Winhanced 1.0 Beta patch notes / Winhanced

Winhanced 1.0 is here, and it starts with a 30-day beta while we squash the last bugs. The star of 1.0 is the Winhanced overlay: press one button in any game and your music, friends, guides and settings are right there, no alt-tabbing, no leaving the game. It's in Early Access for the beta and opens up to everyone once the beta wraps.

Early Access features

The Winhanced overlay

The overlay is a menu that opens over your game, made for a controller. Everything you would normally leave the game for is in it: power and performance settings, your controller, sound, Wi-Fi, music, friends and Discord, guides, recording and notes. Your game keeps running behind it at 30 FPS while the overlay is open, so the menu stays smooth, and your normal frame rate comes back when you close it.

Turning it on and opening it

Turn it on: in Settings > General, set Guide button opens to Winhanced overlay, then press the Guide button in a game. If you have Early Access, Winhanced switches the Guide button and Start + Select to the overlay for you once when you update. You can change either back in the same place.
Start + Select: turn off Start + Select opens Game Bar and Start + Select opens the overlay too.
Keyboard: press Windows + Page Down or Windows + F10.
Swipe (experimental): turn on Edge swipe opens the overlay in Settings > General, then swipe in from the side of the screen the overlay sits on. While this is on, Windows' own edge swipes are turned off.
Closing it: press B, press the button you opened it with again, or swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Hold the Guide button to close the overlay and open the task switcher.
Moving around: LB and RB move between pages, and the bottom of every page shows what each button does.

The pages you start with

To keep it simple at first, the overlay starts with a few pages. You can turn on the rest any time (see below).

Current game (while a game is running): your play time this session and in total, your achievements with how rare each one is, and buttons to pause, suspend or exit the game.
Performance: pick a power mode (Silent, Balanced, Performance, Dynamic TDP or Custom) and set your refresh rate, resolution, frame rate limit, brightness, HDR and fan curve. It also has your graphics card's own options for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA, Lossless Scaling, and a choice of performance stats to show on screen.
Battery: your battery level and the last 24 hours of it, which apps used the most, when the device should sleep and dim its screen, plugged in and on battery, and your charge limit where your device has one. PCs without a battery do not show this page.
Controller: switch controller profile and change what your buttons do, your lighting, rumble strength, gyro aiming and the trackpad. Lighting changes show on your controller as you move through them, so you see each one before you pick it. This page shows on supported handhelds.
Power: sleep, hibernate, restart or shut down, switch to Xbox mode, and Undock an external graphics card.
Settings: the overlay's own settings (see below).

Pages you can turn on

Open the overlay's Settings, go to Layout, and switch on the pages you want.

Audio: pick your speakers or headphones and your microphone, set each app's volume, and use the Equalizer with presets and a profile for each game. Turn on Equalizer in the overlay's General settings first; Winhanced installs it the first time.
Network: turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on or off, join a Wi-Fi network, pair a Bluetooth device and check your ping.
Recording: take a screenshot, record, or save the last 30 seconds. Your clips and screenshots are listed here: cut a clip shorter, shrink it to 720p, and send it to your PC or to Discord. Its options set the video format, the quality and whether the last 30 seconds are kept.
Music: play YouTube Music, Spotify or Apple Music while you play. Browse your playlists, give a game its own playlist, and set the music and game volume on their own sliders.
Browser: browse the web with your controller, keep bookmarks and bring them in from another browser, and watch YouTube TV with your controller as the remote. Pin a YouTube or Twitch video to a corner of the screen and it stays there after you close the overlay.
Guides (while a game is running): reads where you are in the game from your screen and finds guides for it. Steps you finish are remembered, steps further ahead stay hidden so nothing is spoiled, and video guides play right there. If it guessed wrong, choose Not right? and search yourself.
Journal: a notebook for each game. Type or say a note, add a screenshot, and look back through your play sessions. You can have your last note show the next time you start that game.
Friends: your Steam, Xbox and PlayStation friends and chats in one list. Invite a Steam friend to the game you are playing.
Discord: messages, servers, and voice and video calls. Sign in with a QR code.
Quick Access: your quick settings and your apps in one place. You can also open it with a swipe without adding it to the page list.

