A much better Xbox app

While the Xbox app was a decent way to stay connected to your gaming friends in Windows 8, now it's actually useful for gaming. Windows 10 can stream games from any Xbox One on your home network (and eventually Xbox 360 games that are compatible) -- all you need to do is plug an Xbox One controller into your PC and hit the streaming button on the Xbox app. The games still run on your Xbox One; it's just spitting out a real-time video feed to your computer rather than just your TV. As you can imagine, such a feature requires pretty strong network capabilities, so I'd recommend plugging either your Xbox or computer into Ethernet (ideally both) to use it. Streaming over WiFi is possible, but even with a strong router, I ran into issues testing out this feature.

My Surface Pro 3 refused to hold a stream for more than a few seconds (I think it may not be playing nicely with my 5GHz 802.11n wireless network), while my desktop gaming PC (also connected to my 5GHz N network with a large external antenna) handled it just fine. I was able to race in Forza Horizon 2 and play some Destiny matches with the same amount of control as I had on the Xbox One. There are some video artifacts, and the connection occasionally cut out, so it's not ideal for truly important gaming scenarios. Still, these are early days, and I can imagine Microsoft will continue to optimize how Windows 10's game streaming works on typical home networks. If you've got a high-end AC router, you'll probably have fewer issues.

The Xbox app also serves as a single hub for all of the games on your computer; it even managed to find Broken Age, which I installed via Steam, and you can manually add games as well. You can also start a party chat with people on your friends list, as well as share clips from your Game DVR library on Xbox Live. Overall, it's simply a much more functional offering than the Windows 8 Xbox app.

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