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Xbox Series X Tips: Hidden Features and Settings
This portion of the Xbox Series X guide provides useful tips and tricks you may not have known about your console. Here's how to take advantage of these Series X Hidden Settings and Features.
Series X Dashboard Tips and Tricks
Get the most out of your Series X Dashboard and profile with these tips.
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Customize Your Guide Tab
From your home screen, hitting the Xbox button pulls up a guide tab that displays your Home, People, Parties, Achievements, Capture, and Profile - but you can reposition these if you find you tend to use some of them more than others.
1) Select the Profile/System menu
2) Select Customize Guide Tabs to begin customizing the layout. You can use the D-Pad to move them around as you see fit. This can be customized for each profile on your system, and if you want to quickly reset the order, there's an option for that too!
Customize Your Home Screen
Just like the Guide Tab, every part of your Home Screen is customizable in the order you see things like the Store, Game Pass, Entertainment Apps, and more.
1) Press the Options Button on your controller when selecting any box in the home screen.
2) In this menu, you can re-order, add specific games or people, and much more for all of the different rows in your Home Screen.
Customize Your Backgrounds
Both your home page and profile will have default colors and backgrounds when you start up your Series X, but these can be changed if you know where to look.
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1) Select Settings > General > Personalization
2) Here you will have the options to customize your profile as well as your home page colors and backgrounds - replacing them with solid colors, custom images, screenshots, and dynamic moving backgrounds.
Filter Your Games by Series X Optimized
If you've got a big library of games including 360 and Xbox One games, it might help you to be able to check out your library for which games run best when boosted by the Series X capabilities.
When viewing your game library, select the Filter button and choose the All Console Types drop down menu to filter by Optimized for Xbox Series X|S Games to know exactly which games to install that look best on your new consoles.
Series X Settings Tips
The Xbox Series X has some important settings you may not know about.
Turn Off "Instant On" to Reduce Power Consumption
When you first set up your Series X you'll be asked to choose between an Energy-Saving mode and Instant-On, which powers up your console faster and lets you manage your games from your mobile device. Many users have pointed out that using Instant-On will increase your power usage by a large amount, so you if you aren't taking advantage of remote game management, you may want to swap to Energy-Saving:
1) Select Settings > General > Power Mode and Startup
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2) Choose the option to switch from Instant On to Energy Saving.
Find All Your Uninstalled Games
When you pull up your game library, you may not see all your games at first look, especially if you've recently bought the Series X system. In order to find and install games you bought digitally recently or had on previous systems, go to My Games and Apps, and go down to Full Library and select All Owned Games. This will show you everything you've ever had access to so you can download what you need.
Record Gameplay in 4K
Once you've confirmed your Series X is outputting at 4K in the Settings, you can also confirm what resolution you can record gameplay at under Settings > Preferences > Capture and Share. Just note that the higher the resolution captured, the less time the length of the clip will be.
Series X Controller Tips
The Series X controller has many familiar options for Xbox fans, as well as a few new ones you should know about.
Remap Your Series X Controller
Whether you're in it for accessibility concerns or you'd rather change what the share button does, The Xbox Series X has options to remap the controller. This includes the share button, A,B,X,Y, as well as swapping the sticks and triggers - plus more!
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Quick Console Shutoff
If you need to turn your console off or just put it in sleep mode, simply press and hold the Xbox Button to bring up the power off options for the Series X.
Let Two Players Play as One
The Xbox Series X has a "copilot" feature, allowing you to combine the inputs from two controllers - essentially allowing to players to play as one character.
1) Select Settings > Ease of Access > Controller
2) Assign the controllers you wish to utilize for the copilot feature.