Making it yours

Everything here is in the overlay's Settings.

General: make the overlay Large or Small, put it on the left or right, darken the game behind it or not, match your Winhanced theme, open on the last page you used, show page names, and choose a 24-hour clock.
Layout: show or hide pages. To move a page, hold A on its icon and move it up or down, then let go. Edit mode does the same.
Music: pick your music service, lower the music when friends talk in Discord, and choose what happens to your music when a game starts.
Social: choose which friend lists to show, turn Discord and Discord Rich Presence on or off, and mute message sounds.
Gestures: choose what each edge swipe opens: a page, Quick Access, quick settings, your apps or Game Bar.

Parts of the overlay are still in English only. We are translating the rest.

Notifications

Achievement pop-ups: when you earn an achievement in a Steam, Xbox, Epic, GOG or RetroAchievements game, a pop-up shows it with how rare it is and plays a sound. Xbox Cloud games count too. They replace Steam's and Xbox's own pop-ups. Turn them on with Achievement notifications in the overlay's General settings, and turn on Clip achievements to also save a clip of the moment.
Messages from friends: a direct message from a Steam, Xbox, PlayStation or Discord friend shows on screen with their picture and name, even while the overlay is closed. You can mute its sound in the overlay's Social settings.

New for everyone

Your library

GeForce NOW (new): sign in once from the GeForce NOW settings page. Games you own that GeForce NOW supports can then be played in the cloud: press Play and the game starts. The GeForce NOW card in your library opens the full catalog.
Battle.net installs (new): Battle.net games now install and uninstall inside Winhanced, with progress, speed and time left, like your other stores. You can cancel an install at any time, and a failed install keeps what it already downloaded. Game Pass games that come through Battle.net install the same way.
Ubisoft, EA and Battle.net games you own: these used to need Early Access. They now show in your library for everyone.
Collections: you can now make your own collections, such as "Couch co-op" or "Finish next", and they are open to everyone. Press the star on a game to add it.
Theatre (new): Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Disney+ and your other movie and TV apps sit together in a new Theatre collection. Pluto TV, Tubi, Plex and YouTube open right inside Winhanced and work with your controller. Tubi, Pluto TV and Plex play the next episode when one ends, and what you finished gets a green check. Don't want it? Hide Theatre from the Apps settings page.
Cloud saves (new): back up your game saves to Dropbox, OneDrive or another drive, and Winhanced checks for a newer save before a game starts. Set it up in Settings > Integrations. Games that already use Steam Cloud are left to Steam.
RomM (new): connect your RomM server, or try the public demo, and its games show in the Emulators library with a cloud icon. They play inside Winhanced.
OptiScaler and FSR 4 (new): OptiScaler lets more games use DLSS, FSR or XeSS. Turn it on in Settings > Performance and Winhanced adds it to games known to work with it, and takes it out again. It never touches games that use anti-cheat. On AMD handhelds you can also turn on FSR 4. To run FSR 4, Winhanced adds a certificate to Windows, and removes it when you turn FSR 4 off or uninstall Winhanced.
Steam: games you hid in Steam are hidden here too. A Steam demo you installed shows up, and one you removed does not; turn off Show Steam demos to hide them all.
Signing out of a store: every library settings page has a Sign Out button. When you sign out, that store's games you have not installed leave your library. Installed games stay.
Choosing where to install: pick a drive from tiles that show each drive's free space.
Drives and memory cards: when you plug one in or take it out, your library updates right away.
Apps: your installed game launchers (Steam, Epic, GOG Galaxy, Ubisoft Connect, the EA app, Battle.net, Amazon Games and Xbox) are added to Apps for you. If you remove one, it stays removed.
Xbox games: with the Xbox app installed, the Xbox games you own now show up without signing in to Xbox in Winhanced. Signing in still adds the games from your play history.
Microsoft Store apps stay up to date: once a day, Winhanced installs any waiting updates for your Microsoft Store apps. It never does this during a game, while the device is asleep, or when you are unplugged with less than 25% battery.
Cloud play only in streaming libraries: a new switch in Settings > General that keeps your library tidy. Turn it on and games you can only stream, from GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud or your own PC, show as not installed everywhere except their own libraries, so only what is installed on this device looks ready to play. Recent Games still shows what you streamed.

