Good evening! I wanted to let everyone know that I just pushed a hotfix for the app and the streaming companion app 0.9.9.91 and 1.1.4.0, respectively.

This hotfix was important as it aims to address several concerns that came up with Sunday's release.

Winhanced 0.9.9.91 Hotfix

• Your hardware attempts to fix itself. If a controller, fan or power setting stops working after sleep, after you unplug something, or for no clear reason, Winhanced reconnects on its own and puts your settings back. You no longer need to restart Winhanced or your device.

• Your device maker's app stays off. If it starts again while Winhanced controls your handheld, Winhanced turns it back off for you. It never touches another app that is using your controller.

• Display, HDR and graphics settings come back after sleep or when you plug in a screen.

• Volume, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the status bar keep working after Windows restarts their services, and the volume slider always shows your real volume.

• Steam now uses only the sign-in from your Steam app, so you are not signed in twice, and Winhanced never changes your online status.

• PlayStation Remote Play works with PXPlay 2.9, including your controller.

• PC streaming can use the new PyroWave codec, and the stream stats show the right codec and frame rate.

• Store trailers play the first time you open a game.

Streaming Companion 1.1.4

• The Companion now comes with its own streaming app, Winpollo, and installs it for you. If you already use another streaming app, it stays installed and keeps working.

• Winpollo uses a virtual screen by default, so streaming works even when your PC's monitor is off. Your Winpollo settings are kept when the Companion updates.

• PyroWave support. Stream with the new PyroWave codec for sharper picture on a fast home network.

• Paired devices get full access right away. You no longer have to change permissions for each device you pair.

• The Companion updates itself in the background, and you can uninstall it from its own settings.

• The Companion's server browser lines up with your taskbar, and account options are easier to find.

You can download now via the update center in the app or via the link below:

Winhanced: https://ota.winhanced.com/lg/Winhanced-Installer-0.9.9.91.exe

Winhanced Steaming Companion: https://ota.winhanced.com/lg/companion/Winhanced-Streaming-Companion-1.1.4.0.exe

Winhanced 0.9.9.9 adds the new Streaming Companion, so you can play the games on your gaming PC from your handheld. You can also install Windows updates, hear music for your games, and make your own game collections. Each game now keeps separate settings for battery, plugged in, and an external graphics card, and that includes the game's own graphics settings. Epic and GOG downloads can pick up where they left off, download only what changed in an update, and fix a broken install. Handhelds get a battery charge limit and graphics memory settings. The OneXPlayer 3's fan, power limit and front buttons now work properly. We also rebuilt how Winhanced controls every supported handheld, so a setting does what it says and still works after sleep.

Leaving Early Access

• Everything on a friend's card. The Messages, Status and Profile panels join Games in Common, so everyone can now use the whole friend card.
• Friend messaging. Chat with friends inside Winhanced on Discord, Steam, Xbox and PlayStation. All four work the same way. Messages you send show up right away, and a message that arrives twice only shows once. If a platform needs you to sign in, you get a sign-in button instead of a Send button that does nothing.
• The Status panel. See what a friend is doing right now: the game, how long they have been playing, how many people are in their party, and any extra details the game shares, like their character, rank or game mode. Below that is the last game they played and when. This comes from their whole library, not just the games you both own.
• The Profile panel. See how you and a friend match up. It shows how much of your library they own, how many hours you have both played in games you share, which shared game you have played most, how your achievements compare, and a link to their profile on that platform. A single score sums it all up. Discord friends also show the date you became friends, their server tag, badges, linked accounts, and a list of games they were seen playing recently.
• Favorites. The star on a game's page, the Favorites filter, and the Favorites list are now available to everyone. Any stars you already added are kept.

Coming to Early Access

• Your own collections. The star now opens a Collections panel, so you can add a game to Favorites or to a collection you made. Press New, pick an emoji icon, type a name and press Create. Your collections show up as filters in the library, next to Favorites and PC Streaming. A game can be in as many collections as you like, and selecting a collection adds or removes the game right away. Press Manage to rename a collection, change its icon, or delete it. Deleting a collection does not delete its games. Your collections are saved on your device, so you keep them even if your early access ends. For now, collections stay in the order you made them, and you add games one at a time.
• Games you own but have not installed on EA, Ubisoft Connect and Battle.net, plus the EA Play and Ubisoft+ game lists if you want them. Installed games from those apps still show for everyone.
• The Discord Server Browser. Look through a server you share with a friend, including its text channels, all with a controller. You cannot join voice channels, because Discord does not let apps like Winhanced join calls.
• Share your keyboard and mouse with the Streaming Companion. Use your PC's keyboard and mouse on your handheld, and copy a file on one device and paste it on the other.

