Turn your Windows PC into a game console with one click: focus the TV, turn off the other screens, switch the audio and launch your game UI. Quit the game and your desk comes back on its own.
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v17.mp4
Get 1.7.0, the latest stable version:
ConsoleMode-Setup-x64.exe(recommended): per-user install, no admin, updates itself.ConsoleMode-Portable-x64.exe: a single exe that keeps its data next to it.- Or with winget:
winget install lippdev.ConsoleMode
On 1.6? The app offers the update and keeps your settings. Prefer the old interface, with its Desktop mode? The same release has Console Mode Legacy (ConsoleModeLegacy-Setup-x64.exe or ConsoleModeLegacy-Portable-x64.exe): 1.6.2 as it was, sharing your settings with the current version. It is frozen: no fixes and no updates.
Want to try what comes next before everyone else? Turn on System → App → "Receive test versions (alpha and beta)".
Windows 10 or 11, plus Steam (Big Picture), Playnite or the Xbox app. RTSS is optional, for the FPS limit and the FPS counter.
- Open the app and pick the screen you play on. The others turn off.
- Press Play now, or use the one-click desktop shortcut. The first time on a new screen, the TV asks "Can you see this screen?" and reverts on its own if nobody answers.
- Quit Big Picture or Playnite and everything goes back: screens, audio, resolution.
Prefer the couch? With the app in the tray, hold your controller shortcut and it starts from there.
You pick the controller shortcuts yourself: none is on at first, the tour the app opens with shows where to set them (System → Controller). No button can serve two actions.
| Controller shortcut | Does | Suggested |
|---|---|---|
| Hold your open shortcut | Enter console mode from the tray | Home (Xbox / PS) |
| Hold your menu shortcut | Menu over the game: open windows, file explorer, volume, resolution, audio, FPS, HDR, exit | Select + Y (Create + △) |
| Hold your back to the PC shortcut | Back to the PC | Start + Select (Options + Create) |
- Hide the other screens by disconnecting them, black overlays or DDC/CI, all with Windows' own APIs: no third-party display or audio tool is bundled
- Per-screen resolution and refresh rate, HDR, VRR and an FPS limit (RTSS) while you play
- FPS counter over the game (RTSS) on a card in three sizes: FPS only, compact (CPU, GPU and RAM usage), detailed (clocks, GPU temperature and memory) or your own layout
- Audio goes to the TV (or any output) and comes back afterwards
- Launches Steam Big Picture, Playnite fullscreen or Xbox mode, and sends Steam to the tray when you go back to the PC
- Session menu over the game: switch or close the open windows, change volume, resolution, audio, FPS and HDR, hide the mouse pointer or drive it with the controller, and browse your files with ControlFS and the web with JoyChromium
- A console-style interface made for the TV that also works with the mouse and the keyboard (full screen, Xbox and PlayStation pads, LB/RB tabs, its own wallpaper or your Steam covers as the background), with a guided tour the first time you open it
- Your own apps as launchers: any
.exe(RetroArch, another launcher…) becomes a tile on Home - Per-game profiles for Steam games (resolution, HDR, FPS limit and audio) and the controller's battery on screen
- Puts the desktop icons and the mouse pointer back where they were, can let the controller wake the PC, and restores the desk on the next start if a session was cut short
- Automation with
consolemode://start/stop/menulinks (Stream Deck, scripts) and a local control API - English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, French and Russian
- One interface, made like a console's: your launchers in a row with their official logos, the Inter font, the Aurora background, an opening with sound and a guided tour the first time. It works with the controller, the mouse and the keyboard; the Desktop interface lives on in Legacy
- Your apps on Home: add any
.exewith +, as many as you like, and take one off from its own tile - Per-game profiles: each Steam game remembers its resolution, HDR, FPS limit and audio, saved from the session menu
- Session menu anywhere: the menu shortcut opens it without starting a session, to use the PC from the couch, and a new shortcut opens Windows' Task View
- JoyChromium in the session menu: the TV browser you drive with the controller opens over the game and installs from there if it is missing
- The desk comes back whole: desktop icons and the mouse pointer return to their places, and if the app or the PC goes down mid-session, the next start restores everything
- Wake the PC with the controller, the controller's battery on screen and the same look at any Windows scale, from 1080p to 4K
- Console Mode Legacy in the same release, for those who prefer the old interface (it also keeps TV control, which is out of 1.7)
- Console interface, redesigned: Home, Session and System tabs on LB/RB, screen tiles, your Steam covers as the background and interface sounds
- Session menu like Steam's overlay: full screen over the game, with the open windows in the middle (an Alt + Tab for the controller)
- File explorer built in: ControlFS opens from the session menu, and installs from there if it is missing
- FPS counter over the game through RTSS, with Compact, Detailed and Custom styles
- Your shortcuts, your buttons: pick the controller buttons that open Console Mode, the session menu and the way back to the PC
- All the project's own code: displays and audio through Windows' APIs, without the NirSoft tools
- Steam goes to the tray when you go back to the PC, the desk layout comes back exactly as it was (portrait monitors too), and slow Playnite starts no longer end the session
All the details in the release notes and the changelog · notas em português.
- Guide: modes and restore, control API, HDR/VRR/FPS, troubleshooting, building from source
- Feedback: System → Shortcut, help, and data → Send feedback in the app, or this form. A ⭐ helps other couch gamers find the project.
- Translations: fix a line or add your language with the translation guide; no Windows needed.
- The releases are not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen or an antivirus may warn about the download; the source is all here.
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 only · Third-party notices · Code signing policy