Microsoft is exploring early concepts around a Windows handheld mode for devices like the Steam Deck. A leaked video posted to Twitter by h0x0d shows early concept and prototype work for an optimized Windows 11 UI for handhelds, and a launcher and Windows gaming shell designed for touchscreens and controllers.
The video is part of a hackathon project within Microsoft starting in September where employees regularly present ideas or projects that sometimes receive support from Microsoft executives and eventually get sent.
While it’s not clear who is narrating the video, they did a good job of highlighting all the current issues of running Windows on a handheld gaming device like the Steam Deck. Valve provides drivers for Windows on Steam Deck, but the Windows UI is hard to navigate with touch or a controller, and there’s no dedicated launcher like SteamOS has.
The video references a prototype handheld work created by Dorothy Feng, a senior UX designer at Microsoft. It includes a launcher that can open games from Steam, PC Game Pass, EA Play, Epic Games Store and more. This handheld gaming prototype also includes a keyboard optimized for the Steam Deck that can be navigated with a controller, and even a floating taskbar that we’ve seen teased by Microsoft before.
The team working on this hackathon project also started working with a developer who created a way to use Steam Deck controls in Windows. There’s even a gaming shell custom made for Windows and created by Hayden McAfee, a senior software engineer at Microsoft who works on gaming experiences for Windows.
The hackathon project resulted in an installation experience where drivers and services are installed, the controller works, and there is a launcher to quickly launch games from various stores. It looks like super early work and there’s a long list of issues and optimizations that would be needed in Windows and the Xbox app for Microsoft to make it a reality.
At the end of the video, there’s a call to action for fellow Microsoft employees to “get serious about handheld gaming on Windows,” which could help improve Microsoft’s image and credibility in the PC gaming community.
While this project may never launch, it’s encouraging to see Microsoft employees pushing for it to happen. Microsoft was quick to support Xbox Cloud Gaming on the Steam Deck, but we’ve heard little about Windows’ ambitions for handheld gaming outside of this leaked presentation.
A number of Switch-like handheld gaming devices from GPD and OneXPlayer or even the Ayaneo 2 relied on Windows without an optimized user interface from Microsoft. That means companies have to build their own interfaces and launchers to make Windows more controller- and handheld-friendly.
There are signs that we’ll be seeing even more Windows handheld devices soon. Asus just announced its ROG Ally, which takes on the Steam Deck and is powered by a custom Ryzen APU from AMD and Windows 11. A Windows handheld mode certainly makes sense at this point.
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