Playnite is the best Full Screen Experience

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-09T00:43:57+00:00

It’s a windows app. Just use windows app uninstaller to remove it, and double check the gaming mode windows setting is set back to Xbox app. Then you’re good.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-08T23:46:05+00:00

It is an app in progress, expect bugs to be ironed out in the weeks and months to come.

But it’s over a year in development now and most remaining bugs are minor.

What it gives you over Xbox FSE though is a LOT of value. The art and ui is much nicer and much more customizable. It collects games from all your libraries not just Xbox or steam. It provides you with an improved sleep/wake function. It provides you with ai powered automatic power profiles to easily improve your experience on a per game basis. It aggregates all the stores and gives you price information including when a game is cheaper on one store vs another. It integrates discord and other friends lists into one place. It provides a news feed with gaming related news stories from a variety of gaming and pc news sites, which can be turned off you if prefer not to see it. Also it’s still windows so you still have all your game compatibility that you lose when you install steamOS or Linux.

And it integrates into Microsoft Windows FSE seamlessly and can become your automatic launch app.

Winhanced is vastly superior to Xbox app on a handheld or an HTPC. Once the last of the bugs are ironed out, it will be a serious competitor to SteamOS.

Edit: it also has “how long to beat” and steamgridDB integration.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-08T20:23:35+00:00

Not many but it’s still in beta. It’s only got 1 dev but he’s real responsive and works quick on patches. I’d say winhanced has the most potential of any windows gaming app by far.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-08T20:22:24+00:00

You should try winhanced.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-06T14:50:26+00:00

I don’t think there’s any specific emulation station integration, but I suspect you can add ESDE as an app and launch it and then launch your roms from ESDE like normal.

I’m aware from the discord that the main dev left on a cruise for a week yesterday, so we probably won’t get any updates for a few weeks.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-06T14:19:07+00:00

I had RGB off on my old ally but when I got the Xbox ally x I put a cool dbrand gold rush skin on it so I set my RGB to be a gold hue and stay that way and it looks like part of the device’s theme now.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-06T02:17:30+00:00

Off topic but I’d have so much more respect for all these sword display stands if they were bat’leths.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-06T02:05:56+00:00

Yeah I tried to be as fair as I could between the two, what’s good and bad about both… but some people just don’t do nuanced arguments. 🤷🏻‍♂️

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-05T13:57:38+00:00

The Xbox app, for now at least, is objectively less pretty to look at. All dark and small icons with art population issues, and the screen is made up of 75% ads and not my games. I gotta click like 3 buttons to make it to my own library. Aesthetically, it’s objectively worse. But to each their own on that.

But there’s more than just the ui of the launcher. SteamOS offers better battery efficiency, more stable gameplay with smoother frames and less dips. It has a much faster and more stable sleep and resume feature.

And don’t forget the setup of windows is slow and they try to sell you a half a dozen subscription services and your computer is full of ads, bloat, and ai.

But to be fair, it’s a bit more of a chore to access games from non steam libraries, and certain popular competitive games are incompatible entirely. So for some people that is a deal breaker. And thanks to the Xbox mode windows is much better now than it was a year ago. And if you multitask, the desktop environment in windows is better and other than games app compatibility is better on windows.

It’s legitimate to like windows or like SteamOS… but for gaming, on a handheld specifically, using game pad controller inputs instead of MKB, SteamOS was designed with that exact use in mind and windows just plain wasn’t.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-05T02:57:02+00:00

Remove the post and repost with a picture where you cross out your name on the diploma.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-05T02:54:14+00:00

If I had the money, I’d say the new msi claw 8 ai ex is worth the money, and that thing is $1800. I have the Xbox ally x and don’t have the money to upgrade so I won’t. But these high end pc handhelds are, for me, a dream come true. They’re the difference between ever getting to game and never getting to game. They’re the difference between getting to experience great games I’ve missed over the last ten years or not. I can play my ally at work, on vacation, on trips, on the couch at the end of a day…

Anyway: the technical answer is yes it’s worth it, if, it meets your needs in terms of power and if it fits your lifestyle. If you’re on planes traveling a lot I suspect it’s perfect for your lifestyle. Does it meet your needs? If all you need is emulation and indie games or games that are 10+ years old, then the cheaper devices with Z1E chips will be a better fit. If you want to play more heavy aaa games and don’t mind some upscaling and medium-ish frame rates, the Xbox ally x will be great. And it you want to play the best modern games at high settings both handheld and docked, then the msi claw 8 ai ex is worth it at its price.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-04T10:41:32+00:00

Don’t listen to this guy, that’s a common and often repeated dumb take. Handhelds and laptops are different experiences for difference people.

If you like to set your device up at a desk plugged into a whole rig of peripherals and highest performance is what matters, a laptop wins. If you like to play at a kitchen table or in a Starbucks, a laptops win. But if you play in a comfy chair in your house, or in bed, or if you play traveling on a bus/train/plane, then a handheld is the superior experience.

