A major selling point of the Xbox Ally and Ally X is that they ship with a full screen version of Windows that plays nice with handheld PCs. As part of the company’s recent Xbox Partner Showcase, Microsoft has announced that the Windows “full screen experience” or FSE is finally rolling out to all other Windows 11 handhelds starting November 21.
For the most part, FSE lets you live inside a touch and controller-friendly version of the Xbox PC app, rather than the normal Windows desktop. The launcher collects games from a multitude of game marketplaces like Steam and the Epic Games Store, and gives you easy access to Game Pass, if you subscribe. As part of Microsoft’s customizations, FSE also uses less resources, and offers simpler ways to switch between apps and setup Windows for the first time.
All of these tweaks are supposed to make using Windows easier without a mouse and keyboard, and closer to what you’d get from a console. In comparison to SteamOS, which has gone through countless updates since Valve launched it alongside the Steam Deck in 2022, FSE still has a long way to go, but pushing the software to more devices could force Microsoft to iterate quickly.
While PC handheld owners will reap the benefits of these improvements first, Microsoft’s announcement also mentions the company plans to bring the experience “to more Windows 11 PC form factors through the Xbox and Windows Insider programs soon.” That could lend further credence to reports that the company plans to make the next Xbox an expensive PC rather than a traditional game console.
