Enable Xbox Full Screen Experience on any Windows 11 handheld
This is a good reminder why Microsoft still struggles to find a clear direction for Xbox.
Most of us are scratching our heads wondering what the Microsoft team is doing with the Xbox ecosystem. This year has been very confusing for core Xbox fans, with signs that the company may be moving toward a hybrid PC / console approach and an uncertain future for console hardware. One of those signs is the collaboration between ASUS, Xbox and AMD on the Xbox ROG Ally handheld. It comes in two variants, both expensive for what they offer, but Microsoft says demand is strong so this device clearly has a niche.
What Microsoft has not learned from its mistakes is that locking certain Windows features to specific hardware is a bad idea. Copilot+ PC features were exclusive to Qualcomm devices for months, but that did not help Qualcomm gain many customers, and these laptops still appear among the most returned items on Amazon from what we can see.
For ROG Ally, Microsoft introduced a special “ Xbox Full Screen Experience ” overlay, which turns Windows into a gaming-first device with its own shell, lower overhead from Windows Explorer and full controller support. This feature is exclusive to Xbox Ally for now and will come to other systems later (Legion Go 2 is already confirmed).
But modders grew tired of these decisions and created their own tool that converts any capable Windows handheld to support this mode. The obvious answer would be to just install Bazzite, but some games still do not support it yet (such as upcoming COD BO7).
Source: Github
The community project, Xbox Full Screen Experience Tool , is a small Windows app that unlocks the hidden Xbox full screen mode built into Windows 11. It checks your Windows 11 build, detects whether you use a handheld, laptop or desktop, and then applies the right tweaks so the shell works as intended. The app is distributed as a standard MSI installer, offers a simple on/off toggle, and creates backups of the original settings so you can roll back its changes.
After installation, you enable the mode in the tool and restart the system, then use the Microsoft Store to update the Xbox app and Xbox Game Bar. Once that is done, a new option appears under Settings → Gaming → Full screen experience, where you set “Choose Home app” to Xbox and enable startup into the new shell. The app can also disable the feature and restore previous values with one click, but it still changes low-level settings, so users are advised to back up their data and use it at their own risk.
I know the tool was released earlier, but we only learned about it from a recent tweet from ROG Ally Life.
See Microsoft? It wasn’t that hard.
Source: XboxFullScreenExperienceTool (Github) via ROG Ally Life
