Got sick and tired of dealing with steam big picture issues. Figured the windows 8 start menu, as annoying as it might be for the desktop, might actually make a great game launcher....and I was right.

The great thing about it is that its extremely customizable, and it's not an app running in the background like steam big picture - which anyone who's used steam big picture any amount of time knows how much of a finicky PITA it can be. It doesnt always return properly to big picture after you're done with a game, it hangs and you're left out to dry, and it's way too slow when all you want is a quick and easy way to launch a game with a gamepad. The start screen is nice and simple - just enough to launch a game without getting in your way.
But you still need a little help to make Windows 8 what it needs to be for couch gaming.
For the game tiles, an app called "Pin Steam" in the Windows 8 store makes it super easy to make the tiles. It'll pull the banner right from steam, basically takes just a few clicks.
To control it....an app called xbstart makes it work exactly how you think it would - the xbox home button launches the start screen, you navigate with the dpad, and launch with the A button.
But there will always be those times when you need a mouse, or a little extra control....so I've been writing a little helper app that makes life much easier:
Edit: Took it down for the moment, seems like there's a memory leak I need to fix.
I havent gotten around to documenting anything yet, but here's a quick rundown:
Hold back + LB to enable mouse emulation - the left stick becomes a mouse, the right stick the mouse wheel, A button is left click, B button is right click. The d-pad acts as the cursor keys, and you can hold the left or right triggers to speed or slow the mouse down.
Hold back + RB to disable mouse emulation - you'll usually want to do this whenever you launch a game or the start screen, since the mouse emulation can interfere with what you're doing.
You should hear a distinctive sound when enabling or disabling the mouse.
Back + X - launches the start menu (if you dont want to run XBStart)
RB - Sends the enter key, so you can launch an app from the start screen - can't use the A button, since that sends a click (might be solvable).
Back + B - closes the current game (only works if alt+f4 would for a game)
Back + Y - sends the F12 key - useful for fraps or any other utility you want to toggle with that key.
Back + Start - Launches steam big picture/swaps big picture for the desktop steam
If anyone's got any ideas on how I can improve it, let me know, although I want to keep it simple. It's nothing you'll want to rely on 100% of the time, but it'll get you past any of those launchers that plague couch PC gamers....I've rarely had to pull out my keyboard since I set all of this up.
Got sick and tired of dealing with steam big picture issues. Figured the windows 8 start menu, as annoying as it might be for the desktop, might actually make a great game launcher....and I was right.
The great thing about it is that its extremely customizable, and it's not an app running in the background like steam big picture - which anyone who's used steam big picture any amount of time knows how much of a finicky PITA it can be. It doesnt always return properly to big picture after you're done with a game, it hangs and you're left out to dry, and it's way too slow when all you want is a quick and easy way to launch a game with a gamepad. The start screen is nice and simple - just enough to launch a game without getting in your way.
But you still need a little help to make Windows 8 what it needs to be for couch gaming.
For the game tiles, an app called "Pin Steam" in the Windows 8 store makes it super easy to make the tiles. It'll pull the banner right from steam, basically takes just a few clicks.
To control it....an app called xbstart makes it work exactly how you think it would - the xbox home button launches the start screen, you navigate with the dpad, and launch with the A button.
But there will always be those times when you need a mouse, or a little extra control....so I've been writing a little helper app that makes life much easier:
Edit: Took it down for the moment, seems like there's a memory leak I need to fix.
I havent gotten around to documenting anything yet, but here's a quick rundown:
Hold back + LB to enable mouse emulation - the left stick becomes a mouse, the right stick the mouse wheel, A button is left click, B button is right click. The d-pad acts as the cursor keys, and you can hold the left or right triggers to speed or slow the mouse down.
Hold back + RB to disable mouse emulation - you'll usually want to do this whenever you launch a game or the start screen, since the mouse emulation can interfere with what you're doing.
You should hear a distinctive sound when enabling or disabling the mouse.
Back + X - launches the start menu (if you dont want to run XBStart)
RB - Sends the enter key, so you can launch an app from the start screen - can't use the A button, since that sends a click (might be solvable).
Back + B - closes the current game (only works if alt+f4 would for a game)
Back + Y - sends the F12 key - useful for fraps or any other utility you want to toggle with that key.
Back + Start - Launches steam big picture/swaps big picture for the desktop steam
If anyone's got any ideas on how I can improve it, let me know, although I want to keep it simple. It's nothing you'll want to rely on 100% of the time, but it'll get you past any of those launchers that plague couch PC gamers....I've rarely had to pull out my keyboard since I set all of this up.