Handheld Companion – Release Notes
0.27.0.6 - Game Library, New Devices & Smoother Experience
0.27.0.6 is a big milestone for Handheld Companion. This version introduces a brand-new game library system, better support for new handhelds, and a more comfortable experience with QuickTools and profiles. On top of that, we’ve made improvements to power management, cooling, and overall stability.
A New Game Library
We’ve started integrating GameLib.NET, a powerful library that makes managing games easier and more reliable. Installed games from most popular platforms (BattleNet, Epic, GOG, Origin, Riot Games, Rockstar, Steam and Ubisoft Connect) are recognized and displayed in your library. Box art and covers are also automatically fetched from either IGDB or SteamGrid.
Profiles with Executables
Until now, a profile was linked to a single executable and applied when that executable was in the foreground. This logic caused limitations with platforms such as Steam, where applications did not reveal their main executable, but instead reported the entire stack of executables (could be a dozen). Now, a single profile can include multiple executables. This means you can cover all possible executables for a game if you're not sure which one is the right one, or even decide to share the same profile between unrelated applications and games if you want them to use the same settings or layout.
Device Support
Device coverage continues to grow, with three major additions in this release.
- Zotac Gaming Zone is fully supported, including back buttons, joystick wheels, FAN and LED management as well as VRAM and TDP control.
- Lenovo Legion Go S is fully supported.
- MSI Claw A8 is fully supported.
Power and Cooling
Until now, Handheld Companion exposed a single slider to manage both PL1 (sustained power limit) and PL2 (short boost power limit). According to recent report on Intel’s new Lunar Lake CPUs, when PL1 and PL2 are set to the exact same value, performance can actually drop by up to 30%. Intel’s own specification requires PL2 to be at least 1 W higher than PL1 to allow the CPU to boost correctly.
With 0.27.0.2, we have brought back the long-gone ability to set PL1 and PL2 separately. This is available on all CPUs, both AMD and Intel, giving users fine control while preventing performance regressions.
We have also improved the software fan management logic, making cooling more responsive and stable when users pick the software fan option in their power profile.
QuickTools and Profiles
Our in-game overlay, QuickTools, UI has been improved to feel more user-friendly. It can now be placed at the bottom center of the screen and features an optional open/close animation. The interface has also been refreshed for clarity and ease of use.
We’ve also added a set of shortcuts within the Profiles page to open and navigate the main window directly to the currently applied profile's page or layout page. These changes make adjusting profiles and layouts much faster during gameplay.
Bugfixes and Miscellaneous Improvements
- Fixed: process detection on QuickApplicationsPage
- Fixed: silenced key chords not being caught during hotkey listening
- Fixed: race condition within controller manager
- Fixed: Race condition on controller manager that may cause a crash on rare occasions
- Fixed: Quicktools Acrylic and Tabbed backdrops not applying properly
- Fixed: Crash on corrupted profiles
- Fixed: Framerate limit settings not available due to RTSS detection
- Fixed: Incorrect inputs mapping when using desktop layout
- Fixed: Restored MSI Claw dynamic lighting capacities (also added Ambilight capacity)
- Prevented critical system processes from appearing in Quick Applications
Miscellaneous Improvements
- Improved: Library management executables filtering
- Improved: New Quicktools backdrop setting to turn Noise on/off
- Improved: Process detection when starting application from Library or Profiles page
- Improved: Reduced CPU and Garbage Collector pressure from Layout manager
- Improved controller management (event logic, robustness, add/remove status, startup behavior)
- Improved input management (threading logic, prevents UI from hanging)
- Improved Fan math and coding logic
- Improved Intel microarchitecture detection
- Improved executable startup (Run / RunAs option from profile page)
- Improved LibraryPage tiles layout and page loading logic
- Improved FanProfile logic (restore, handling, UI)
- Improved HID device detection, hiding/unhiding
- Updated SDL3 to 3.2.20
- Updated LibreHardwareMonitorLib
- Updated gamecontrollerdb.txt with new entries
- Miscellaneous UI cleanups, refactoring, and minor fixes across the application
New Contributors
Full Changelog: 0.26.0.2...0.27.0.6