They called me mad, they called me crazy. But, what if it's actually genius?
Since the Xbox Full Screen Experience debuted (often called the XFSE), I couldn't help but wonder about other ways it could be applied. Remember Windows Media Center of yore? Back when you could turn your PC into a TV-focused media player designed not for the desk, but for the sofa? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Pepperidge Farm also remembers when it was officially killed off, some ten years ago.
We can confirm that due to decreased usage, Windows Media Center will not be part of Windows 10.May 4, 2015
As of writing, the "apps" section of the Xbox Full Screen Experience is a bit anaemic, and you can't add or control additional things you want in there, instead you're stuck with whatever Xbox decides is an "app." But there's no reason to think that won't eventually change. I see no reason why we won't eventually be able to get quick access to things like Netflix, or indeed any web app, right within the Xbox FSE, Windows 11 desktop be damned. There are more web apps than ever on the Microsoft Store too ...
But then ... I got to thinking. Yes, I do that sometimes.
Since the Xbox FSE is essentially just a full screen app that sits on top of full Windows, disabling things like the Desktop as optional, and optimizing the experience around devices like the Xbox Ally ... couldn't we ...? No, no. That's crazy.
In my fever-induced insomnia. I dared to dream. What if we could have a Start Menu Full Screen Experience ... you know, like a smartphone launcher ...? What if the Windows 11 widgets panel was fully opened up and improved?! What if we could have a *Windows 11 Phone Full Screen Experience* too?!
Hear me out. It's NOT that crazy.
Windows on Arm is half way there
Microsoft's Copilot+ PC range hasn't exactly set the world on fire, but as Intel woes deepen, it increasingly looks like Windows' consumer-grade future lies in the Arm camp.
Microsoft has been working incredibly hard to improve the Arm translation layer for Windows over the past few years, and the fruits of that labor is starting to pay off. Windows on Arm is nowhere near the dud it was at launch, and new chips from Qualcomm have helped elevate it even further. The Snapdragon X Elite range has vastly boosted the viability of the platform, and adoption has been increasing too, with some estimates pinning Arm-based laptops hitting anywhere up to 12%. It's not huge numbers, but it's certainly moving in the right direction.
The big bottleneck for Windows on Arm devices revolved around translation layer overheads. But an uptick in native app support, improved Windows 11 Prism emulation, and now, boosted Windows on Arm gaming support — Windows on Arm has become an incredibly viable alternative.
But wasn't this about phones, not laptops? Well, sure, but you have to start somewhere, right?
Crucially, it wouldn't take a ton of work to bring it to phones, either, given that Windows on Arm laptops already share many of the same hardware hooks. There are tons of videos on YouTube showcasing this, including this one below.
One of the big issues Windows Phone always had was app adoption, but in 2025 that seems like less of an issue than ever. Web apps have become robust options, and more than ever, I feel like an ecosystem that actually had fewer apps might be desirable. The relentless noise and barrage of addictive algorithmic junk we get through our iOS and Android devices could represent a landscape ripe for a differentiator — one that focuses on specific use cases. A PC in your pocket, rather than a doom-scrolling machine in your pocket. But hey, TikTok and Instagram are up on the Microsoft Store too if you want to go down that route.
Microsoft was ahead of the curve with Windows 10 Mobile's Continuum, which lives on now as Samsung DeX. Continuum allowed you to take a Windows 10 Mobile, connect it to a monitor and mouse and keyboard, and instantly have a Windows PC-like experience. Samsung DeX is based on Android, and while "okay," it's nowhere near as powerful as a full-blown Windows on Arm PC in your pocket would be.
Thousands upon thousands of games, full-blown native PC apps like Adobe Creative Cloud, Edge, Chrome, Teams, Spotify, and even professional apps like Blender and Visual Studio Code. The app ecosystem alone could create a completely new ecosystem and beefy differentiator for a phone that could, when called upon, act like a full PC.
The Xbox Full Screen Experience fully proves the concept, too.
The Xbox Full Screen Experience proves the concept
The Xbox Full Screen Experience was put together in little over a year I was told, marking an unprecedented collaboration between the Xbox and Windows teams.
The idea was simple: create an app that would sit on top of full Windows 11, and make devices like the Lenovo Legion Go and Xbox Ally more user-friendly when Xbox gamepads were the primary input.
The result is not perfect, but it's still early days. And it does work. Holding down the Xbox button on these devices calls a mobile-phone like task switcher. Using the joysticks and buttons to navigate "just works" with lots of apps, and touch controls are always there as a fallback, too.
It's enabled by default on the Xbox Ally handheld range, but it's also coming to desktop PCs and other PC gaming handhelds in the coming weeks. You will be able to designate any app as a "launcher," such as Steam's Big Picture Mode. Windows Media Center from the Vista era was essentially an ancestor of this concept.
With the Xbox Full Screen Experience, you can always exit out of the app and load up the full Windows Desktop if you so choose. And much like Windows 10 Mobile's Continuum, you can dock the Xbox Ally to a monitor or TV, connect a mouse and keyboard, and pull up some spreadsheets, do your taxes, or write a poorly written blog post like this one.
It's really not a stretch to envision a phone or phablet-sized touch device, powered by Windows on Arm, with a "Start Menu Full Screen Experience" layer. It could simply hide the Windows Desktop, use the Start Menu as the app launcher layer, and even have a swipe right to open the Windows 11 Widgets panel.
If Microsoft could throw the Xbox Full Screen Experience together in just over a year for a niche market like PC gaming handhelds, imagine what it could do with some more serious investment?
All you'd need is some telephony, some polish on the APIs and touch controls, some developer guidance, some third-party OEMs willing to take a chance, and a wing and a prayer. What would it look like if the cancelled single-screen Surface Phone ran on an OS like this, offering a true differentiator against the locked-down slop machines that dominate mobile phones now?
I'm oversimplifying how easy it would be to actually achieve this, obviously ... but, I dare to dream.
Alas, it would (probably) never happen
Back to reality ... it would likely never happen.
Microsoft is its own worse enemy, and more beholden to shareholders than ever. The era of "doing cool stuff for the sake of it" is well and truly over at Microsoft, as the firm chases shareholder whims to inflate its share price above everything else.
That whim right now revolves around artificial intelligence, but I can't help but feel that this could fully feed into a phone play as well. I've written all the way back in 2023 how Microsoft won't win in AI because it has no presence on mobile, with Android and iOS defaults basically setting the tone. Google Gemini is going to dominate Android and iOS both, with Copilot left without even the vaguest hope of finding any space on mobile. Even Samsung AI seems to be better at delivering a consumer-grade experience right now.
When the bubble bursts — Microsoft will remain, providing cloud computer to other companies, in a landscape once again dominated by Google and its models.
It could've been different. Microsoft was conceptually ahead with things like Cortana. It had a range of devices that would've benefitted from AI hooks, like the Microsoft Band, Cortana Invoke speaker, and even Xbox Kinect. And of course, devices like the Surface Duo and Surface Neo could've served better had they sported full Windows and attempted something different, rather than limped along with the half-hearted support it got from Google's Android.
It's fun to dream, ain't it? Alas, a dream is all we have left. That and caffeine. More caffeine. Oh, and check out these Windows on Arm laptop deals so I can keep my job, thanks chat.
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