New for Everyone

Play your PC games on your handheld with the new Streaming Companion

• The Companion is a new app for your gaming PC. It lets Winhanced on your handheld find that PC and see the games on it. The game runs on your PC and you play it on your handheld. Install Winhanced on the device you hold, and install the Companion on your PC.
• Setup takes care of itself. Turn on PC streaming in Winhanced. Then open the Companion on your PC, pick a streaming app, and click Install. Both devices need to be on the same home network. You do not have to connect or pair anything by hand. If you already use a streaming app, you can keep it and choose it in the Companion's settings.
• Play from your own library. Games you can stream from your PC show as ready to play, with a cloud icon in the library and in Recent Games. You can still install and play a game on the handheld instead.
• Stream your whole PC screen, not just one game. The Desktop tile does this, and you can change its picture.
• Stream quality has ready-made settings that fit your screen, and you can change every setting with a controller.
• Choose which button you hold to stop streaming. Moonlight, the app that shows the stream, handles this with the same controller you play with.
• Turn on your PC from your handheld. Turn this on for each PC in PC streaming settings. When you start a game, Winhanced tries to wake that PC and waits up to a minute for it. You still have to turn on Wake on LAN yourself in that PC's BIOS and network settings. This works best when the PC is plugged into your router with a cable.
• Waking your PC's screen. Before it connects, the Companion checks that your PC's monitor is on and ready. If it is not, the Companion wakes it first instead of connecting to a screen that is off. If you use a virtual screen or a custom setup, your streaming app handles that part.
• Streams end cleanly. When you stop streaming, the game and the stream close on your PC instead of staying open. Winhanced also checks that a Steam game's files are really on your PC, so a game you moved or deleted no longer looks ready to stream.

Different settings for each way you play

• External graphics cards get their own settings. Each game already had battery and plugged in settings. Now it also has settings for when an external graphics card (eGPU) is attached. Plugging the card in or out switches to the right settings, and while it is plugged in, your handheld stays in Performance mode so it can keep up with the card.
• Each set of settings keeps the game's own graphics settings too. For example, use lower graphics on battery and higher graphics when plugged in or on an eGPU. With per-game settings turned on, Winhanced finds where a game saves its settings. It saves a copy when you close the game and puts the right copy back before you play again. This happens between play sessions, never while the game is running.
• More options for NVIDIA graphics cards. Supported cards get per-game settings for DLSS, frame generation, low latency and more. What you see depends on your card and driver.
• Every game gets its own settings on its own. The first time you play a game, it copies your current default settings. If you change your defaults later, only new games use them. Games that already have their own settings keep them, including changes you made before playing the game for the first time.
• Change them from the game's page. The Game Profile panel on a game's page and the in-game menu (HUD) always show the same settings.

Windows updates, inside Winhanced

• Settings > Update Center now has a Windows Updates section, so you do not need to open Windows Settings to update your device.
• Download and install everything with one button, or install one update at a time.
• Updates are sorted the same way Windows sorts them: Feature, Quality, Driver, Definition, then everything else. Each one shows its size.
• You see progress, when Winhanced last checked, and a message when Windows needs a restart. Winhanced never restarts your device for you.
• Updates install one at a time. A few updates ask you a question, and you have to answer those in Windows. If Windows is already waiting to restart, restart first, or the updates may stop partway through.

Drivers

• Winhanced finds drivers much better on MSI and ASUS devices. Many more parts now show the version that is actually installed instead of "Not Detected". Because of that, they now show as Up to Date or Updates Available instead of Optional.
• ASUS drivers for parts your device does not have no longer show up. If your device has no drivers to offer, you no longer see an empty Driver Updates section.
• Update Center now works for OneXPlayer too: BIOS, controller updates and other OneXPlayer software. Controller updates need the OneXConsole app installed.

Music for your games

• Winhanced can play a game's theme song while you look at it in Recent Games. Turn on Game theme music in Settings > General. It is off to start.
• Pick your own song for any game. Open a game's page, then Game Options, then the new Music tab. The search box already has the game's name in it, so most of the time you can just press Find music.
• Hear a song before you pick it. Move to a result with your controller and a short clip plays. Move away and it stops. Nothing is saved until you select a song.
• Or use your own music file: MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, WMA or AAC, up to 200 MB. Winhanced makes a copy, so your original file stays where it is. Press Use automatic to let Winhanced choose again.
• Your first search is a little slower because Winhanced downloads a couple of tools it needs. Music stays quiet while a side panel is open.

Game art

• Choose artwork now has three cards that fit on the screen without scrolling: Box art, Hero art (the large background picture) and Game logo. Each card has an Upload button and a large preview.
• You can now change a game's logo. Upload one, look at it, or remove it. Reset changes now removes a custom logo too.
• Set all three pictures from SteamGridDB in one go. After you save box art, it moves on to hero art, then the logo, then closes. Before, it closed after every picture.
• LB and RB switch tabs: General, Choose artwork and Manage in Game Options, and Box art, Hero art and Logo in the SteamGridDB browser.
• Moving box art now plays in the library, not just in Recent Games. Stop on a game for a moment and it starts moving. Move on and it goes back to a still picture. Animated game artwork needs to be on in Settings > General. For smoother playback, also turn on Video artwork preview.
• Pick a video to play when Winhanced starts. Use your own video or one of the two that come with Winhanced. A new Zoom to fill screen option makes it fill the whole screen.

Better downloads for Epic and GOG

• Epic updates no longer download the whole game again. Winhanced keeps the files you already have and downloads only what changed.
• Stopped downloads pick up where they left off, even if the game got an update while it was stopped.
• Repair. Open a game's page, then Game Options, then Manage, and you will find a new Repair button for Epic games. It checks every file, downloads again only the ones that are missing or broken, and updates the game. This only works for Epic games for now, and you need to be signed in to Epic.
• GOG downloads pick up where they left off too, and keep files that are already correct. Canceling no longer deletes the game folder or breaks files you already had.
• Both check your files before they start downloading, so a big game may wait a moment before it begins. It is not frozen. The total size stays blank while Winhanced checks which files it can keep. If you cancel an install, the parts that already downloaded are kept.

