👏 Microsoft has announced a new update that adds some clever new personalization features
😮 Users can now move the Guide over to the right, offering its first customization in nearly a decade
💿 It’s also now easier to find games you’ve digitized with Disc-to-Digital with its own filter
🥳 Microsoft is celebrating 25 years of Xbox with a range of new features, including its own version of Spotify Wrapped called Xbox Playback
Microsoft has overhauled the Guide for Xbox consoles after nearly a decade of it looking the same.
As announced in a new Xbox Wire post, Microsoft is rolling out changes to the console UI for Xbox Insiders, including everything from rotating backgrounds to making it easier to find games in your library.
Microsoft says that Alpha Skip-Ahead members can try these fixes first, and that it’s going to bring them to more Xbox Insiders and players “over time”.
Rotating home backgrounds
Xbox Insiders can now save dynamic backgrounds and shuffle through them automatically to give your home screen a new look at varying points.
To do so, you can save them in a new Dynamic Backgrounds section found in the Personalization area of your console’s settings menu.
The shuffle settings are equally clever, giving you options for them to change when you sign in, or even hourly, daily or weekly.
The blog post also mentions that if you have a controller with an exclusive background, such as the X25 Special Edition, then when you save that background as a favorite, it’ll show even when that controller isn’t connected.
Disc-to-digital license organization
Microsoft is also making changes to how you can see games you’ve converted using the new Disc-to-Digital feature that was introduced to Xbox in August to make them easier to find.
Xbox Insiders who’ve claimed a digital license from a disc-based game will now see them in a separate category, although you can go into the settings menu to keep them alongside your other owned games.
Moving the Guide around
For the first time in virtually a decade, Microsoft is also allowing users to choose where the Guide goes, as you can now choose whether it opens on the right or left-hand side.
To do so, you’ll need to navigate into your console’s Personalization settings, as with the other fixes mentioned above.
All of these new features come as Microsoft celebrates Xbox’s 25th birthday, which has seen a boatload of things introduced, such as a new Xbox Playback Spotify Wrapped-style retrospective and lots of special in-game items to claim in titles such as Forza Horizon 6 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
Of course, there’s the Xbox Series X25 limited edition that’s available if you can get your hands on one – we’ve been keeping a close eye on it as restocks occur through both Amazon and Best Buy soon.
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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.