Xbox Mode turns your PC into a console, but it can’t hide Windows 11 bloat

After a long alpha and beta period hidden in pre-release builds while officially exclusive to Asus Xbox ROG Ally PC handhelds, Xbox Mode for Windows 11 has launched. This marks a massive shift in Microsoft’s strategy to make Windows 11 an optimized experience while also showing a glimpse of a blurred future between console and PC gaming. It’s a testing ground for a much grander ambition, serving as a beta test of sorts for Project Helix, the next-generation Xbox console designed to play both console and PC games on a single machine.

It’s a perfect alternative to Steam’s Big Picture mode when it comes to gamers already in the Xbox ecosystem who just want their PC to play games out of the box, but the Windows 11 gaming experience is far from smooth, even more so for DIYers. Windows 11 is full of bloatware, artificial intelligence, and is broken in some ways thanks to unnecessary system processes and Copilot. While it’s great news that the Copilot game no longer bothers players, Xbox Mode doesn’t hide the telemetry and bloated nightmare that is Windows 11. Having to run tools to unblock Windows 11 and remove Copilot defeats the promise of faster speeds and better performance and gaming. Let’s take a closer look.

Granted, this is also a feature of standard Xbox software on PC, but having a user’s game library pulled from other major storefronts like Steam and Epic Games is a huge step forward for Xbox. No one likes managing multiple launchers and digging through cluttered Start menus, but most will use a clean, easy-to-understand interface optimized for controller navigation. It’s also a good idea to have all Game Pass, Cloud Gaming, and Xbox Play Anywhere titles available in one place, the latter covering over 1,500 games that will appear on PC if players already own them on console.

It’s an obvious reaction to Steam’s Big Picture mode given its inclusion of third-party game libraries, but seeing these libraries appear alongside a user’s Game Pass selection is truly a complete experience. This is one step closer to PC gaming becoming as accessible as console gaming in the living room, making installing and playing games frictionless. That’s not to say there aren’t some teething problems, like the need to always install third-party storefronts to download, install, and update said games. Xbox Mode is also a bit restrictive for those of us who like to tinker with our gaming experience, especially modding, which still requires third-party programs like Vortex and other mod managers.

Navigating on a PC with a controller has always been a pain, but Xbox’s recent partnership with Asus ROG Ally laptops seems to have rubbed off. Like Armory Crate software, Xbox Mode now has a gamepad cursor to significantly reduce friction for users who don’t plan to have a keyboard and mouse setup with their gaming PC. It translates joystick movements into precise mouse cursor control, allowing gamers to navigate menus and applications that weren’t designed for gamepads. It also has a simplified controller pairing tool that ensures the hardware is ready to go once for a PC compatible with Xbox mode to start.

The goal of Xbox Mode’s GamePad Cursor feature is to make the overall Xbox experience seamless across devices and screens, ensuring navigation is consistent across PC, mobile, and eventually console when Project Helix becomes a reality for consumers. Users should expect problematic behavior with the current build, with UI elements popping in and out randomly and navigation lag when moving between Xbox Mode and Windows 11’s vanilla menus. Gamepad Cursor is a step in the right direction and makes Xbox Mode more appealing to console and PC gamers, but it ultimately lacks the refinement of the Xbox Series 11 so that it works on all programs like Asus ROG Ally PC handhelds.

Formerly known as FSE (Xbox Full Screen Experience), Xbox Mode also optimizes hardware resources. MSI has confirmed that while a standard Windows 11 desktop can consume up to 8.6GB of RAM, enabling Xbox Mode reduces that usage to 7.8GB, a reduction of 9.3%. It minimizes background tasks and provides more RAM for a user’s gaming sessions, resulting in up to 8.6% increase in frames per second.

This is a positive move, but Xbox seems to be struggling to breathe when it comes to the overall state of Windows 11. Bloatware, telemetry, and forced Copilot AI integrations are all having a negative effect on Windows games overall. As it stands, users still need to run deflating tools like Chris Titus Tech’s Windows Utility and RemoveWindowsAI to properly deflate Windows 11 and remove Copilot components with heavy CPU and RAM loads.

Such workarounds, the first of which is required to enable the “Ultimate Performance” power profile, present unnecessary friction for players. They also require the use of Windows Powershell, which isn’t as intimidating as it seems thanks to copying and pasting a single command to display user-friendly interfaces. But for console gamers considering switching to Windows PC gaming, it could be the difference between sticking to console gaming or switching to PC.

As part of the phased rollout that began on April 30, 2026, automatic super resolution (Auto SR) was introduced in Xbox mode. It’s currently in preview, but it’s a new AI-powered tool that upgrades graphics in real time at the operating system level. Yes, we already have DLSS, FSR, and XeSS that already do this when integrated into games, but Auto SR makes games sharper and smoother. It is a screen space upscaler that works without any developer intervention, running on a device’s NPU instead of the GPU, allowing Auto SR to spend more time on calculations for better image quality.

While it sounds good on paper, it lacks the specific game engine data that DLSS, FSR, and XeSS use to fine-tune visuals and performance, meaning it can’t always match their raw quality. It is added to the end of the rendering pipeline, meaning that latency can be introduced into a player’s input. This technology will be most useful on gaming handhelds like the ROG Ally It’s a nice addition for this use case, but as it stands, it’s best to stick with Nvidia, AMD, and Intel solutions for scaling and frame generation on PC.

For laptop and handheld users exploring Xbox Mode, the Enhanced Dock is one of the latest features that allows gamers to instantly switch from their native hardware to the big screen. Xbox Mode following the same settings established from the laptop or portable gaming PC is a more or less seamless transition. Players also don’t have to worry about issues with game save data if something goes wrong, as Xbox Mode now includes an improved cloud sync status display that ensures progress is updated before changing views.

There’s a renewed interest in player-focused features following a massive management shakeup. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wasted no time scrapping initiatives like the “Everything’s an Xbox” marketing campaign and Gaming Copilot to focus on core player experiences. Despite a 33% drop in hardware revenue, likely driven by Xbox’s price hike in Q3 2025, the platform actually saw record levels of active users. Xbox is trying to do what Microsoft isn’t: removing unnecessary bloatware and AI tools and prioritizing service improvements in the hedged bet that a simpler, more focused operating system will win back gamers.

Xbox Mode isn’t perfect yet, but it’s the first real step in a strategy to bring console and PC gaming together into a single, unified ecosystem, which will culminate with the release of Project Helix, the next-generation Xbox games console.