Storage (new)

See your drives: Storage is a new page at the top of Settings > Libraries. It shows each drive, how much space is free, and which games are on it.
Move, copy or compress a game: move or copy a game to another drive, or compress it so it takes less space and still plays the same. Turn on Auto-compress new games for a library and every new install is compressed. Xbox games are never compressed.
Clean up: look through folders and empty the Recycle Bin.

Home and how Winhanced looks

Two new Home layouts: Doox and Pop tart. Doox can show square game art. Pick a layout in Settings > General.
Tips and dots: a short tip now and then points at something you might not know about, such as a button that does more than it looks like. A small dot marks what is new since your last update. Neither shows while you are in a game. Press Show tips again in Settings > General to see them again.
Set up your handheld: when you turn on Winhanced Control, Winhanced offers a short list: set power for a game, choose what your buttons do and pick your lighting. Pick one and it takes you there. The list stays in Settings > Performance.
Settings show what they do: land on a setting and the right side of the screen plays a short video of it.
Startup video: you can use almost any video file. Winhanced converts it for you.
Theme music starts sooner, and every track plays at a similar volume.
Ten languages: Winhanced is now in English, Spanish (Spain and Mexico), French, German, Korean, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Ukrainian. Your Windows language picks it, the installer included.
No more ads: sign-in windows and the What's New reader no longer show ads.
Times of day now follow your region's format, 24-hour clocks included.

Controllers and the keyboard

Winhanced keyboard, now for everyone: Winhanced has its own on-screen keyboard that works with a controller, in Winhanced and in other apps. Hold the Guide button and press X to open it. On a controller without a Guide button, hold Select and press X. It types in your Windows keyboard language and can give a small buzz on each key. To use Windows' keyboard instead, turn off Use Winhanced keyboard in Settings > General; the same buttons then open Windows' keyboard.
Gyro aiming (new): tilt and turn your handheld to aim, like moving the right stick. It is active while you hold a back button, or the left trigger if you choose. Set it up in Settings > Controller > Gyro. It works on the ROG Ally family, MSI Claw, Legion Go, Legion Go 2 and OneXPlayer 3. The OneXPlayer 3 needs controller firmware 17 or newer.
Second actions (new): on the ROG Ally family and MSI Claw, set M1 or M2 as a modifier. Hold it and press another button for a second action. One button can also press up to five keys at once.
Change every button: on the ROG Ally family, MSI Claw and OneXPlayer 3, you can now change what every button does, not only the back buttons: A, B, X, Y, the d-pad, the bumpers and triggers, both stick clicks, View and Menu. Set it up in Settings > Controller.
MSI Claw: choose how strong the vibration is. On the Claw 8 AI+ and 7 AI+, games can now see the back buttons as their own buttons.
Legion Go, Go 2 and Go S: a new switch turns the trackpad off. On the Legion Go S you can now set how strong the rumble is.
Guide and Start + Select on every PC: they used to work only with Winhanced Control on a supported handheld. They now work on any PC with any Xbox controller, and each opens what you pick in Settings. Game Bar is the default.
Select + Y closes the game you are playing. While a ROM is running, the Select shortcuts are left to the emulator.
Your game's controller profile now turns on when the game starts, and your usual profile comes back when you close it, even when the Winhanced app is not open.
Mouse mode: it works when the Winhanced app is not open, and you can switch it Off, On or Auto from the HUD. The left stick now scrolls and its click is the middle mouse button. Press X to open the keyboard. Holding a button for the mouse works while it is held, and Auto gives you the controller whenever a game is running.
New button actions: Save last 30 seconds, and open the Wand overlay (Alt+W).

