When it comes to the latest fun devices, Steam Deck should be on the list. These days when graphics cards are outrageous and consoles are hard to find, Valve’s PC handheld is a solution to game addiction (although it is not off-the-shelf), but in addition to its gaming performance, many players may be more concerned about installing a Windows system to use it.
Steam Deck is actually an x86 PC in hardware, so it is theoretically compatible with Windows systems, but because Valve has its own Steam OS (based on the bottom layer of Arch Lunix, they mainly do GUI), the biggest problem with Linux is native games Too few, which is a big obstacle for a handheld console that focuses on games.
Valve used Proton technology to make Steam Deck run games on the Windows platform. Although this compatibility layer is very good, it is naturally not as good as Windows native support is straightforward, so installing Windows on Steam Deck should be in high demand.
Valve is also very generous. By default, the Steam Deck boot is enabled, which is the same as a normal computer, so installing Windows is almost the same as the general process.
Boot to the Windows installation U disk, and then it is familiar. The installation interface is now, there is a more detailed tutorial in Tom’s Hardware, and you can even do Windows To Go on a microSD card. If you’re lucky enough to have a Steam Deck on hand, you can install Windows and play.
However, since the Windows system is not natively supported by Valve, although it can be successfully installed and entered on the desktop, it will lack a large number of important drivers including graphics cards, Wi-Fi, wired networks, etc. It is basically simple and barely usable.
We need to wait until Valve will release the driver, but some media said that Valve has pushed several system updates during the evaluation period, so it is estimated that official support for Windows still needs some more before the Steam OS is improved time.