Xbox FSE Experience on Windows 11 Handheld Devices: Strong Competition with SteamOS

Overview of Xbox FSE Experience

Microsoft introduces: The Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) feature for MSI Claw handheld devices, surpassing initial 2026 expectations. This feature aims to provide a simplified, console-like user interface, specifically designed for gamers on Windows 11. The FSE transforms the traditional desktop interface into a controller-friendly dashboard, enhancing full-screen gaming and reducing background resource consumption to boost performance and battery life. However, some users still prefer SteamOS for these handheld devices.

How to Enable FSE and Supported Devices

The FSE experience is currently available: within the latest Windows 11 Insider builds (26220.7051) in both the Beta and Dev channels, and more handheld device manufacturers are expected to support it in the coming months. To enable FSE on supported devices, users can navigate to Settings > Gaming > Full screen experience, then select the Xbox app as the primary application. The feature can start automatically with device boot-up or be accessed via the Game Bar or Task View. While FSE can be used on other handheld devices such as Asus ROG Ally or Lenovo Legion Go, enabling it typically requires advanced modifications like using ViveTool and editing the system registry to achieve full functionality (Update Date: October 2025). Owners of ROG Xbox Ally X and ROG Xbox Ally devices can enjoy this experience directly, as these devices were among the first to receive FSE support. Source: The Verge, Source: Pureinfotech

Comparison Between FSE and SteamOS in Performance and User Interface

It is noted that SteamOS: showed better performance compared to Windows 11 across a wide range of games on handheld devices, and it also excels in other areas such as an intuitive user interface and quick suspend and resume features, points where Microsoft needs significant improvement. Source: [Here a source supporting SteamOS performance can be added]

SteamOS Challenges and Player Migration Opportunities

Experts believe that SteamOS: is hampered by only a few factors beyond its control, such as limited game compatibility due to anti-cheat tools that do not work on Linux. Given the popularity of games like Battlefield 6 , Call of Duty, EA Sports FC 26, and Destiny 2, a significant portion of players might be willing to switch from Windows 11 to SteamOS if this issue is resolved.