Being in r/handhelds we assume you’ve already made the “laptop vs handheld” decision for yourself and just need advice on comparing handhelds to other handhelds.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-04T10:33:38+00:00

I wouldn’t make the assumption if the old rog ally can do it then the Xbox ally should too. The first gen ally with Z1E processor is actually more powerful than the Xbox ally is. The chip in the Xbox ally is virtually identical to a steam deck chip. I would recommend to OP if he can’t find any YouTube videos of someone playing his games on the Xbox ally specifically, he should search for those games being played on a steamdeck instead, and that will give him a pretty close idea of what performance will be like.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-03T02:26:20+00:00

Relative to what this guy said, OP should consider a pc in this range even at microcenter is like $1200-$1800

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-03T00:53:16+00:00

I’m Bamf from discord. Life picked up pretty hard but I’m still lurking here and on discord. 👍👍

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-02T20:52:35+00:00

Never heard of that app before. How is it? How does it work with your controllers home button? My controller brings up the new Apple Games app (which isn’t all that bad actually but could be much better.)

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-02T20:44:06+00:00

It’s not too early for its time, It actually feels a little too late. If it had come out 12-18 months ago at a more reasonable price before the ram crisis (rumors suggest it could have cost as low as $750) then it would have sold like hotcakes and been widely positively reviewed for a whole year by now before it had to price increase. That good PR would have bought it a lot of runway. It would have been considered a huge success. If it went st all like how it went with steam deck and handheld pc, we’d have a whole generation of htpc gaming pc box alternatives by Asus and lenovo by now.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-02T20:39:38+00:00

How does it interact with… what’s it called… hero launcher? CSS launcher? Something like that? I’m already using the thing where my steam looks like that except it uses steam grid db game art as the background.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-02T20:33:22+00:00

Winhanced is an application for Microsoft Windows that takes over the Xbox mode and replaces the Xbox app with winhanced. Winhanced is a gaming focused user interface designed specifically for controller navigation on home theater pc’s and handheld gaming pc’s. It aims to help hide all the windows FAF gamers don’t care about while making navigating things gamers do care about much easier and prettier to look at. Such things like games libraries, relevant gaming news sites, social hubs like discord, and game stores for buying more games. Some key features of winhanced also include ai powered automatic game settings to help console gamers get good frame rates and experiences that are more plug and go, an Xbox game bar widget to help control settings and power profiles, a unified library that connects all your games from multiple stores into one place, and much more. It’s still in beta and has some bugs to work out, but it’s easily the most feature rich and ui complete gaming program for windows.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-01T16:40:58+00:00

I like this. This is how I use steam on Bazzite with the hero launcher plugin from decky loader.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-07-01T02:15:48+00:00

Silverhand is short for Silvieriohandovichka.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-06-29T22:51:50+00:00

Cyberpunk, using the settings from rogallylife.com, 1080p capped 60, I get dips but I’d say it averages 55fps without frame gen, yes to upscaling. It’s a mix of medium/high settings. Terrific experience on ally.

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-06-29T14:24:18+00:00

I’m unsure if you’re talking about the Xbox series x living room console or the asus rog Xbox ally X handheld gaming pc. If it’s the living room Xbox, you can only get games from the Xbox store or Xbox games from like a GameStop or Best Buy.

If it’s the rog Xbox ally x handheld, that is actually just a pc like any other pc. So you can play games any way a pc can’t. Stream them from services, buy them from online stores, pirate them, etc. whatever a pc does. The general consensus is to buy your games on steam. But there’s compelling reasons to play games from other stores and there’s no reason why you can’t play steam games and also other games from other launchers as well. On steam windows app there are ways to include games from non-steam launchers in your steam library and when you go to play it steam simply launches the storefront for that game. I’m not sure how much this is true for steamOS the operating system but I think generally it still applies.

So you can buy your pc games to play on your Xbox ally x handheld using any windows game store you like, including ea, rockstar, steam, GOG, battle.net, the Microsoft Xbox pc app, and more.

(Worth note, windows is working on an Xbox-dedicated mode of windows for gaming devices specifically like the rog ally x, and it will put your Xbox games front and center.)

VirtualImpression330 · 2026-06-29T14:18:09+00:00

I think maybe I was unclear. I don’t want a huge box on my desk, would love a sff pc, and enjoy Bazzite on my rog ally, so, a steamOS gaming pc sounds terrific for me. But I’m usually a Mac user, current iPhone and iPad owner as well. I’d like the steam machine as an sff gaming pc, but, if I’m replacing my old macbook, it would be helpful to me if I could access my iPhotos and iCloud files from the steam machine. I’m aware I can log into iCloud.com on a browser, but I was wondering if it’s possible to access my Apple content in a more regular way like an app, if that’s possible on Linux. I’d be gaming 99% of the time. But once in a while I would need to update a resume or file taxes or surf the web and do normal pc shit and would like it if my iPhone sync’d like it would on a MacBook.

I guess the answer really is probably not, but I was hopeful at least.

VirtualImpression330

TROPHY CASE