- Microsoft’s full-screen Xbox experience is coming to all Windows 11 laptops
- This is happening as of today, at least for the major providers.
- It may take longer for more smaller players in the Windows 11 portable device market to roll out, but in the meantime, support can be manipulated.
If you’ve been jealously eyeing the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) that comes with Asus ROG Xbox Ally, here’s some great news: it’s now available for all handhelds.
As VideoCardz reports, during its Xbox Partner Preview stream, Microsoft revealed a bunch of new games and also brought the news that FSE is “generally available” starting today, November 21, on “all gaming laptops currently on the market.”
As noted, initially this streamlined interface, which makes the UI much friendlier for a gaming device with a small screen, was featured only on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally when it first appeared.
However, it was brought to MSI Claw shortly after (in preview), but we are now rolling it out to all Windows 11 handhelds as a full version.
Microsoft further notes, “In addition, we will soon expand FSE to more Windows 11 PC form factors through the Xbox and Windows Insider programs.”
This has been taken as a hint that the rumored next-gen Xbox PC will be built on the FSE, which would be an obvious route for Microsoft, of course.
Analysis: FSE for everyone – well, almost, but some modifications may still need to be made for now
While you can modify it so that an unsupported Windows 11 handheld runs FSE, it’s obviously much better to have the officially delivered version on your laptop, and that’s the case for everyone as of today. Microsoft seems to be way ahead of schedule here, as it was initially believed that some gaming handhelds wouldn’t get the FSE until early 2026.
That’s great news because the FSE is not only a streamlined interface that’s easier to navigate with a controller, it also saves system resources (freeing up RAM), which is a big advantage for handhelds in terms of making games run more smoothly and giving them better battery life.
while I said that all gets the FSE now, that may not be the case yet for some players. While owners of a device from major wearable manufacturers, including Asus, MSI, and Lenovo, should benefit from FSE right now (or imminently), it’s unclear when this feature might debut with some of the more obscure brands out there, at least in terms of the general public, like Ayaneo or GPD.
That depends on how quick those vendors are with their respective releases, and we’ll have to see, but for now, the most avid gamers (the typical buyers of these models) have been dodging support anyway.
It’s worth noting that FSE isn’t a panacea for all the problems you’ll encounter when using Windows 11 on a handheld, but it’s still a considerable step forward in terms of catching up with SteamOS.
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