It all began when I got my Lenovo Legion Go back in July 2024. I wanted to give it a real console-like feeling—something that made it feel more like turning on a dedicated gaming system rather than booting up a PC. The first idea was simple: add a custom boot animation to Windows. I wrote a tutorial, published it, and shared it on Reddit. To my surprise, it gained a lot of attention. That small tweak turned into the spark for something much bigger.
Then I created a Playnite extension that played a fullscreen video before launching the app. It got us closer to that console boot experience. I also started using Playnite to manage my installed games, but still, something felt missing…
A Reddit Spark 💡
Everything changed when I stumbled across a Reddit post from a user who shared a video mockup of a game launcher interface for the ROG Ally X. It instantly clicked with me. That was the excuse I needed to build something bigger—something tailored for the Legion Go and similar handheld PCs. I had been realizing more and more how different playing on a PC was compared to a console—tweaking settings, managing performance, dealing with inconsistent framerates. I wanted to change that.
So I reached out to the creator of that post, Floop, and we started brainstorming.
The Road to Winhanced Begins 🛠️
Floop had already been experimenting with an overlay concept. We started by reading installed games on the system, then added a library view with filters by store (Steam, Epic, Xbox, etc.). From there, we built an in-game overlay with multiple tabs:
- 🕹️ A Game tab with real-time details
- 🎮 Controller remapping
- 📋 A custom task manager-style sidebar, fully navigable with a controller
- ⚙️ And the hardest one: the Command Center
The Command Center became the heart of the project. It included:
- TDP profiles and Auto TDP
- GPU settings
- FPS limiter
- Refresh rate & resolution switching
- And the ability to save everything in user-defined profiles
Early Access & Growing Pains 🚀
We launched Winhanced in early access on February 23, 2025. The first versions had their share of challenges. Supporting controller remapping through HidHide and ViGEmBus wasn’t easy. At first, support tickets were flooding in—but things gradually stabilized.
By the time we reached version 1.0.18, Winhanced became rock solid for most users.
ROG Ally X Hiccups 🧨
We did have a few headaches with the ROG Ally X—some users experienced BSODs and even boot loops. But after a lot of debugging and feedback, those issues were resolved in version 1.0.17.
Looking Ahead 👀
What started as a simple video mockup turned into something much more: a powerful utility that brings console convenience to Windows handheld PCs. And this is just the beginning.
If you haven’t tried Winhanced yet, now’s the time. Join us as we continue shaping the future of PC gaming on handhelds.
0degreez 