Microsoft engineers pitch for Windows handheld mode

[Marees]

Microsoft is aware of the problems running Windows on the Steam Deck and other similar handheld Windows PCs, and at least some developers inside the company have spent time thinking of ways to address them. That’s the thrust of a leaked presentation (posted in two parts by Twitter user _h0x0d_) about a new “Handheld Mode” for Windows, developed as part of an internal Microsoft hackathon in September 2022.


Microsoft employees have shown off a concept for what an optimized Windows user interface could look like on Valve's Steam Deck handheld PC, and by extension, how Windows gaming would operate on that system. In a leaked video posted online by Twitter user h0x0d (via The Verge), the pitch details all of the problems that Steam Deck users have with trying to get Windows running on the handheld hardware, and it originates from a Microsoft Hackathon that was held in September 2022.

This internal event, where employees pitch ideas to Microsoft higher-ups in order to get support for them, saw the team present a prototype operating system for the Steam Deck. Led by senior UX designer Dorothy Feng, the launcher allows for games to be opened up from multiple storefronts such as the PC version of Game Pass, Steam, Epic Games Store, and more. Other improvements include an optimized keyboard and a floating taskbar.


As presented, Handheld Mode includes several components: a new first-time setup screen that simplifies driver installation and setup; an improved touchscreen keyboard that fits better on a 7-inch screen and can be controlled Xbox-style with the built-in buttons and joysticks; a simplified Nintendo Switch-esque game launcher; and improved OS-wide controller support thanks to the open source Steamdeck Windows Controller Driver (SWICD) project. The presentation also calls for other changes to Windows' default behaviors, like always opening apps in full-screen mode when in Handheld Mode, better UI scaling for small screens, and "mapping of controls to common Windows functions."


While this project may never ship, 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 its 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 have been relying on Windows without an optimized UI 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 start to see even more Windows handheld devices soon, too. Asus just announced its ROG Ally, which aims to go head to head with the Steam Deck and is powered by a customized Ryzen APU from AMD and Windows 11. A Windows handheld mode certainly make a lot of sense right now.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/l...g-could-look-like-on-steam-deck/1100-6513227/

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...-make-it-work-better-on-steam-deck-style-pcs/

 

[MrGuvernment]

Now port it as a trimmed down, lose the fat Desktop OS as well...ditch all the old 32bit legacy crap and ancient drivers and release it for those of us with modern hardware

 

[LurkerLito]

Now port it as a trimmed down, lose the fat Desktop OS as well...ditch all the old 32bit legacy crap and ancient drivers and release it for those of us with modern hardware

They'll happily do that and throw in worse spyware/tracking software, ad generating bloatware, and locked down you don't own shit on their software features that would make Google and Apple envious.

 

[SpongeBob]

Now port it as a trimmed down, lose the fat Desktop OS as well...ditch all the old 32bit legacy crap and ancient drivers and release it for those of us with modern hardware

But that's what we've wanted for the 20 years. I mean they'll have to leverage it to gamers somehow. We used to have to upgrade the OS to get the newest DX version. Despite games being made on DX9 for like 10+ years....

 

[NamelessPFG]

They should've thought about that back in the UMPC days!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC

If some of those devices look vaguely familiar, it's because if you swap out the thumb keyboards for gamepad controls and Windows for a heavily customized Linux, you get the Steam Deck. Well, that and integrated graphics that aren't complete garbage, too.

Now port it as a trimmed down, lose the fat Desktop OS as well...ditch all the old 32bit legacy crap and ancient drivers and release it for those of us with modern hardware

If "ditching all the old 32-bit legacy crap" means "breaking 32-bit games and other existing software" as Apple casually did with macOS Catalina and later, that's a hard no for me.

Part of the fun of PC gaming, at least on Windows, is that you can run closed-source, binary-only games from literal decades ago just fine, maybe with a little tweaking on the more finicky titles and outright emulation if you start diving into Win9x and older. You can't really do that on other OSes because they keep changing too much at a low level; I would not be surprised if UT2004's Linux installer right on the DVD just broke if you ran it on a modern distro nearly two decades later, for example.

