This is just a quick page where I am collecting various bits of info available on Asus’ page, and other forums.
Remember, this is a portable device running Windows. It is not going to be easy or pretty, but it can be made into something useful.
The easiest thing to make it Steam Deck like is to just have Steam launch in Big Picture mode. The one problem here, though, it there is no XBox button. And, so far, I haven’t found a way to take the Armory Crate button away from Armory Crate SE. I will update things if I ever figure that out. There is supposed to be away to re-program the M1 and/or M2 buttons on the back to get it to do this, but is … less than intuitive. Still figuring out all the details.
Pre-defined Macros:
- Macro + D-pad up: Show virtual keyboard
- Macro + D-pad down: Open Task Manager
- Macro + D-pad left: Show Desktop
- Macro + D-pad right: Task Viewer
- Macro + A: Take a screenshot
- Macro + B: Show Windows Notification Center
- Macro + X: Projection mode
- Macro + Y: Begin Recording
- To enter the Asus ROG Ally BIOS settings press and hold the power button and the volume down button until you see the BIOS options
While it is possible to launch Blizzard/Battle.net games directly from Steam, their launcher is a hot mess that breaks pretty much anything useful. I have put up a way to do it, but the batch file method doesn’t work if you have Armory Crate running. It will conflict with Steam, and the local controller buttons will behave erratically unless you quit Steam. So for me, I use the --exec option and then click Play manually, as this keeps the Steam controller mapping, and everything works. It’s very 4th wall breaking for a portable game machine, especially if you have it connected to a larger monitor and use an external controller. You can’t just click the Diablo IV button and play.
- You can reset the Windows graphics driver with the key sequence Windows-Control-Shift-B.
Re-Mapping Keys
All I want is an XBox button. While Asus decided to forego such a button; the one that EVERY system expects to be on a controller, they at least made it so you can map different functions, and secondary functions, to other keys. So I decided to map the XBox button to M1/M2 + Menu button to get it. The problem is, though, re-mapping keys is … broken… at best on the Ally. It’s certainly not intuitive at all. You start out with two pre-defined profiles, and it sets “Auto” as the profile to use, which will, in theory, switch between automatically. However, when it is set to auto, none of the changes you make will have any effect at all. However, you can edit one of them (I use Gamepad), and then set that one to be the one used all the time. It will still annoyingly flash that it’s using the one you told it to use every time you switch applications, but at least that makes the mapped button actually work.
Ditch the Armory Crate Garbage
There is a much better, cleaner, lighter, and just overall better manager for all the Asus things. It does the same things as Armory Crate, but not in such an ugly, unintuitive package. Get G-Helper. Uninstall armory crate using their uninstaller, not Microsoft’s because that’s the kind of crap that it is.