Steam

• Installs, updates and uninstalls now go through the Steam app on your device. You can see progress, pause, cancel, and pick where a game installs, just like in Steam.
• Games start through the Steam app, so they work when Steam is in Offline Mode or says it has no connection. Your own Steam launch options are used too.
• Steam DLC is handled through the Steam app without Steam thinking you started the game.
• Winhanced sees changes to your Steam library and installed games while it is open. It also finds Steam Family games that Steam leaves out of the list.
• Winhanced notices when a Steam game is gone. If you delete or move a Steam game outside Winhanced, it shows as not installed instead of showing a Play button that fails.

Your library

• Epic achievements are here. See them in the library and on the GlassStation home screen. They update after you finish playing.
• Game Pass games from EA, Ubisoft Connect or Battle.net now open the right app instead of saying they are not supported.
• See how many people are playing. A game's page and its store page show how many people are playing it right now.
• Backlog Buster sorts the games you own but have not played yet, and leaves out extra editions of the same game.
• Recently Added now uses the date a game was added to your account. The Owned Only filter is now called Not Installed Only. Hidden games no longer show in Recent Games, and a game you are installing can show there again.
• When you hide a game, it disappears from the library right away instead of after the next refresh.
• Steam shortcuts and games in Other now get their pictures and details from Winhanced's game list. If Winhanced cannot tell which Steam game something is, it searches SteamGridDB by name instead.
• Adding games to your library is faster. The library reloads less often, searching the game list is quicker, and the first search no longer freezes for a moment.
• ROMs: Winhanced now finds PlayStation 3 games, both as folders and as ISO files. They open straight in RPCS3 and have their own console icon. Adding ROMs is faster, you can choose which drives to search, and Winhanced no longer searches your drives every time it starts.

Home screen and animation

• The background fades from one game to the next. Each fade takes about a second and has a slow zoom that keeps going after the new picture is in place. Each picture finishes fading in before the next one starts, and the old picture starts moving as soon as you press a button.
• The All Games card. A new tile at the end of Recent Games shows a slow slideshow of pictures from your library. Select it to go straight to All Games. If your library is small, you see a plain card instead.
• Logos in Recent Games. Winhanced gets a game's logo and details the first time you move to it, so games you have never opened no longer show plain text over their picture.
• Opening and closing pages is smoother for games, friends and the Store. Side panels and the status bar are smoother too. Holding left or right in Recent Games no longer stutters, skips games or jumps backwards.
• When you close a game, its picture shrinks back into the right tile and that game stays selected.

Memory use

• Winhanced frees up memory after adding a lot of games. Adding your whole library used to leave several hundred megabytes of memory in use until you closed Winhanced. That memory is now freed soon after, and also when you leave the library and when Winhanced goes idle while you play a game.
• Moving background art uses less memory. It now uses a still picture saved next to the video, instead of reading the whole animated file again every time the screen updates.

Sound

• We rebuilt how sounds play to cut down on crackling and cut-off sounds. Different sounds can now play at the same time, so moving around the app no longer cuts off the startup sound. If the same sound plays quickly over and over, the last one still fades out.
• Menu sounds follow your speakers or headphones. Before, switching headphones or docking your device could leave the app silent until you restarted it. Now it reconnects by itself.

Languages

• Menus and filters are translated into five languages. Store details now come in your Windows language, and dates, prices and game install languages now match your region correctly.
• French is much better now. A native French speaker checked the app, and this update includes their 258 fixes.

Handheld controls, rebuilt

• A big part of this update is work behind the scenes. The goal: a setting should do what it says, stay set, and keep working after sleep or after your controller reconnects.
• Winhanced and its background service no longer fight over the same controls. Buttons, button mapping, RGB lights, mouse mode, the built-in controller and screen brightness each have one part of Winhanced in charge now.
• Changes happen in the right order. An old change can no longer undo a newer one, and Winhanced no longer sends changes to a controller that just disconnected.
• Winhanced no longer says a change worked when it did not. A device that is not ready is not treated as ready, and a change the device refused is not shown as saved.
• We also improved how Winhanced recognizes your device, sleep and wake, controller reconnects, and turning Device Control on or off. Two controllers of the same model are no longer mistaken for one.
• This covers ASUS, MSI, Lenovo and OneXPlayer devices, plus the power and screen settings they share.

Battery charge limit and graphics memory

• Battery charge limit: stop charging at 80%, 90% or 100%. Legion Go models offer 80% or 100%. This works on the MSI Claw A1M, A8, 8 AI+, 8 EX and 8 G3; ROG Ally and Ally X; ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X; Legion Go, Go 2 and Go S; and the OneXPlayer 3. Winhanced sets your choice again each time it starts, and keeps any limit you had already set on the device. On ROG devices, Winhanced can set the limit but cannot check it, so it shows the limit you picked. On every other device, Winhanced checks the limit with the device itself.
• Intel graphics memory limit: choose how much of your device's memory the Intel graphics can use, or pick Auto. Works on the MSI Claw A1M, 8 AI+, 8 EX and 8 G3, and the OneXPlayer 3.
• Graphics memory size: the same idea on the ROG Ally, Ally X, Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, using the sizes your device supports.
• Both graphics memory settings need you to restart Windows, and Winhanced tells you when. Memory you give to graphics is taken away from everything else, so make small changes.

