u/EzerchE

Edit: Quick update after reading the feedback here: I’ve decided to make CouchMode completely free.
No feature tiers. Patreon will just be optional support for anyone who wants to help with development.

I’m working this into the next release now. Thanks for the push on this, genuinely useful feedback.

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Hey everyone,

I built this entirely to solve a personal frustration, and I figured a lot of people in this community probably have the exact same need.

I use my PC at a desk for work, but I also play games using a controller. I always hated the friction of switching between the two. The existing solutions (like AHK scripts that randomly crash, or extensions that require Playnite to constantly run in the background) just weren't cutting it for me. I wanted my PC to feel like a real console from a cold boot.

So I developed a lightweight tool called CouchMode. The logic is simple: Controller on = Couch mode on.

When you power on your controller, the app launches Playnite Fullscreen (or Xbox FSE, Steam BP etc.) directly.

And automatically minimizes or gracefully closes your background desktop clutter or run some session tweaks (HDR, Power scheme, notifications, sound output etc. - selectible / optional).

When your session is over and you turn the controller off, it restores your desktop exactly the way you left it.

It's designed to be completely out of the way. I just wanted to share it with other Playnite users who might be looking for a friction-free setup. If you end up trying it, I’d love to hear your feedback 🙏

(Current build: 0.4.10-beta 191 still has the old Free/Pro split; this change is coming with the next release.)

(Alex in charge)

This idea hit me while gaming today. Every time I want to play, I manually turn on the new Xbox full screen mode, and I'm already using a controller anyway...

so I thought, couldn't this just happen automatically? Microsoft will probably add a setting for it one day, but since I'd already hacked together a fix for myself, I figured why not share it.

So here's AutoXboxMode. Honestly it was really fun to build and I think I'll keep working on it :)

It's my first vibe coding project, so please be gentle. Warnings, things I've missed, or improvement ideas are all very welcome.

https://github.com/EzerchE/AutoXboxMode

I grind the coffee myself, setting the grinder to level 6 on a scale of 1 to 25. After a few tries, the coffee flows at this rate when using hot water and very low heat. Any comments are welcome.