How do some non-Xbox games (from Steam etc.) show up on my profile's status in the Xbox...

it's the same way discord does, it just looks at running processes and matches them up, you can change your settings in the Xbox app

Hello Michael M, I am an independent advisor and I will be happy to help you today. My name is Khaji

The functionality of showing non-Xbox games in your Xbox profile in the Windows 11 Game Bar relies on the operating system's ability to detect and record gaming activity on your computer. However, not all external games will automatically appear in your Xbox profile. Whether a game is included in the Xbox profile depends on several factors, such as the game's implementation and whether the developer has used APIs and features provided by the Windows operating system to enable that functionality.

Some third-party games, such as Team Fortress 2, Geometry Dash, and Poly Bridge 2, may have been developed or updated to include Xbox Live integration or Windows-specific features that allow them to register with your Xbox profile. This means they can use APIs and services provided by Microsoft to record game activity.

As for the "Remember this is a game" button in the Game Bar settings, its function is to manually mark an application as a game so that Windows recognizes it and treats it as such. However, not all games will respond to this setting as it depends on how they are developed and whether they have included integration with Windows gaming features.

It is not possible to directly modify game files to be registered to your Xbox profile. The ability to register games to your Xbox profile depends on how the game has been implemented and configured by the developer.

In short, including non-Xbox games in your Xbox profile in the Windows 11 Game Bar depends on each game's specific implementation and integration with features and services provided by Microsoft. It is not possible to directly modify the game files to enable this functionality.

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding! If you need anything else, do not hesitate to contact us again.

Linking your steam profile just shows to people that you have steam, nothing more. Some games do have cross play, and those games you will be able to invite someone in game itself, not via the Xbox dashboard.

I can't see any people that I have on Steam on my Xbox, neither my Xbox dashboard and neither in the game running on my Xbox, and neither in the Xbox app for Windows, and neither on a game from Xbox running on a Windows 10 PC.

Linking your steam profile just shows to people that you have steam, nothing more. Some games do have cross play, and those games you will be able to invite someone in game itself, not via the Xbox dashboard.

Only certain games on steam will show up on your achievements list if they are from steam. Basically games that are not on Xbox but are on steam, should not show up at all on your achievements list.