Controller lights

• Pick any color. The lights editor now has a real color picker instead of a few set colors. Use A to grab a spot on the color box, or use the Hue, Saturation, Red, Green, Blue and Brightness sliders. The d-pad moves 5 steps at a time and the stick moves 10.
• Type or paste a color code (like #FF0000) by selecting the color box. The # is optional.

Power and cooling

• Auto FPS can lower its frame rate goal when a game just cannot reach it. Dynamic power mode can lower its power limit when your device stays too hot. When Winhanced controls the fan, it now reaches full speed by 70C, and Dynamic mode's full-speed safety kicks in at 80C.
• The Legion Go 2 can now go as low as 5W in Custom and Dynamic power modes.
• Your saved fan settings come back after the startup power mode is set, so the power mode can no longer wipe your fan curve when your device starts.
• Lowering your screen's refresh rate now lowers a higher frame rate limit to match.
• Turning Device Control off removes the frame rate limit that Dynamic power mode sets, and stops Auto FPS from setting a new one. Frame rate limits you set yourself still work.

Xbox Game Bar and device buttons

• While Device Control is on, Windows no longer opens the Xbox Game Bar by itself. If you set a button to Open Game Bar, it opens and closes Game Bar through Winhanced. A button set to anything else no longer opens Game Bar too. On the MSI Claw, this is the Quick Settings button.
• Win+G is only blocked on the MSI Claw while Device Control is on, and it works again when you turn off the Claw's built-in controller.
• The Game Bar device panel follows Device Control and remembers your choice.
• A button set to open the keyboard now opens the new Windows touch keyboard instead of the old one.

Sleep and wake

• Legion Go waking up every two hours. Windows was waking the device when it decided sleep was using too much battery. Winhanced now spots this and puts the device right back to sleep instead of leaving it awake with the screen on.
• Waking up seconds after you put it to sleep. Sometimes Windows woke the device by itself right after it went to sleep. Winhanced now keeps the screen off and lets the device go back to sleep.
• MSI Claw: the fingerprint reader can no longer wake the device while it sleeps.
• Your controller after sleeping in a game. The game now waits to wake up until your controller is back, so the game never loses its controller.
• Lights during sleep. Lenovo controller lights turn off when the device sleeps and come back when it wakes. The in-game menu's light settings come back from what you saved.
• Sleeping with a game open. Winhanced pauses the game when your device goes to sleep, and this could make it skip the rest of its sleep steps. Those steps now always run, and Winhanced remembers which game it paused so it can wake it up.
• The sleep power plan can no longer undo your normal power plan if it was still switching when you woke the device.

Pausing and resuming games

• Resuming from the in-game menu could bring the game back and then send you back to Winhanced a second later. Fixed.
• If a game does not wake up, you now see a "Game isn't responding" message and go back to Winhanced, instead of getting stuck on the game's loading picture.
• Putting your device to sleep with a game paused could freeze Winhanced when you woke it. Fixed.
• Back to game. The Back to game button in the in-game menu did nothing while a game was running. It works now.

OneXPlayer 3

• Fan settings now stay put. The device used to replace your fan speeds almost right away. You now get the normal fan curve with eight points from 30C to 100C, set as percentages. The fan ignores anything under 20%. If the fan will not accept a setting, Winhanced switches back to the device's normal fan curve instead of leaving the fan stuck.
• Power limits above 25W were accepted but never used, because a second limit in the device held it at 25W. Winhanced can now raise that limit, but only if the OneXConsole app is installed. Without it, the slider stops at about 25W instead of pretending it can reach 40W. The power modes are Silent 12W, Balanced 20W and Performance 35W.
• Battery charge limit works on this device.
• Light brightness has four levels: 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent, because that is all the device supports. The old slider had eleven steps, and most of them did nothing.
• The Breath light effect looks right. The lights around the sticks cannot fade in and out, so they stay your chosen color while the G button and top light bar fade in and out.
• You can change what the front buttons do. Home, G, Keyboard and Turbo can each do something different.

Legion Go

• Lenovo's Dynamic fan curves are no longer reset for no reason. Custom fan settings on the Legion Go and Go S now match what the device reports back.

Accounts and connection

• Signing in to Epic or GOG no longer signs you out of other services.
• Wi-Fi with location turned off. If Windows blocks Winhanced from looking for networks, Winhanced still shows the network you are connected to. It still cannot show a list of nearby networks.

Discord

• Long chats load again. Before, a long chat history could download but never show up in the app.
• Steam chats update when new messages arrive in the Steam app.
• The server browser frees up memory when you leave its tab. If you are in a voice call, it waits until the call ends.

Menus and screens

• The outline around the selected item and scrollbars no longer make the screen jump when you move around, and you no longer see two outlines at once. Buttons across the app now all have the same rounded shape.
• The round battery icon is back in the status bar, with the percentage next to it, and the icon is no longer cut off.
• The status bar can no longer start opening or closing while it is still in the middle of opening or closing, so it should no longer get stuck halfway open.
• Sliders show that they are selected before you start changing them, and the slider handle is no longer cut off at the end.

