- Microsoft’s March updates for Xbox also brought something for Windows 11
- The game bar received a youthful treatment, including several widgets
- There is also a useful change to improve the widget store of the game bar when using a controller
Microsoft has just made a series of modifications for Xbox consoles in its March updates, but there is also something here for PC players – a new look for the game bar (and a useful adjustment for pocket computers too).
For the uninitiated, the game bar is a superposition that can be summoned to provide easy and practical access to a lot of game-related options. This includes tips such as gameplay, monitoring your PC performance, audio adjustments and much more. The bar can be personalized with various widgets and it is a very useful tool for Windows 11 players overall.
And now, as Neowin has spotted it, Microsoft gave the game bar a graphic makeover, and also tells us that it is the start of “several visual improvements that will be deployed this week”.
The general aspect of the bar has been refreshed, and there are new designs for some of the widgets that can be hosted in the game bar. This includes the Widget Capture, the performance widget, the resource widget and also the Widgets store itself.
In addition, when you are in the Widget store, Microsoft says that it has improved how you sail with the controller, which will offer a better experience in compact mode.
You may remember that the compact mode of the game bar was an innovation brought last year, designed to display the contents of the superposition in a more optimal way in a smaller space, as its name suggests – facilitating life for those who execute Windows 11 on a gaming laptop.
Analysis: Portable hopes
Regarding its appearance, the game bar has been considerably refined in the past year, and it is still another step towards making this overlap more modern. These latest keys make the bar clearer and cleaner, at least in my opinion, so I am satisfied with the general design philosophy with which Microsoft opted here.
It is also good to obtain this improvement to facilitate the exploration of the Widgets store with a controller, which is another step forward for those who use the game bar on a Windows 11 laptop like the Asus Rog Ally X.
More Microsoft introduces DIY aimed at these gaming laptops – and there have been a lot of small steps in this direction now – the more hope for a possible “portable mode” for Windows 11 (which was supposed to be something that the company has been planning for some time).