I'm pretty sure current versions of Windows require a 64-bit CPU and native UEFI boot anyway, so they wouldn't even run on older hardware - supporting that stuff with drivers and such would be pointless. This is even before I get into Windows 11's arbitrary BS with alleged CPU requirements and TPM 2.0 requirement for no other real reason than to coerce people who don't know how to bypass the checks to buy new computers.

 

[toast0]

I would not be surprised if UT2004's Linux installer right on the DVD just broke if you ran it on a modern distro nearly two decades later, for example.

Yeah, good luck with that. Probably have better luck running it on FreeBSD with the Linux emulator.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Yeah, good luck with that. Probably have better luck running it on FreeBSD with the Linux emulator.

Or running the Windows version with Proton/WINE + DXVK/etc., for that matter.

It's quite telling that game developers find that making Linux versions nets you 5% of the sales for 95% more support tickets, as one of them put it, and Proton just lets them put out a Windows version that simply works better in the ever-changing Linux environment (where devs just change kernel API calls on a whim and expect everyone to update their drivers to match) than a native build could ever hope to.

Proton may have singlehandedly made the Steam Deck the first Steam Machine worth buying, even moreso than its UMPC-esque form factor. (Anyone else remember Steam Machines and early SteamOS?) You generally don't have to think if your massive library of Steam games will run, because most of them will.

 

[MrGuvernment]

They should've thought about that back in the UMPC days!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC

If some of those devices look vaguely familiar, it's because if you swap out the thumb keyboards for gamepad controls and Windows for a heavily customized Linux, you get the Steam Deck. Well, that and integrated graphics that aren't complete garbage, too.


If "ditching all the old 32-bit legacy crap" means "breaking 32-bit games and other existing software" as Apple casually did with macOS Catalina and later, that's a hard no for me.

Part of the fun of PC gaming, at least on Windows, is that you can run closed-source, binary-only games from literal decades ago just fine, maybe with a little tweaking on the more finicky titles and outright emulation if you start diving into Win9x and older. You can't really do that on other OSes because they keep changing too much at a low level; I would not be surprised if UT2004's Linux installer right on the DVD just broke if you ran it on a modern distro nearly two decades later, for example.

I'm pretty sure current versions of Windows require a 64-bit CPU and native UEFI boot anyway, so they wouldn't even run on older hardware - supporting that stuff with drivers and such would be pointless. This is even before I get into Windows 11's arbitrary BS with alleged CPU requirements and TPM 2.0 requirement for no other real reason than to coerce people who don't know how to bypass the checks to buy new computers.

in that case then it would not be the OS to use for people who want to play such old games, or use such old apps. There are plenty of us who do not play such old games or use such old apps and thus a trimmed down lose all the "legacy" stuff might be nice and more efficient and stream lined, not to mention potentially more secure OS.

 

[NamelessPFG]

in that case then it would not be the OS to use for people who want to play such old games, or use such old apps. There are plenty of us who do not play such old games or use such old apps and thus a trimmed down lose all the "legacy" stuff might be nice and more efficient and stream lined, not to mention potentially more secure OS.

So you like things the way Apple does it - get on the latest OS for all the latest security enhancements and features, and screw you if your existing software is incompatible, go buy something else that is.

Heck, if security is the impetus, that's what consoles are for, since they're not intended for you to run custom firmwares or unsigned code in general. They also generally are not designed to have backwards compatibility, though they may be capable of it if it's easy enough to implement.

I can understand modernizing the underlying codebase in ways that may break old programs not written in a system-friendly manner. Windows itself went through this when it kicked the DOS-based 9x/Me architecture to the curb in favor of NT (everything from Windows 2000 to 11 and beyond is a descendant of NT), and yet again when 64-bit versions had to drop 16-bit executable support because x86-64 long mode inherently doesn't work with virtual 8086 mode. I'm actually impressed that modern Windows has as much backwards compatibility as it currently does, at least on x86-64.

For those cases, just give me some kind of sandboxed compatibility/emulation environment if that's what they really have to do, make it optionally installed so it's not taking up resources if you don't need it, and don't pull an Apple and just remove it entirely within two to four OS versions (Classic Mode, original Rosetta for PowerPC binaries on Intel).