The Steam Deck has quickly become the new little darling of the PC gaming world. Though portable handheld-styled PCs have been a thing for multiple years, Valve’s new product looks poised to take the market by storm due to all the resources being thrown behind it. And now, that includes full direct support for Windows.
Valve recently announced that it has now finally released official drivers that will give the Steam Deck proper compatibility with Windows.
These drivers are for the Deck’s GPU, as well as its WiFi and Bluetooth radios. Valve promises that audio drivers are “still in the works”, as it continues its efforts with “AMD and other parties”. That said, Bluetooth and USB-C audio devices are still able to be used.
While this is all good news, Valve has also made mention of a few caveats.
For starters, Windows 10 is the only option Deck users have “for now”. Support for the new Windows 11 will come further down the line, sometime “soon” work on its BIOS is complete. On top of that, keep in mind that when you install Windows, you’ll only be able to do so as a full install. Dual-booting is supported on the Steam Deck, but Valve mentions that the SteamOS installer wizard “isn’t ready yet” to handle that.
Another warning to note is that Valve is already stating that anyone who encounters problems are kind of on their own; the team is only handling native Steam Deck OS support for the Deck. All it can offer are some recovery instructions to get back to the default OS should a critical error occur in Windows.
You don’t need to be a PC gamer for very long to know that errors on Windows are a dime-a-dozen, and rear their ugly heads often without warning. That said, the more Steam Decks that are out there, the more that community support will be able to supplement the lack of official support. Considering the Deck looks to be a hit in the making, buyer’s shouldn’t have to worry too much about being left out in the lurch. Well, at least that applies to Windows support. Shipment wise—yes, customers do have a wait ahead of them.