Recording

Record without Game Bar: the Start/stop recording button action now uses Winhanced's own recorder.
Save the last 30 seconds: Winhanced keeps a short recording going while you play, so you can save the moment that just happened.
Recording options are in Settings > General: record only the game or the whole screen, the video format and the quality.

PC Streaming

More than one PC: your handheld now connects to all your paired PCs at the same time. A PC's games show while it is on and hide when it is off. Nothing is deleted.
Removing a PC: each PC in the Desktops list has Unpair, and an offline PC has Delete.
Keyboard, mouse and file sharing with your PC: this used to need Early Access. It is now open to everyone.
Install a game your PC also has: outside the PC Streaming library you can now install it on your handheld instead of only streaming it.
Streaming Companion 1.2.4.0: please update the Companion on your PC too.

Sleep, games and your screen

No Windows updates in the middle of a game: Windows updates now wait until you stop playing.
Quick Resume: games you suspend take up much less memory while they wait.
HDR games: a game with HDR on in its profile now starts with HDR already on.
External graphics cards: press Undock in the power menu before you unplug one. Winhanced tells you when it is safe to pull the cable. Undock does nothing while a game is running. If the card does not start after you plug it in or wake the device, Winhanced tries once to start it again.
Sleep and wake reports: a report filed under "Sleep or wake" now includes what we need to see why a device woke or would not sleep. Sending one can take up to a minute and a half longer.

New handhelds

OneXPlayer X2, X2 Mini, X2 Mini Pro, Apex, Apex i and OneXFly F1: Winhanced now works with these. Fan speed and charge limit work on the X2 Mini Pro, Apex and OneXFly F1. Button remapping, rumble and controller lights work on the models that have them, and the OneXFly F1's two back buttons can be remapped.

Changes that will feel different on purpose

Legion Go power modes use Lenovo's own limits: Quiet, Balanced and Performance now run on the limits Lenovo sets for each mode. On the Legion Go 1, Performance while plugged in is now 20 W, down from 30 W. If you want more, use Custom. It still goes up to 35 W.
Your Legion Go fan curve in every mode: a saved curve used to apply only after you switched to Custom. It now applies in the mode you picked. With no curve saved, the fan follows the mode.
MSI Claw fan curves: on the Claw 8 EX, a curve could drive the fan faster than MSI allows. Curves now use MSI's range on every Claw and have six points. Your saved curves keep their numbers, so the fan may run a little quieter for the same curve.
The "Guide button" mapping is gone: a button mapped to Guide could not be held, so its shortcuts did not work. If you had a button mapped to Guide, pick something else for it.
Steam Input: Winhanced no longer turns Steam Input off for the Steam games it starts. Steam's own setting for each game is used.
A bigger installer: the installer now carries .NET, Visual C++ and WebView2, so a new install no longer depends on downloads from Microsoft. The installer and the update download are about 300 MB bigger because of it.

Bug fixes

Sleep and wake

Screen turning back off after a wake: pressing the power button sometimes woke the device and then turned the screen straight back off, so it took a few presses to wake. A power-button wake now stays awake.
Game Bar after a wake: Game Bar could open over your game when the device woke. It no longer does, and the UI sounds keep working.
Charge limit after sleep on MSI Claw: your battery charge limit was sometimes gone after the Claw woke. It now comes back.

