Leaked Windows 11 gaming handheld UI hints at long-overdue fix ahead of ROG Xbox Ally launch — and it’s about time

News
By published

It’s giving me hope for Windows 11 handhelds in the future

ROG Xbox Ally
(Image credit: Microsoft / Asus)

As we’ve been saying for a long time now, Windows 11 is not a good time on a gaming handheld. Microsoft has been listening, and we’ve seen promises of a drastically different version launching with the ROG Xbox Ally — stripping away the desktop and background processes in favor of a new UI when a gaming handheld is detected.

Well, today, we got an even clearer look at how this will work, as someone has found references in Windows 11 to a new out-of-the-box experience UI for Windows 11 when it's running on a handheld. This change is long overdue, but I’m so glad it’s finally happening.

What has been spotted?

As found by Phantom on X, Build 26200 of Windows 11 has spotted a UI screen that looks similar to the startup process when you first fire up a PC, but the standard laptop or desktop icon has been replaced by a handheld.

On top of that, Windows latest dug into the code and found “references” to a new “GamePad optimized UI.” I won’t go into the nitty-gritty of the code itself, but what it will do is detect if you’re on a handheld and flip the UI accordingly — giving you prompts based on the A/B/X/Y buttons (“Press A to continue” and “Press B to go back” are mentioned).

This is all done via a hardware abstraction layer, which basically asks the device to identify itself before proceeding further. If it is identified as a “GamepadBasedDevice,” then you’ll go straight into this version of Windows.

Finally, some competition for Steam OS?

Asus ROG Ally X

(Image credit: Future)

As you'll find in our Asus ROG Ally X review, we said "Windows 11 is the enemy of handheld gaming" for good reason.

Device makers are quick to make their own workarounds that overlaid, but you always had to interact with a desktop-class UI on a tiny screen, background processes drained the battery life, and I still can’t get over the setup process trying to sell me Office 365 on a gaming handheld.

Still of Task Switcher on Xbox UI overlay

(Image credit: Asus / Xbox)

It’s clear that the ROG Xbox Ally and Microsoft’s accelerated development are in response to Steam OS expanding to devices like the Lenovo Legion Go S, and the moves being made are incredibly encouraging. The app switcher and task bar simplify things immensely.

From not even loading the desktop background processes on startup to presenting a console-esque UI to play, this is what we’ve been asking for over the past 18 months now. Of course, this will just be coming to Asus’ new device at first, but it will be expanding to new handhelds in 2026.

Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.

More from Tom's Guide

Jason England
Jason England
Managing Editor — Computing

Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.