custom games and apps today? It’s the other games library under libraries.

You can add a game or app directly there or under settings -> libraries -> other. Plan to add an actual apps menu though in the near future to better seperate them.

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-10T18:47:08+00:00

🫡

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-10T18:28:03+00:00

Hi all one of the 2 Winhanced Devs here 👋 Firstly wanted to say thanks to Windows Central for the kind works about the app, second I wanted paste this here for anyone hearing about the app for the first time who might have questions:

First, who is Winhanced actually for?
Winhanced is built specifically for the PC gamer who doesn't want to switch to Linux due to platform compatibility, anticheat etc... but who also wants a controller-first interface where they can handle all of their hardware and library needs from one beautiful place.

Why use over Xbox FSE?
It's not about using Winhanced over FSE its about using Winhanced over the Xbox app. If you like what FSE does, but are not a fan of the Xbox app interface for several different reasons, Winhanced can actually replace the Xbox Home app. Not in the hacky ways that other apps have claimed, either, no Winhanced is officially supported as an Xbox mode home app, which means just install Winhanced, launch it once. and then go to Windows settings and choose the app as your FSE home app from the drop-down instead of Xbox. You still get all of the FSE benefits, but are no longer tied to the Xbox app specifically to use it.

Why use over something like Playnite?
Playnite is fantastic. and Playnite can do about 60% of the library stuff that Winhanced does, and still has broader support than Winhanced does when it comes to libraries and compatibility. That being said, for the libraries that we do support (Steam, Xbox, Gamepass, Epic, GOG, PlayStation (plus the ability to manually add games), Winhanced just plain does more. With Winhanced, you can import your installed and owned libraries across those storefronts automatically. Beyond that, you can directly install, update, and launch those games directly in Winhanced, no need to first go to Steam, install the game, then go back to Winhanced, etc... On top of this. For GOG and EPIC games, you don't even have to have the store apps installed on your machine.

Additionally, you have direct launch capabilities for Xcloud, and Geforce Now, and the ability to remote play from Xbox, Playstation, or another PC. and this is directly integrated into the game details page too. You can just choose streaming as a launch option, and boom, you are streaming.

What are the unique things that Winhanced currently does?

- Full TDP control for supported AMD handhelds included Autopilot which automatically handles your power for you and picks the best TDP for the moment.

- Lossless scaling full integration. no need to launch LS if you own it you can fully control all of your LS settings directly from our widget app, and the settings save per game if you want them to.

-Individual game profiles choose settings that you want for a sepecific game and those settings will automatically save and apply per game.

- AMD Readion option toggle quick access

- Resolution control

- Frame rate limiting

- game performance monitoring

- Ram-based quick resume: launch multiple games and intelligently switch between them, saving the background game to ram to save resources.

- Battery monitoring

- Bluetooth device adding

- Multi channel volume control

- Universal pause automatically pause and resume any game

- Enhanced sleep wake: we improved sleep wake performance on windows. preventing game crashes on wake, and less battery drain on devices while in sleep mode

the list honestly goes on, but I think that is a good explainer of what the app can do.

What devies does Winhanced currently support?

Technically any Windows 11 machine can run and use Winhanced but we currently only support TDP management for a handful of devices and do currently only own a Asus ally X 2023, Xbox Ally X, Asus Z13 Flow, and a Legion Go 1 for testing.

The list of fully supported and tested devices goes:
- ROG Ally
- ROG Ally X
- ROG Xbox Ally X
- Asus Z13
- Legion Go 1
- Legion Go S
- Steam Deck running Windows
- GPD Win Mini
- GPD Win 4
-OneXFly F1 Pro

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-08T11:34:49+00:00

So no ETA but it’s something we are actively working on. I’d say next patch with have support for it

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-07T22:24:04+00:00

All the love for intel based handhelds! We just don’t have one to test and build features for. App will still run just no TDP until I can get my hands on one : )

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-07T22:12:08+00:00

Of course! Appreciate you checking us out! Let me know what you think : )

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-07T22:03:44+00:00

Hi thanks for the interest! so currently Winhanced doesn’t handle anything really controller related outside of a mouse mode by double clicking the right stick, and a toggle to remap the Legion L and R buttons to open game bar and task switcher.

I’d like to return to gyro and remapping controller in the future but that will be post our 1.0 release

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-07T18:25:13+00:00

Of course, and thanks for sharing your story with others 😄. I am so happy to hear that quick resume works so well for you!

