Crash Reporting for Games on Windows Handheld PCs

Windows handheld PCs have become a major way to play PC games, running the full Windows PC versions of games on small handheld screens with built-in controllers, under tighter power and thermal constraints than a desktop. They are PCs, so they run your PC build, but the small screen, the controller-first input, and the constrained, throttling hardware make them a distinct environment where your game can crash or misbehave in ways desktop never reveals. Setting up crash reporting for games on Windows handheld PCs means capturing crashes with the handheld device context that surfaces these handheld-specific issues.

Handheld PCs are a distinct PC environment

Windows handheld PCs run the full Windows PC version of your game, so they are PCs and run your PC build, but they are a distinct environment within the PC landscape. The screen is small and the resolution often different from a desktop monitor, the input is controller-first with the built-in controls, and the hardware is constrained, with tighter power and thermal limits that cause throttling under sustained load, unlike a desktop with abundant power and cooling.

This distinct environment means your PC game can crash or misbehave on a handheld in ways it does not on desktop, a UI unreadable on the small screen, an input issue with the controller-first handheld, a performance or thermal problem under the constrained power. The handheld is a real and growing slice of your PC audience with its own characteristics. Understanding that Windows handheld PCs are a distinct PC environment, running your PC build but with small screens, controller input, and constrained power, is the foundation for capturing the handheld-specific issues that desktop testing misses.

Capture the handheld device context

Capture crashes from handheld PCs with the device context that identifies the handheld and its characteristics, the device model where detectable, the screen resolution, the GPU and the constrained hardware, so you can see when a crash is on a handheld and which one. Distinguishing handheld devices from desktops in your crash data lets you see the handheld-specific crash picture, which is otherwise mixed into the general PC crashes.

The handheld hardware is constrained and specific, often known models with particular chips and screens, so capturing the device and hardware context lets you cluster the handheld crashes and identify issues specific to a handheld model or to the handheld constraints. A crash that appears on handhelds but not desktops, or on a particular handheld model, points at a handheld-specific cause, which the device context reveals. Capturing the handheld device context is what makes the handheld-specific crashes identifiable within your PC crash data, letting you see and address the issues this distinct PC environment produces.

Watch power, thermal, and performance

The constrained power and thermal limits of handheld PCs are a distinctive crash and issue source, since the hardware throttles under sustained load to manage heat and power, dropping performance, and the tighter resources can be exceeded. A game tuned for desktop power can run hot and throttle on a handheld, or hit the constrained limits, producing performance problems and potentially crashes that desktop never sees.

Capture the performance context, the frame rate and any thermal or power state available, on handheld crashes and issues, since a performance problem under handheld throttling is a handheld-specific issue, and the performance context reveals it. The handheld constraints mean performance that is fine on desktop can fall apart on the handheld under thermal throttling, which both degrades the experience and stresses the game. Watching the power, thermal, and performance on handhelds, capturing the context that reveals throttling-related issues, is key to handheld crash reporting, since the constrained, throttling hardware is where many handheld-specific problems originate.

Account for the small screen and controller

Handheld PCs have small screens and controller-first input, and these can cause handheld-specific issues, a UI sized for a desktop monitor that is unreadable on the small handheld screen, an input problem with the built-in controller where a PC game assumed mouse and keyboard, much like the controller and screen concerns of a console port but on a handheld PC. Capture the screen resolution and input context so these issues are identifiable.

The small screen means readability and UI scaling matter, as a desktop UI can be too small on a handheld, and the controller-first input means the game must work well with the controller, where a mouse-and-keyboard-assuming PC game may have gaps. Capture the resolution and input method so a readability or input issue specific to the handheld is diagnosable. Accounting for the small screen and controller input, capturing the context that reveals these handheld-specific UI and input issues, covers the experience side of handheld crash reporting, beyond the hardware constraints, since the handheld changes both the display and the input from desktop.

Setting it up with Bugnet

Bugnet captures crashes from your game on Windows handheld PCs with the device, screen resolution, GPU, and performance context, since they run your PC build, and you add custom fields for the handheld detection and any thermal or power context. Reports flow into one dashboard where you can filter to handheld devices to see the handheld-specific crash picture distinct from desktop.

Group crashes into occurrence counts and use the handheld context to find the issues specific to these devices, the performance and thermal problems under the constrained power, the UI and input issues on the small controller-first screen. Because Windows handheld PCs are a distinct and growing PC environment, the captured handheld context is what lets you see and address the handheld-specific crashes and issues that your desktop testing and your general PC crash data would otherwise miss, supporting this increasingly popular way to play your PC game.

Test on a real handheld

Because Windows handheld PCs are a distinct environment with small screens, controller input, and constrained throttling power, test on a real handheld, since the handheld-specific issues, the UI readability on the small screen, the controller input, the performance under thermal throttling, only manifest on the actual device. A PC game that runs and looks fine on a desktop can have UI, input, or performance problems on a handheld that only testing on one reveals.

These devices are increasingly common and affordable enough to test on, and the experience of playing your game on a handheld, at the small screen with the controller under the constrained power, is exactly what a growing part of your audience has. Pair the handheld testing with your captured crash data, which surfaces the handheld-specific issues across the range of handheld devices and conditions you cannot all test. Together they let you support your PC game well on Windows handheld PCs, with the small-screen, controller, and throttling-performance issues, where this distinct PC environment differs from desktop, addressed for the players who play there.

Windows handhelds run your PC build in a distinct world: small screen, controller, throttling power. Capture the handheld context.