Bug Fixes

Your library

• Fixed custom game art being lost when you restarted your device from inside Winhanced. Winhanced now saves everything before a restart, shutdown or hibernate.
• Fixed the library losing your place when it refreshed in the background. The same game stays selected and the list stays where you scrolled, even when games are added or removed nearby.
• Fixed background pictures, icons and loading animations not coming back after Winhanced sat idle, after you played a game, or after a graphics error.
• Fixed part of a game's picture being cut off while it opened and then suddenly popping into place.
• Fixed pictures and animations blocking clicks on a game, or putting the selection outline in the wrong spot.
• Fixed scrolling stopping just before the top or bottom, which left the last bit of a page hidden under the selected button.
• Fixed game detail changes saying "saved" before they were really saved.

Controller navigation

• Fixed the controller moving outside the area you were using on game pages and Store pages. This includes Manage Game, the General and Artwork options, single achievements, Store reviews and price comparisons.
• Fixed pressing A on the search box, or Y in the library, opening the keyboard without the cursor in the search box.
• Fixed having to tap the screen before your controller worked again after closing a game or a game page.

Starting and leaving games

• Fixed full-screen games opening behind Winhanced. Winhanced now waits for the game's window to appear and keeps trying while the game loads, without slowing down when a game is busy.
• Fixed problems coming back to Winhanced when a closing game leaves Windows with no window in front. Leaving a game also no longer messes with other windows the game had hidden.

Devices

• Fixed turning on Device Control freezing while it set up the controller lights.
• Fixed a supported handheld getting stuck showing up as a regular PC, and a failed settings load replacing good settings with blank ones.
• Fixed ASUS devices not being recognized correctly, and ASUS light problems.
• Fixed changing one game's lights also changing your default lights.
• Fixed power settings being set again while Device Control was off, handing control back to your device maker's app getting mixed up, and old changes landing after a newer one.

Friends and PlayStation

• Fixed Winhanced checking each PlayStation friend's status one at a time. It now checks all of them at once, once a minute.
• PlayStation Remote Play through PXPlay now needs PXPlay 2.1 or newer. Older versions are turned off. Chiaki-ng still works the same.

Startup

• Fixed removing a startup video not fully clearing your choice.

Download Winhanced 0.9.9.9: https://ota.winhanced.com/lg/Winhanced-Installer-0.9.9.9.exe

Download the Streaming Companion 1.0.0.0 (install on your gaming PC): https://ota.winhanced.com/lg/companion/Winhanced-Streaming-Companion-Installer-1.0.0.0-20260923-115943.exe

Already have Winhanced? Update from Settings > Update Center in the app.

Full patch notes and downloads: https://www.winhanced.com/support

Hey everyone! Super excited to announce the release date of 0.9.9.9! The plan is to release the app this Sunday 9/27!

I am going to to be compiling a release candidate build for testers this morning and once they give the go ahead I will begin prep on the patch video, and release notes.

To help get everyone excited here is a high level of what is coming in 0.9.9.9!

- Hardware related bugs across device families have been sqaushed. I am not kidding when I say that the device consistency of this patch is 1.0 level finally. Rigorous month of testing has helped us identify the majority of remaining bugs.

- PXPlay support for PXPlay users on 2.1 beta or newer.

- Some of the smoothest cleanest animations you will ever witness on a launcher like this.

- Battery limit support for Asus, MSI, Lenovo, and OneXPlayer 3

- One X player 3 in house hardware testing and consistency

- Steam player counts on game details page

- A new collections feature for organizing your library

- VRam allocation management

- game music themes for recent game row

- Discord server browser

- Complete PC streaming overhaul with a new Winhanced streaming companion app.

- Backlog buster sort option that allows you to sort your library using the stores taste profile to help identify games in your backlog to play

- Language localization support for Spanish, French, German, and Korean. French was fully translated natively by one of our lovely community members and Spanish is on the way as well, the rest are AI assisted for now.

And much much more under the hood! For stability and consistency

So please look forward to Sunday! I can’t wait to get this thing in your hands!

Hey everyone!

Thank you everyone who reported the issue with the OP3 controller not working after turning on the device control toggle. the bug was me using the wrong controller code to manage the controller. I am not sure what caused the one users currupt window install. but now that the controller code matches the firmware this shouldn't happen again.

Controller is now working and remapping is also working. There is some funkiness with remapping the front 4 controllers, and I'm working through a few quirks. And RGB is also not fully working. but I am also looking to get it working for the next patch.

I am uploading this version now to fix the critical issue with the hopeful understanding from folks that I will get the rest working in time (its hard without the hardware lol)

Any way, please download this version of 0.9.9.8. to replace your current copy if you already downloaded it. its the same version number, replacing the current upload so it won't show up in the OTA if you already installed.

side note this also fixes a bug where hidden games were showing up in recent games even though they were hidden.

Download link: https://ota.winhanced.com/lg/Winhanced-Installer-0.9.9.8.exe

Winhanced 0.9.9.8 is the biggest update since the Store. Opening the friends details panel now matches the store and game details panels with its own dynamic dock, and messaging your friends on Discord, Steam, Xbox and PlayStation without leaving Winhanced enters early access. The OneXPlayer 3 becomes a fully supported handheld with TDP, fan control, RGB lighting, vibration and full controller remapping. And the way Winhanced sets power limits on every handheld was rebuilt from measured numbers instead of guesswork. Additionally the Library backend was reworked to be more consistent, and I have gutted about 20k total lines of old dead code buildup!

