pc gaming Archives - Click Press Play

The pains of sharing an external hard drive between two Xbox PC app installs

October 6, 2023 by Max

Deleting WindowsApps, Program Files, and XboxApps on your external hard drive is a matter of:

Changing ownership of this files over to your new computer
Editing permissions so that you have full control over these files
Booting into safe mode and deleting each folder

The official Xbox app for PC has gotten much better over time (especially with the release of Starfield), but you’ll still find yourself running into infuriating bugs. Steam is still far ahead in user experience despite Microsoft’s investment into both speed and functionality.

A perfect example of Steam’s seamless user experience over the Xbox app is in the process of managing external hard drives across two different computers. Whether you’re moving to a new PC or like to switch between a laptop/desktop, you’ll find that the Xbox PC app will refuse to cooperate between two distinct installs.

I’ve found that there are two main issues that crop up when using an external hard drive between two PCs:

You won’t be able to play previously installed games on a different PC
You won’t be able to install games on an external hard drive if games were previously installed through a different PC

To solve this, I deleted the contents of WindowsApps, XboxApps, and Program Files without having to wipe the drive completely (these were the folders I found to have associations with previous PC Game Pass installs).

Yes, a 75 Hz monitor can run 120 FPS (with exceptions)

September 29, 2023 by Max

First things first: refresh rates and how many frames you get in game are related to one another but not quite the same thing. If you’re someone with a 75 Hz monitor (refresh rate) you can output 120 FPS (or more) depending on your setup. The only catch is that the end result may not be to your liking.

Easy fix for SteelSeries mouse blinking red

June 21, 2023 by Max

I’ve had my SteelSeries Rival 110 mouse for about 4 years now. It’s a budget model but it’s served me well. The only problem is that I noticed the RGB functionality became wonky after moving from a gaming laptop to a desktop. It was no longer the showing off the green I was using for years and instead was slowly blinking red.

The fix?

I knew that it couldn’t be the battery failing because…well…it’s a wired mouse. And then I remembered that I originally had to download SteelSeries software to set up the color I wanted. This turned out to be the solution. These days the software is called SteelSeries GG and in addition to device customization (CPI, RGB, mapping, etc.), there’s also aim training and audio enhancements available.

PC Gaming: is 60 Hz the same thing as 60 FPS?

June 21, 2023 by Max

Getting right to the difference between refresh rates and frame rate…

60 Hz and 60 FPS (frames per second) are interrelated, but not the same thing. 60 Hz refers to the refresh rate of your display while 60 FPS is the number of frames per second rendered by your PC or console.

To put it another way, the frame rate determines how fluid any particular game is while the refresh rate of your monitor (or TV) will dictate how smooth a game will appear.