Games and launching

Epic games: some Epic games could not connect or did not start from Winhanced. For example, Rocket League could not reach its servers. They now start the way the Epic launcher starts them. If your Epic sign-in has expired, Winhanced now asks you to sign in when you press Play.
Installed Epic games marked uninstalled: if Winhanced could not read one of your Epic games for a while, it could mark the game as uninstalled. It now keeps it installed.
Cancel on the launch screen: pressing Cancel now stops the game even if it had not appeared yet.
Steam: a game that had just finished installing could start the wrong file, and a Steam game with no achievements made Winhanced ask Steam again every time. Both fixed.
Gears of War: E-Day is now detected while it runs.
Xbox achievements: the number unlocked is now correct.
The HUD now shows the right game when a game starts or ends.
Resolution after a game: the screen goes back to the right resolution when a game ends, also after you switch between an external screen and the built-in one.
Opening apps: opening Discord, Spotify, Firefox or Steam no longer pulls Winhanced over them or over your game, and apps no longer open with the game launch screen and game music.

Home and moving around

Controller stuck on Home: after a game or a wake, Home sometimes had nothing selected, and the controller did nothing until you touched the screen. The first press of the stick, the d-pad or A now selects Home again.
Library button in the Xbox full screen experience: the Library opened on top of Home instead of in place of it. Navigate to library also opens on All Games now.
Home button: pressing it while already on Home reset the page. It now leaves Home as it is.
Guide button in the Xbox full screen experience: after an update or a crash, the Guide button could do nothing until you restarted the device. It now keeps working.
Desktop mouse mode in the Xbox full screen experience: the right stick did not always move the pointer there, and mouse mode stopped the Xbox button from opening Game Bar. Both fixed.
Download low power mode: the screen says to press Start to leave it, but on most handhelds Start did nothing, so it stayed on until your downloads finished. Start now leaves it on every handheld.
Typing in sign-in windows: tapping a text field in a web sign-in, such as Battle.net, did not open the keyboard. It now does.

Handhelds

Legion Go 2 fan could stop: a fan curve point set to 0% stopped the fan completely, even when the device was warm. A 0% point now hands the fan back to the device, so it keeps spinning when it needs to.
Legion Go 2 wattage: the wattage you picked could change back. It now holds.
Dynamic TDP and fixed wattage: Dynamic TDP could stay off, or a wattage you picked could go unapplied, until you changed it again. Fixed.
ROG Ally lighting brightness: the slider did nothing, and the lights always ran at full brightness. It now sets the brightness, with three levels. To turn the lights off, pick the Off style.
ROG Ally controller updates: after you installed one, Winhanced kept offering it. A finished update now leaves the list. A driver download that dropped now tries again by itself.
ROG Xbox Ally X20: its Library and Command Center buttons, its lighting at start-up and Turbo while plugged in now use the X20's own settings.
MSI Claw: button and lighting changes were lost when the Claw restarted. They are now kept. Lighting presets now show the colours they are meant to, and the Claw 8 AI+ fan is quieter in Dynamic mode.
MSI Claw built-in controller switch: it showed the new state straight away, even when the Claw had not changed. It now says "Waiting for the controller to confirm" until the Claw answers.
Rumble and trackpad on Legion Go: when the controller does not take a change, Winhanced now says so instead of showing it as done.
OneXPlayer 3: the installer and the app now ask to turn on User Account Control if it is off.
Emulators: each game's picture keeps its own shape, so tall and wide box art both look right, and ROMs show their console in Recent Games.

Turning Winhanced Control off, and uninstalling

Your handheld goes back to its own app: with Winhanced Control off, Armoury Crate, MSI Center M or Legion Space take over again right away, with the settings they had. On an MSI Claw this includes your MSI button layout and controller mode. If MSI Center M could not be brought back, Winhanced now says so instead of saying it is back in control.
MSI charge limit: with Winhanced Control off, Winhanced leaves MSI's battery charge setting alone.
Uninstalling puts your Guide button, Game Bar and Steam settings back, and reinstalling starts with Winhanced Control off. If Winhanced cannot give an MSI Claw back, the uninstaller tells you how to fix it.

While Winhanced Control is on, your own button mappings, fan curves and lighting are the ones used.

