Why it issues: This week, Microsoft launched a brand new characteristic for the Xbox Game Bar in Windows 11 designed for controllers. For the primary time, Microsoft is offering a strategy to begin video games from the Windows desktop with no mouse or keyboard.
The controller bar involves Windows 11 insiders right this moment. It’s a brand new model of the Xbox Game Bar that opens after urgent the house button on an Xbox controller whereas not in a recreation. Now, customers can begin their three most recently-played video games or boot up recreation launchers like Steam and the Epic Games Store. The regular Xbox Game Bar will nonetheless seem after urgent the house button in a recreation.
To run the brand new characteristic on Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 225xx or later, obtain the Xbox Insider Hub from the Microsoft Store. Sign up as an Xbox Insider within the hub, head to “previews,” after which be a part of the Windows Gaming preview. Afterward, replace the Xbox Game Bar to model 5.722.5022.0 or newer, reboot, and join an Xbox controller or different Xinput controller.
The controller bar will turn out to be useful for customers with house theater PC setups that do not comfortably accommodate keyboards and mouses. Until now, Steam’s Big Picture mode has been the one approach for PC avid gamers to navigate from the desktop right into a recreation utilizing only a controller. Booting non-Steam video games this manner requires manually including them to a Steam library.
