Handheld Companion – Release Notes

0.28.0.0 - Gotta Go fast

Thanks to our audacious members, we have been able to accelerate the cycle of detecting and resolving issues, allowing us to devote time to improving performance and reducing CPU usage. In case you missed it, ⁠nightly-builds are now available roughly every few days to early adopters. With 0.28.0.0 we also added a workaround to the Windows Defender “Trojan:Win32/Vigorf.A” alert (WinRing0) issue by adding the affected files to Windows Defender exceptions list.

Improvements

Performance

• Reduced CPU usage across all action classes (Button, Axis, Triggers, Mouse, Keyboard, Gyro) and state classes (Button, Axis, Gyro).
• Reduced CPU usage when using Ambilight LED mode.
• Faster sleep resume: HC should resume components on system resume even if session is locked.

Device/Controller handling

• Reworked device/controller arrival–removal queuing and concurrency for HID/XInput.
• Per-device default hotkeys are created on first initialization.
• GuideCommands hotkey was replaced by ButtonCommands, allowing mapping to any gamepad button, not just Xbox Guide.

Navigation & UI

• Gamepad navigation refined across the app; main window A/B flow feels more natural.
• QuickTools: remembers last focused item, no longer targets the AppBarButton first, L1/R1 auto-enter the page, and L1/R1 now cycle within menu items.
• QuickTools Home & Applications UI refreshed.
• Layout Manager UI now uses SettingsExpander and SettingsCard components.

Profiles & Power

• New profiles inherit all buttons/axes by default, including OEM buttons (OEM set to Inherit).
• Users can now edit default power profiles.
• When launching a game from HC, HC waits longer for the profile-related executable to appear before minimizing itself.
• Revised Mouse actions acceleration logic, adding velocity memory logic.

Platforms & Devices

• Improved EA Desktop library support.
• ONEXPLAYER X1 (8840U) recognized with ProductName ONEXPLAYER X1z.
• (Tentative) ROG Ally PerformanceMode & AsusFan behavior improvements.

Setup

• Installer adds WinRing0x64.sys and HandheldCompanion.sys to Microsoft Defender exclusions.

Bugfixes

• Hotkeys: duplication on migration resolved; regression from ButtonState logic fixed.
• Legion Go S: fixed swapped LegionR/LegionL buttons.
• ZOTAC Gaming Zone: VRAM control fixed.
• ROG Ally: Xbox Adaptive Controller support fixed; fan & power management corrected.
• Profiles: version check that excluded profiles fixed; duplication when a library import finds multiple executables fixed; updates during resolution/refresh changes stabilized.
• QuickTools: transparency no longer lost after moving the window.
• Commands: GameBarCommands & DesktopCommands now work correctly.
• Controllers: tentative phantom-controller filtering; prevented SDL from randomly taking over XInput.
• Mapping/Input: button→trigger layout mapping fixed; gamepad input injection from hotkeys on dummy controllers fixed; OEM buttons now correctly inherit default layout.
• Dependencies: missing YamlDotNet library fixed.
• Events/Concurrency: asynchronous HID/XInput event handling issues fixed.
• Stability: rare UI rendering freeze fixed.

Full Changelog: 0.27.0.7...0.28.0.0