Windows is getting better keyboard input for Steam Deck-style gamepads

Gaming handhelds are the hottest form factor on the block right now. It seems like every manufacturer is eager to get a Windows-powered alternative to the Steam Deck in their catalog… whether or not Windows 11 is actually a good fit for these low-power game machines.

And it appears Microsoft has taken notice. The latest Windows Insider build has a new “gamepad keyboard” feature that makes text input much faster on these portable gaming devices.

“This update starts the rollout of a new Gamepad keyboard layout for the on-screen keyboard,” says the Windows Insider blog. It allows for much faster typing via Xbox-standard controllers (including the permanent controls on the ROG Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go, etc.). Specific hardware buttons also get coded to quick functions: X activates backspace and Y becomes a spacebar with the software keyboard enabled. The keys are also in a grid layout for easier selection via thumbstick or D-pad.

Other changes in the 22631.4387 build of 23H2 are pretty minor, including an option to stop that annoying pop-up that tells you that you can stop annoying pop-up notifications. Microsoft is also rolling out an option to remap the contentious Copilot key on the newest laptop keyboards, as promised. The rest of the changes are mostly bug fixes, and bigger adjustments have been delayed.

While portable gaming devices are definitely on the rise, Windows 11 remains a serious pain point for both consumers and game developers. It seems like running both Windows and the often cumbersome custom interfaces and launchers meant to make these small keyboard-less devices more comfortable causes some big performance drops, which is why Valve’s Linux-based Steam Deck still stands out as the proverbial big cheese of this category.

Plenty of users have resorted to rolling their own SteamOS derivatives to run on these machines, and it looks like Valve might even release official SteamOS builds for devices like the ROG Ally.