Library, store and the rest

Volume: the status pill kept showing the old speaker's volume after you switched to headphones, Bluetooth or a dock. It now follows the switch.
Idle dim: the screen could stay dim after idle dim ended. It now comes back to your brightness.
Updating Winhanced: if you left the update page and came back, it started a second download. It now shows the one in progress, and a stuck download lets you try again.
Driver installs: a driver's own setup window now shows when it needs you.
Library pages: if the last page you used was at the far end of the row, its name was cut off. Fixed.
Tiles: every tile has the same rounded corners, Home's background no longer flashes black when you move quickly through your games, and games you have not installed show their cover without animating.
Store: adult-only games from Steam are no longer shown.
RTSS: the "Cannot establish connection with the update server" message no longer shows when Winhanced starts.
Discord sign-in: the sign-in window could end up behind Winhanced. It now stays on top.
File Explorer in Apps now opens File Explorer.

Device support as of 1.0

Everything in these notes about your library, Home, the keyboard, PC Streaming and recording works on any Windows PC. Here is which devices get each hardware feature.

The device families

ROG Ally family: ROG Ally, ROG Ally X, ROG Xbox Ally, ROG Xbox Ally X and ROG Xbox Ally X20
Legion Go family: Legion Go, Legion Go 2 and Legion Go S
MSI Claw family: Claw A1M, Claw A8, Claw 7 AI+, Claw 8 AI+, Claw 8 EX and Claw 8 G3
OneXPlayer family: OneXPlayer 3, X2, X2 Mini, X2 Mini Pro, Apex, Apex i / Air, OneXFly F1 and OneXFly F1 Pro

Power modes, Custom wattage and Dynamic TDP

ROG Ally family
Legion Go family
MSI Claw family
OneXPlayer family
ROG Flow Z13
Steam Deck
GPD Win 4, GPD Win 5 and GPD Win Mini
AYANEO Air Plus
Antec Core HS
Other AMD PCs and handhelds, using the chip's default power limits
Other handhelds with an Intel Arc G3 processor, such as the Acer Predator Atlas 8, using the chip's default power limits

Fan curves

ROG Ally family
Legion Go family
MSI Claw family
OneXPlayer family
ROG Flow Z13

Battery charge limit

ROG Ally family
Legion Go family
MSI Claw family
OneXPlayer family

Controller lighting

ROG Ally family
Legion Go family
MSI Claw family
OneXPlayer family

Remap every button

A, B, X, Y, the d-pad, bumpers, triggers, stick clicks, View and Menu, plus the back buttons.

ROG Ally family
MSI Claw family
OneXPlayer family

Remap the back buttons and extra buttons

The back buttons and the device's own extra buttons, such as the Legion buttons.

ROG Ally family
Legion Go family
MSI Claw family
OneXPlayer family

Second actions

Hold M1 or M2 to give a button a second action.

ROG Ally family
MSI Claw family

Gyro aiming

ROG Ally family
MSI Claw family
Legion Go and Legion Go 2
OneXPlayer 3, X2 Mini and X2 Mini Pro

Rumble strength

ROG Ally family
Legion Go family
MSI Claw family
OneXPlayer family

Turn the trackpad off

Legion Go family

Turn the built-in controller off

ROG Ally family
MSI Claw family

Driver and firmware updates

ROG Ally family
Legion Go family
MSI Claw family
OneXPlayer family
ROG Flow Z13

Winhanced 1.0 was tested on a 2024 ROG Ally X, ROG Xbox Ally X, ROG Xbox Ally X20, Legion Go, Legion Go 2, OneXPlayer 3, OneXPlayer X2 Mini Pro, MSI Claw 8 AI+ and MSI Claw 8 EX.

Before you update

Update the Winhanced Streaming Companion on your PC to 1.2.4.0 if you use PC Streaming.
The update is about 300 MB bigger than usual because the installer now carries everything Winhanced needs.

Thank you to everyone who tested the experimental builds and sent reports. Most of what is fixed here came from you.

If something goes wrong, go to Settings > Updates & Support > Report an issue right after it happens. That sends us what we need.

Winhanced 1.0 Beta patch notes