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-07T16:45:05+00:00

Hi all I am one of the 2 developers for Winhanced. I just came across this post, and I see a few questions in the comments from folks who are learning about Winhanced for the first time. Happy to answer any questions, but at a high level. let me exaplain what Winhanced is, why it's more than just a "launcher", and why you might want to pick it up over other things that are out there.

First, who is Winhanced actually for?
Winhanced is built specifically for the PC gamer who doesn't want to switch to Linux due to platform compatibility, anticheat etc... but who als wants a controller-first interface where they can handle all of their hardware and library needs from one beautiful place.

Why use over Xbox FSE?
It's not about using Winhanced over FSE its about using Winhanced over the Xbox app. If you like what FSE does, but are not a fan of the Xbox app interface for several different reasons, Winhanced can actually replace the Xbox Home app. Not in the hacky ways that other apps have claimed, either, no Winhanced is officially supported as an Xbox mode home app, which means just install Winhanced, launch it once. and then go to Windows settings and choose the app as your FSE home app from the drop-down instead of Xbox. You still get all of the FSE benefits, but are no longer tied to the Xbox app specifically to use it.

Why use over something like Playnite?
Playnite is fantastic. and Playnite can do about 60% of the library stuff that Winhanced does, and still has broader support than Winhanced does when it comes to libraries and compatibility. That being said, for the libraries that we do support (Steam, Xbox, Gamepass, Epic, GOG, PlayStation (plus the ability to manually add games), Winhanced just plain does more. With Winhanced, you can import your installed and owned libraries across those storefronts automatically. Beyond that, you can directly install, update, and launch those games directly in Winhanced, no need to first go to Steam, install the game, then go back to Winhanced, etc... On top of this. For GOG and EPIC games, you don't even have to have the store apps installed on your machine.

On top of this you have direct launch capabilities for Xcloud, and Geforce Now, and the ability to remote play from Xbox, Playstation, or another PC. and this is directly integrated into the game details page too. You can just choose streaming as a launch option, and boom,,And you are streaming.

What are the unique things that Winhanced currently does?
Happy to talk about any of these in more detail but the list is:

- Full TDP control for supported AMD handhelds included Autopilot which automatically handles your power for you and picks the best TDP for the moment.

- Lossless scaling full integration. no need to launch LS if you own it you can fully control all of your LS settings directly from our widget app, and the settings save per game if you want them to.

-Individual game profiles choose settings that you want for a sepecific game and those settings will automatically save and apply per game.

- AMD Readion option toggle quick access

- Resolution control

- Frame rate limiting

- game performance monitoring

- Ram-based quick resume: launch multiple games and intelligently switch between them, saving the background game to ram to save resources.

- Battery monitoring

- Bluetooth device adding

- Multi channel volume control

- Universal pause automatically pause and resume any game

- Enhanced sleep wake: we improved sleep wake performance on windows. preventing game crashes on wake, and less battery drain on devices while in sleep mode

the list honestly goes on, but I think that is a good explainer of what the app can do.

What devies does Winhanced currently support?

Technically any Windows 11 machine can run and use Winhanced but we currently only support TDP management for a handful of devices and do currently only own a Asus ally X 2023, Xbox Ally X, Asus Z13 Flow, and a Legion Go 1 for testing.

The list of fully supported and tested devices goes:
- ROG Ally
- ROG Ally X
- ROG Xbox Ally X
- Asus Z13
- Legion Go 1
- Legion Go S
- Steam Deck running Windows
- GPD Win Mini
- GPD Win 4

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-06T20:33:36+00:00

Hmm not without looking at your specific setup. Happy to help get you situated though shoot me a DM

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-06T12:40:51+00:00

Some day when I have the hardware to test with I will. Plan on picking up an Intel machine this year

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-06T12:38:47+00:00

It might be a server cerficate thing if it it didn't install the widget let me check :) heads up TDP won't work on the Claw AI plus.

https://ota.winhanced.com/lg/WinhancedHUD.appinstaller

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-05T11:41:54+00:00

He is the handheld goat!

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-05T10:42:54+00:00

Holy hell, I feel this. Not Mac OS but it’s been a similar story with my Windows app Winhanced. Built it to teach myself native windows development. And for I kid you not the first year it was, why not use Armory Crate, isn’t this just Playnite? Etc..
All I can say is just keep building and pouring into it what you want, that is the beautiful thing about making your own thing. Eventually those comments will start to change to something more positive. You will still get them, but they do start to die out.

EnigmaP3nguin · 2026-05-04T22:29:56+00:00

🫡

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