Windows-based handhelds have a problem, and it’s Windows 11. The operating system made for laptops and desktops just doesn’t work well for Steam Deck-style handhelds with screens as small as seven inches. The Asus ROG Xbox Ally was supposed to be the first device to get a new, gaming-focused interface that addressed these issues. But now the UI is leaked, and you can try it.
Microsoft had always intended to expand the new Xbox-style user interface, including the new, united Xbox app with games automatically pulled from rival storefronts and launchers like Steam and Epic, to other devices. But the tentative timeline for that was sometime in early 2026, giving the ROG Xbox Ally (and its souped-up X variant) at least a couple of months to shine as the first portable device with official Xbox branding. Earlier this week a poster on Reddit discovered that you can turn the compact, controller-friendly interface on by tweaking some registry values in the latest Windows 11 build, 25H2.
Reddit user “Gogsi123” posted the guide and a demonstration video of the process running on the original ROG Ally handheld (spotted by The Verge). It’s up and running, and in theory, it should work on any Windows 11-powered handheld after you get the Windows Insider build installed and apply the patches to your system…which I personally wouldn’t recommend at the moment. This requires multiple administrator-level tweaks to your system, and I think at least some bugs are likely.
That said, if you use a handheld as a secondary gaming-only device and you’re eager to check out these changes, hey, the only thing you might lose is a lot of time. I’ve done dumber things to my PCs.
The gaming-focused interface for handhelds is an exciting development for Microsoft. The company has spent the last couple of years trying to leverage the booming PC gaming market to boost its Xbox Game Pass as a platform while the Xbox console itself stagnates. Early hands-on reports of the ROG Xbox Ally indicate that the system is, indeed, a considerable improvement over various manufacturer skins that have tried to mask Windows 11’s clunky performance on these small devices.
The new interface was one of the biggest selling points of the ROG Xbox Ally, which still does not have an official price a month before its release. But the changes have an opportunity to enhance all Windows-based gaming handhelds, from the similarly powerful Lenovo Legion Go 2 releasing around the same time, all the way back to the original ROG Ally. They’re more than skin-deep, with the optimized tuning of Windows said (by Microsoft and Asus, anyway) to offer performance benefits for games running on these low-power systems with tuned integrated graphics.
The Reddit post indicates small but measurable gains in this unofficial application, a 5 percent boost in Red Dead Redemption 2 frame rates and over a gigabyte of RAM saved in Celeste. These bumps are on the very small side, but again, we’re talking about an unofficial application on a years-old, not-officially-supported device. Improvements are possible, if not inevitable, as Microsoft and its hardware partners make final tweaks.
