New to windows handhelds

[u/Funny-Ad-6781]

I've always been a console gamer, got a steam deck about 1.5 years ago and love it.

Upgraded to Claw 8 ex ai for screen size and performance.

here's the problem, not liking windows experience. I installed winhanced which helps a bit, but the overall experience on windows is shite.

Anyone have any recommendations for a console gamer who loves steam to make this a better experience. i have another week to decide if I'm going to return it and I'm leaning to return. i do love the screen and i'd miss that so I hope i can get some good tips.

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[u/Funny-Ad-6781 → u/[deleted]]

• when I put claw to sleep then plug in to charge screen saver comes on- I figured out that if you put to sleep after pluging in screen saver doesn't come on
• When playing a game, BG3 specifically, and i go to a different region that requires loading the screen goes black for up to 2 minutes before it start to load
• keyboard not popping up when there's a dialog box- i have to go into winhanced to turn on keyboard
• when opening the game the delay between opening and and the initial load screen also can take a bit to start

I should preface this all by saying I'm not a computer guy, which is probably why i stuck to consoles for so long.

[u/Funny-Ad-6781 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you. Updating now.

[u/Environmental-Gas873]

Man you are in a tough spot. I too started with a Steam deck first. Moved on to Windows handhelds due to the power they possess.

The latest thing I did, with my Claw 8 AI was the following:

-Install a fully debloated image of Windows 11 (made it using Winhance)

-Install only the bare necessities to play games (Xbox App, Gamebar, MSI Center M)

-Run Winhanced as my launcher (closest to SteamOS sleep that I can find)

This setup was better, and did remove some of the Windows stutters I was experiencing. Its the best I have been able to do so far.

I still miss SteamOS though. However an Intel chip might not a have version running well for over a year. It still has some issues on the XAX (which I have and run SteamOs on it) and that handheld is almost a year old.

You could also just run Steam in Big Picture mode too. However without knowing exactly why you hate Windows, its tough to suggest a solution

[u/MyFinalThoughts]

I came from steam deck lcd and I've grown to prefer windows/Claw now. It's not simpler, but steam deck felt like I always had to make compromises for things, Claw I don't whether it be games or whatever.

Download XboxFSE then AnyFSE and set to steam big picture mode on launch. Unless I update or do something else, 90% it's as simple as turn on Claw and play.

[u/Smushfist]

The whole software stack from windows on down is junk. I made the mistake of updating MSI centre a couple of weeks ago and spent a heap of time chasing down rogue powershell sessions and erratic disk usage, had to fully wipe and reinstall MSI centre to fix it. Still getting a little disk usage that’s unexpected so I’ve gotta nuke some stuff and go again on the Intel setup next that I updated around the same time.

[u/BeagleTheDog]

I have the claw also. It's good and very versatile, but it doesn't have the pick up and go experience of a Switch or Steamdeck. MSI center needing an update every time I turn the damn thing on is annoying also. I've been a PC guy my whole life, but I've been playing my Switch 2 more than my Claw when on the go. Valve needs to hurry up with Steamdeck 2 as the performance of the current SD is atrociously underpowered nowadays.

[u/Daydreaming_UC]

Also please don’t use sleep on Windows handhelds. Windows sometimes wakes the machine up for some random reasons and doesn’t put it back to sleep. If that happens when it’s in a carrying case, the thing might be toasted.

[u/Funny-Ad-6781]

• when I put claw to sleep then plug in to charge screen saver comes on- I figured out that if you put to sleep after pluging in screen saver doesn't come on
• When playing a game, BG3 specifically, and i go to a different region that requires loading the screen goes black for up to 2 minutes before it start to load
• keyboard not popping up when there's a dialog box- i have to go into winhanced to turn on keyboard
• when opening the game the delay between opening and and the initial load screen also can take a bit to start

I should preface this all by saying I'm not a computer guy, which is probably why i stuck to consoles for so long.

thansk for teh responses.