How To Use Xbox Mode On Your Windows PC

2026 is the 12 months when Microsoft lastly appeared to note how nightmarish of an expertise Windows 11 has grow to be. Windows 11 has acquired updates to make it suck much less and even new options to assist it really feel recent.

One of the largest new additions to Windows 11 is Xbox mode. It’s exhausting to not see this as a response to Valve’s SteamOS, which is more and more spoken about in messianic tones by avid gamers hoping to leap ship from Microsoft’s slop-laden ecosystem. When you activate Xbox mode on a PC, Windows ditches the taskbar and adopts a controller-friendly structure, dropping you right into a redesigned Xbox app with all of your recreation libraries loaded up.

Xbox mode began touchdown on Windows 11 PCs in May, so everybody who recurrently installs updates ought to have it by now. But the way to truly get it working is not apparent, and neither is the way to use it when you do. Before we dive in, be sure you have a gamepad related  — Xbox, PC and PlayStation controllers all work based mostly on our testing. It may also velocity up the method afterward in case you open your digital storefront of selection now.

The first step to utilizing Windows 11’s Xbox mode is to make sure that it is turned on, which it will not be by default. To achieve this, open Settings by utilizing the Win + I shortcut, then choose Gaming > Xbox mode. 

Here, in case you see an Enable Xbox mode slider, allow it. You can also see a Choose residence app part, the place it is best to choose Xbox. If you need faster entry to Xbox mode from the desktop, additionally allow Show Xbox mode in Task View. And if you find yourself loving the characteristic and solely use your PC for gaming, Enter Xbox mode on startup will prevent a while. 

Xbox mode is accessible by means of a number of paths. The keyboard shortcut Win + F11 toggles between the desktop and Xbox mode. You can even use Win + G to open the Game Bar, click on the gear icon within the bar centered on the prime of the display screen, then select Enter Xbox mode. If you are within the Xbox app, you may see a shortcut on the top-right of the house web page. Lastly, in case you enabled the Task View possibility above, press Win + Tab and you will see an Xbox mode shortcut to the best of your open desktops on the backside of the display screen.

While enjoying, urgent the Windows key in your keyboard enters a job view the place you possibly can entry the Windows desktop, in addition to shortcuts on the prime of the display screen. To exit Xbox mode, return to the Xbox app residence display screen and click on the Exit Xbox mode button within the top-right. You can even use Win + F11 once more.

A typical false impression is that Xbox mode brings under-the-hood enhancements to efficiency whereas gaming, however Microsoft has made no such declare. This is dealt with by a separate toggle: Settings > Gaming > Game Mode, which “turns things off in the background” to enhance your gaming expertise. While imprecise, it is value turning this on if you do not have it enabled already.

What Xbox mode does is get probably the most computer-y elements of Windows out of the way in which, changing them with a full-screen expertise devoted to gaming that is pleasant to make use of with both a controller or keyboard and mouse. In different phrases, it is Microsoft’s reply to the Big Picture Mode in Steam.

You’ll profit most from Xbox mode when you have recreation libraries throughout a number of suppliers. If you have received World of Warcraft, Fortnite and Counter-Strike in your PC, you want at the least three launchers to run them (Battle.internet, Epic Games and Steam, respectively). Xbox mode exhibits you video games from all these libraries, in addition to Ubisoft Connect and Humble Launcher, in a centralized place. We did not check different launchers just like the EA App. If you do not see a selected title, you possibly can pull it into the Xbox app by choosing the plus icon from the top-right of the Library tab. 

Launching a recreation from the Xbox app sidesteps the necessity to open its launcher, as Xbox will merely goal the sport executable, which boots the mandatory software program within the background. This course of wasn’t the quickest or smoothest in our testing. Although video games launch each time, we advocate opening third-party launchers earlier than beginning Xbox mode to hurry up the method.

If you are subscribed to Xbox Game Pass, you’ll entry its library by means of Xbox mode. Surprisingly, the Cloud Gaming tab would not lock you to Microsoft’s companies. You can set Nvidia GeForce Now as your default streaming service within the Xbox app’s settings.

Ultimately, Xbox mode in its present kind is little greater than a souped-up Xbox app with controller mapping and some further settings to forestall you from needing to work together with Windows. It’s extra helpful on handhelds and lounge PCs than on a standalone gaming PC. Regardless, with extra avid gamers switching to Linux than ever earlier than, it is good to see Microsoft exploring enhancements to the Windows 11 gaming expertise.