Now that Valve’s new Steam Deck is available and in the hands of those who pre-ordered early. Valve has this week announced it has made available Steam Deck drivers for Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Just in case you are thinking of loading Windows onto your Steam Deck.
Although no official support will be provided by Valve if you do decide to install Windows on your Steam handheld games console, it is very kind of them to make drivers available for the PC components used in the console.
You can now download Windows Steam Deck GPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and audio drivers although the ability to dual boot with SteamOS is not yet available. “While Steam Deck is fully capable of dual-boot, the SteamOS installer that provides a dual-boot wizard isn’t ready yet. This will ship alongside SteamOS 3 once it’s complete” explains Valve.
Installing Windows on Valve Steam Deck
“Steam Deck is a PC, and other applications and OSes can be installed. If you’re installing Windows, you will need a few additional drivers to have the best experience. Links to these, along with notes for installing Windows on Steam Deck can be found below. We are providing these resources as is and are unfortunately unable to offer ‘Windows on Deck’ support. If you get stuck and need a way back to the default Steam Deck OS, please follow these recovery instructions.”
If you are considering loading Windows onto your Deck it is worth remembering that installing Windows requires you to wipe your console completely.
Other points worth mentioning include :
– To get to the boot menu, power down. Then, while holding Volume Down, press the power button.
– Installation will be in portrait orientation (sideways) on the Steam Deck screen. You can switch this to landscape once Windows is installed.
– To enter your product key during installation, you’ll need internet. Because there are no Wi-Fi drivers at this point, you’ll need a – USB-C hub with an Ethernet port for internet.
– Currently only Windows 10 installation is supported on Steam Deck. We are preparing a BIOS update that enables fTPM, which is required to install Windows 11. This document will be updated once that BIOS is available.
For more information on installing Windows onto your Steam Deck jump over to the official Valve community forums by following the link below, where download links are available for all Steam Deck Windows drivers.
Source : Valve
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