- Microsoft’s new Xbox full -screen experience is already available on ASUS ROG ALLY via Windows 11 25H2 Preview and Solution
- The new full-screen experience is exclusive for ROG Xbox Ally until a possible 2026 roll-out to other devices
- Performance increases compared to the normal Windows 11 -Desktop mode is clear
It has come for a long time, but Microsoft is definitely competing with Valves Steamos with his new Xbox full shield experience. The handheld friendly user interface for games is a timed exclusive for ROG Xbox Ally, but we have already gained a glimpse of what it has to offer on other devices.
As reported by our friends at Windows Central, the original Asus Rog Ally can now run the new full-screen experience, with performance increases clearly compared to Windows 11’s desktop mode. It is available through a Reddit Guide (which requires Windows 11 25H2 Defanion and registry edits), long before its official release on the new ROG Xbox Ally.
This is important as Microsoft has made it clear that a roll -out to other handhelds will occur in 2026 after the launch of ROG Xbox Ally. The latter has a chance to become one of the best handheld games -PCs, although I am not excited about it for similar reasons as my colleague Rhys Wood. However, some users have been able to get in front of the curve.
Windows Central also highlights the many background processes running on Windows 11’s desktop mode, which drastically increases the CPU and RAM usage, while it is idle, which ultimately compromises game performance with lower image speeds in the game. On the full screen experience, the number of background services is reduced, leading to much lower resource consumption.
Look at
IN Shadow of the Tomb RaiderAt Driving on the full-screen experience managed Windows Central an average of 38FPS, while Windows 11 Desktop mode hit an average of 29 FPS, showing a 26% performance loss when using Windows 11 as usual (highlighted in the YouTube video above).
It is worth noting that if you are already disabling boot apps, eliminating background services or even better, use Tiny11 (which comes without Windows 11 Bloatware), you probably won’t notice any benefit benefits when switching to the full screen experience. And that is clearly in Windows Central’s Doom: The Dark Ages Testing on both modes, each with start -up -apps eliminated that the result results are the same.
What is more important, however, is how the full -screen experience would cope with stationary PCs, but it seems that this is not working yet, using the solution from Reddit. NVIDIA hardware (which I use) allegedly doesn’t play well with steamos in game mode, so I look forward to this alternative on full screen and its potential on the desktop page.
Analysis: Steamos and Bazzite still look too strong towards Windows 11
After using the ASUS ROG Ally with Bazzite installed and Lenovo Legion goes with an official Steamos license, I am still highly questionable that Microsoft’s efforts will win me or most fans over.
It’s still early days for Microsoft, as the full -screen experience is not even officially available yet, but that doesn’t mean I can’t notice that lots of work need to be done to catch up with Steamos.
Valve’s work with Steamo’s UI has made wonders for Steam Deck, and now Lenovo Legion Go’s users. Unless Microsoft offers uniform updates and support in the same way, I would expect it’s a long time for Microsoft to even get close to Steamos.
It is also worth noting that Bazzite (a Steamos clone) is available for a wider range of handheld and even desktop games PCs, as Steamos has only official support for Steam Deck and Legion Go S. And as Microsoft’s full-screen experience does not officially come to other hand-hold until 2026, it will probably leave most on alternatives.
