Given that Windows 11-based handhelds like the ROG Ally use Xbox controller features, it seems baffling that out of the box you can’t hit a button and bring up the Xbox Game Bar.
It’s even more bizarre that on this handheld PC targeting almost entirely at gaming that instead of a default shortcut to Game Bar, you have a shortcut to launch Copilot. We get it, Microsoft, you’re determined to get as many people as possible using it, but it’s not what we want here.
Fortunately you can at least set up your ROG Ally to have this functionality. Here’s what you need to do.
How to set a shortcut to launch Xbox Game Bar on the ROG Ally
What you have to do in order to access Game Bar on your ROG Ally is manually set a shortcut for it. In Armoury Crate you can set secondary functions for each of the buttons that, when pressed in conjunction with a rear paddle, will activate.
Open Armoury Crate and select the settings cog. Next, hit configure and you’ll be presented with options for both desktop and handheld mode. For best effect, I recommend doing this on each of them, especially if you rely on the auto preset a lot to switch between the two.
You can choose the buttons you want, but here’s what I did, and I’ll explain why.
- Mapped view button secondary function to keyboard shortcut for Win+G.
- Mapped start button secondary function to Xbox button.
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Why both? Well, if you use Steam big picture mode, the Xbox button is also used to open the menu. So you’ll be opening both the menu and Game Bar at the same time. But this is another reason to get a shortcut mapped, because without it, you’ll have to rely on touch to open the menu.
By mapping the keyboard shortcut for Game Bar, you have one button that is solely for this, and one button that is your Xbox button. Then, go into Game Bar settings and turn off the shortcut to activate it with the Xbox button.
This means that while you’re playing games in the Steam Deck-alike UI, you won’t keep opening the menu when you want Game Bar, or Game Bar when you want the menu. Each will have its own individual shortcut.
It is a little cumbersome, and it’s also not (in my experience, at least) 100% reliable. But it’s the best solution we have right now until one of these companies just flat out ships an Xbox button on one of these handhelds.
The other thing you’ll want to enable in Game Bar settings is compact mode. This has been designed for handhelds, and shrinks the UI to something far easier to parse and interact with on the smaller display.