Features

Leaving Early Access

• Emulators and ROM library: ROM folder import, the My Games view on each console, console icons and RetroAchievements are now available to everyone.
• The Layout system: Both home layouts drop their experimental label, and the layout switch in Settings > General is open to everyone.
• Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, EA and Amazon libraries: are now available to everyone and have their own settings pages with a status block and Resync, and they notice a new install while Winhanced is open instead of after a restart.

Coming to Early Access

• Friend messaging: Hold a conversation with a friend inside Winhanced on Discord, Steam, Xbox and PlayStation, and they all work the same way. PlayStation history goes back nearly four years and Xbox over 1,700 days. Discord shows about 60 messages because Discord's own kit only keeps 72 hours. A message you send appears right away, a message that arrives twice is shown once, and a platform that needs a sign-in gives you the button instead of a send that quietly does nothing.
• Unread messages: The Friends hub gets a New Messages section at the top, and any friend with something waiting moves up into it. There is a badge on the friend row and on the Message button. Steam gives an exact count, the others a dot. Reading a Steam conversation marks it read on Steam too, and the background service does the counting so badges are already right when you open Winhanced.
• Friend Status drawer: What a friend is doing right now, in full: the game, how long they have been in it, party size, and whatever the game itself reports (usually their character, rank or mode). Under that, the last game they played and when, from their whole library rather than only the games you share.
• Friend Profile drawer: The friendship, measured. How much of your library they own, the hours you have put into shared games, which one you have played most, an achievement comparison between the two of you, and a link out to their platform profile. An affinity score rolls it into one number and tells you which parts it could measure. Discord friends get tiles about the friendship plus a Recently Seen Playing list built from what Winhanced has noticed them in.
• Set a nickname for any friend: Xbox, PlayStation and Discord never offered this anywhere. Your existing Steam and Discord nicknames are picked up automatically, your own edit always wins, and it shows everywhere: the friends list, the card and your messages.
• Discord friends now show the date you became friends, their guild tag, profile badges and connected accounts. If they have Steam linked, you can see it. Browsing a Discord server you share with someone now works. Voice channels are not possible, because Discord will not give an app like this the access needed to join a call.
• Favorites: Star a game from the details panel and it appears in a new Favorites tile in your library. Stars are kept on disk, so nothing is lost if early access lapses.

New for Everyone

Friends

• The friend details panel was rebuilt: It is now a card with drawers. The top is the person: avatar, name, online status and their live activity, with artwork behind it all. In a game, you get that game's hero art. Offline with games in common, you get a collage of those games. Otherwise their Steam profile background or Discord banner, animated ones included. Beside their name: how long you have been friends, their guild tag, and how many games you have in common.
• One clear next step: The action row offers Join, Launch, Install or Go to store depending on what they are playing and what you own. If nothing is possible, a short sentence says why.
• Games in Common: Every game you both own as a row of covers you can scroll through. Pick one to open its details, launch it, or invite your friend to it.
• Invite a friend into a game: On Steam this sends a real Steam invite, even for a game you are not running. Discord, Xbox and PlayStation do not let outside apps send game invites, so the card offers to message your friend instead.
• Winhanced keeps a quiet record of what it sees your friends playing on every platform. After a week you have a real picture of what someone actually plays. It only counts what Winhanced saw while it was open, which is why it says "seen" and not "played".

OneXPlayer 3 (new device)

• The OneXPlayer 3 is now a fully supported handheld: With device control on, Winhanced takes over from OneXConsole and its background layer, and hands everything back when you switch it off.
• TDP that sticks: OneXConsole's background layer was quietly putting the power limit back to its own values minutes after you set yours. Winhanced now ends that layer properly, so the limit you set is the limit you get.
• Fan control: A temperature-driven fan curve, the same control every other supported handheld gets. Winhanced proves it can drive the fan before offering it. If it cannot, the device stays on its own firmware curve rather than getting a control that does nothing.
• RGB lighting: The stick rings light from Winhanced with the same layouts, effects and per-game switching as other devices, including a different color for the left and right stick.
• Vibration: Rumble intensity is adjustable from the Controller tab, across five levels.
• Full controller remapping: Every button, not just the paddles: M1 and M2 back paddles, the top left button, Home and G, the keyboard button, the Xbox button, and all sixteen standard buttons. Standard buttons are written into the controller's firmware, and the rest go through Winhanced's own bindings. The Xbox button stays the Guide button until you rebind it.
• The Controller tab shows the OneXPlayer 3's own graphic with buttons grouped the way they sit on the device, and lighting, vibration and remaps survive sleep and a controller reconnect.

Power limits, rebuilt for every handheld

• Every supported device now has one entry holding its whole power picture: its lowest wattage, its Silent, Balanced and Performance presets, and its ceiling. Those numbers used to live in ten different places.
• Presets now change between battery and plugged in, because on real hardware they do. Armoury Crate's Turbo is 25W on battery and 35W plugged in.
• Every wattage now has to say where it came from: measured on the hardware, taken from the maker's own modes, or worked out from the chip.
• Balanced now sits where the chip is genuinely most efficient. On most modern handheld chips that is 15W to 17W. Older chips struggle below 20W, so theirs sit higher.
• The base ROG Ally got its TDP control back, and the base ROG Xbox Ally, OneXPlayer Apex, OneXFly F1 and F1 Pro, and GPD Win Mini all have proper entries now. Some had none before, and the OneXFly was never even recognized.
• The MSI Claw 8 AI+ Balanced preset moved from 20W to 17W, to match MSI. The MSI Claw A8 slider now goes down to 8W like every other Claw instead of stopping at 15W.
• Winhanced now refuses to guess for hardware it does not recognize, instead of inventing a limit for it.
• Device control is offered during setup when Winhanced recognizes your chip, not only when it recognizes the exact model.
• The app's leftover copies of the TDP, AutoPilot and overlay code were deleted. They were switched off but still there, which explains some of the random per-user oddities that popped up over time.

