I’ve been writing for more than a year about how Microsoft needs to overhaul Windows on handhelds and use an Xbox OS UI on top, keeping the complexity of the Windows desktop hid

Jason Ronald, Microsoft's VP of Next Generation, wants to bring "the best of Xbox and Windows together" on existing gaming handheld PCs.

Last January at CES, Microsoft chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi declared 2024 the “year of the AI PC.” And whether you believe that prediction came true or not—many new PCs come with AI-accelerating neural processing units onboard, but far from all of them—you can't deny that Microsoft did try very hard to make it happen.

“I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together, because we have spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked to the console,” says Ronald. “What we’re doing is we’re really focused on how do we bring those experiences for both players and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem.”

Microsoft has said that it plans to bring the best of Xbox and Windows gaming experiences for handheld devices.

The Xbox handheld is all but confirmed to be real, but we have a long time before it will come out. Here's all the information we have so far about the console.The Latest Tech News, Delivered to Your

While an Xbox Handheld direct from Microsoft might be a ways out, the operating system to power those changes is coming sooner than you think.