Legion Go

• Original Legion Go 1 controllers (pre-2025 firmware) now get RGB lighting and vibration.
• The Legion Go S gets RGB lighting.
• Legion Go 2 paddle remaps now actually take effect on 2025 firmware. They were being acknowledged and ignored. The Go 2's five extra buttons are now read too.
• Controller vibration intensity can be set on Legion controllers with 2025 or newer firmware.
• The status pill shows each detached controller's own battery, with animated transitions.

Controller settings

• The Controller tab is organized around features now. The list on the left has what your controller can do (remap, lighting, vibration) and the editor sits on the right. RGB lighting moved out of General settings into the Controller tab, with its own scope selector.
• Profiles get a condensed dropdown, and reset and delete are separate actions.
• A circled chevron now marks anything that opens something, app-wide.

Drivers and updates

• Update Center now covers Lenovo. It reads Lenovo's own support catalog for your exact machine type (Go 1, Go S and Go 2), installs packages silently, and never recommends a BIOS older than the one you have.
• Driver installs show an elapsed clock and say when they are taking longer than usual. A silent install that fails falls back to a visible installer.
• Turning device control on shows each step live, and a failure gives you a pasteable report instead of a toggle that silently snaps back.

Xbox and Game Pass

• Xbox achievements are now fetched on demand, like every other library already was.
• A newly installed Xbox game appears without restarting Winhanced.
• Xbox metadata and artwork come from Microsoft's own catalog first.

Library

• Ownership changes (a purchase, a refund, leaving Game Pass) are picked up while Winhanced is running instead of only at launch.
• Winhanced now follows your primary display and rebuilds its layout, so docking to a TV fills the screen properly.
• Your custom artwork moved out of the cache folders. Clearing a cache can no longer take it with it.
• Lossless Scaling settings now follow the game. Whatever you set for a game is saved with it and put back when you launch it.
• Clear Cache now actually clears the library and lets the re-import that follows succeed.
• Apps and Other Games have their own caches now, so they survive a library rebuild.
• Steam is brought up once at startup instead of being guessed per game, so games that need the client no longer crash on a cold start.

Sound, sleep and display

• UI sounds clip or distort less on handheld speakers. (still happens occasionally and trying to figure out why)
• Enhanced Sleep now sets its own wake and USB behavior instead of inheriting whatever the copied power plan came with.
• Widget artwork now survives a library refresh.

Bug Fixes

Power and TDP

• Fixed ASUS devices being sent a burst limit lower than their sustained limit.
• Fixed the ROG Flow Z13 being given a 45W limit from its chip family instead of its own 93W entry.
• Fixed the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and Claw A1M losing their second TDP slider.
• Fixed the ROG Xbox Ally X reporting a power limit as applied when the firmware had written nothing. A limit that does not land now says so.
• Fixed a single readback disagreement abandoning direct SMU control for the rest of the session.
• Fixed the OneXPlayer 3's power limit being reset by OneXConsole minutes after you set it.

ROG Ally X

• Fixed Dynamic TDP dying about eight seconds into a session and taking the overlay's live readings down with it.
• Fixed a power limit the handheld had already accepted being thrown away, which then broke TDP control for the rest of the session.
• Fixed the AC button opening Armoury Crate because device control would not stay switched on.
• Fixed the game bar not opening on this machine. Same cause as above.
• Fixed device control on ASUS timing out and reporting a failure while every step had actually succeeded.

Settings and Display

• Fixed your settings file being scrambled when the app and the background service saved at the same time. They now take turns.
• A damaged settings file now repairs itself when the app starts. You no longer have to go find and delete anything yourself.
• Fixed a damaged settings file making your handheld show up as a generic PC, with device control, remapping and RGB quietly switched off.
• Fixed settings snapping back to an old value after a restart, including settings the background service owns reverting on every save.
• Fixed high refresh rate and VRR panels being locked to 60Hz after Winhanced sampled the display while it was idling. A stored 60Hz that sits below your panel's ceiling is cleared once, automatically.
• Fixed the desktop refresh rate being restored to an idle rate after a game changed the display mode.

Sleep, Power and Sessions

• Fixed Quick Resume not waking a game that Windows brings back to the front, so a running game is no longer labeled as suspended.
• Fixed turning Enhanced Sleep off freezing the machine for a minute.
• Fixed a suspended game being frozen on wake instead of before sleep on MSI and Lenovo handhelds.
• Fixed controller polling resuming too early when waking straight back into a game.
• Fixed every plug and unplug on a handheld writing to your settings file whether anything had changed or not.
• The background service no longer touches the overlay's shared memory during sleep and wake, which should make it more reliable across a sleep cycle.

Your Library

• Fixed custom artwork on non-Steam shortcuts not surviving a restart.
• Fixed hidden games staying visible because the old library database was never retired.
• Fixed the widget showing zero hours and zero achievements for a game that had both, and the game title going missing from the widget.
• Fixed a hand-added emulator showing up as a second tile next to the one Winhanced detected.
• Fixed playtime and achievements never appearing for Game Pass catalog games.
• Fixed a library rendering empty forever after a bad schema stamp, which made people sign in to Steam over and over.
• Fixed Store apps being imported as Xbox games.
• Fixed a game with no logo crashing the app.
• Fixed adding a custom emulator locking the controller and forcing a hard restart.
• Fixed HowLongToBeat times coming back as N/A after the site renamed part of its address.

Friends

• Fixed PlayStation friends never being seen as playing a game you own. Every PSN friend showed Go to store, even for games already in your library.
• Fixed the friends list and the friend card disagreeing. The list would offer a working Launch button while the card said "Nothing to join" for the same person.
• Fixed Steam status text showing raw placeholder junk like %name% instead of the real value.
• Fixed an offline friend's shared-games collage being painted over a moment after it appeared.
• Fixed Discord friends disappearing after sleep, with an empty chat and a send error, until you restarted the app. Discord now reconnects on its own when the background service comes back.
• Fixed friendship date, guild tag and nickname being missing for the whole session on Discord friends.

Controllers and Drivers

• Fixed the Y3 paddle being assigned to the wrong side on the Legion Go 2.
• Fixed the Legion device control restore that never worked.
• Fixed driver packages that declare a non-zero exit code as success being reported as failed.
• Fixed graphics driver installs being reported as failures when the display reset mid-install. You are offered a restart instead.
• Fixed Lenovo driver versions showing a stray "v" prefix, and drivers the Go 1 actually has installed going undetected.

Interface

• Fixed library tiles no longer taking controller focus.
• Fixed the title logo on the details panel flashing every time it opened.
• Fixed wishlist navigation not working until you had scrolled once.
• Fixed a tall item on the Recent row stretching the whole row instead of fitting inside it.
• Fixed the artwork behind every details card having square corners while the card on top of it was rounded.
• Fixed the four newest library rows not glowing on focus like the rest.
• Fixed the download progress overlay being buried under the HUD.
• Fixed the Achievements stat on the details panel sitting low.
• Fixed the status pill's chip row needing two presses of Down to return to the rail.
• Fixed GeForce NOW sign-in not finishing properly on the page it landed on.

Good morning, everyone! It's been a few days since I posted here and about 1.5 weeks since the last update to the app. While I know that is no time at all compared to others, its actaully a pretty long time for WinhancedI, so I wanted to share the status of where things are.

As most of you know, Winhanced is not my full-time thing. It's a side project that I work on in my free time between my day job as a product designer. So, outside of the things below I worked on, I also just got back from a 1 week work travel trip where I did nothing with the app, unfortunately.

Since the last update, my focus has been on 2 areas:

1: Legion Go, Go S, and Go 2: Since getting a Go 1 for testing the primary bulk of my work has been working to get this family of devices up to the level as MSI and Asus families. So a lot of work has gone into getting driver support, button mapping, and RGB all working correctly across all 3 for the first time consistently. This has taken me about 8 days of work to do.

2: Gutting and refactoring old library code: Listen, I hear you guys loud and clear; I really do. You all love Winhanced and want to see it continue to grow with new amazing features, but on top of that, you want stability, clarity, and consistency across devices. This is an app that has been built up for almost 2 years. With lots of feature pivots, expansions, changes, and hotfixes. What has happened is a mountain of tech debt has piled up. There are loads that of band-aid fixes, old dead code, and half migrations within the app. So the next week or so of my efforts is going to be around refactoring and gutting all of this from the app. My hope is that by doing so, the app will be much more consistent and easy to diagnose and predict. (0.9.9.9 will also have a focus on this, but on the performance management side of the house).

Beyond those 2 I have also fixed the Steam launch issue for folks as well. You can expect 0.9.9.8 to release the first week of September, and it will also include bringing the ROM library and layout systems out of Early Access to the free tier for everyone.

Down the road thinking: I am also starting to begin to think about what monetization will look like for 1.0. Nothing drastic is changing. But I am thinking through pricing, features and store availability. Right now, here is what I am thinking.

Winhanced Free: Will remain free and continue to support the app's core feature set (deciding on that core feature set is still WIP).

Winhanced Plus: Winhanced Early Access will change to Winhanced Plus after 1.0 and will be accessible either via a monthly/ yearly subscription of $4/month or $30/year or a $60 one-time purchase. This will give users early access to new features as it does today, as well as a subset of premimum features on top. Anyone who is already an Early Access member for the app will be grandfathered into Winhanced Plus as a show of goodwill.

I am thinking of this right now because, no matter how I crunch the numbers, this app is just not sustainable for me personally without a true monetization strategy, and the early feature/ support system alone is just not enough to account for the time obligation and upkeep.

As for store availability, beyond the website, I am also looking into store listings on both Steam and the Microsoft Store to make getting Winhanced more accessible for everyone.

Anyway, I really wanted to let you all know where my head is at right now and the current status of the app / why there has been a lack of video updates, etc. As a side note, even if I don't respond to you on Reddit. I read every post and take everything you say to heart. So please remember I am always listening and taking in all of your feedback!

Thanks so much for being a part of the Winhanced community!

-Floop