Valve releases Windows drivers for Steam Deck

Valve has released Windows drivers for the Steam Deck. The handheld did not support that OS at release, but the manufacturer has now made GPU, WiFi and Bluetooth drivers available.

Valve writes that the drivers from a support page can be downloaded. The manufacturer does report that certain aspects of the Steam Deck do not yet work in Windows. For example, it is not yet possible to put multiple operating systems on the Steam Deck. So users need to uninstall SteamOS to install Windows. Dual-boot support will be added to SteamOS later. valve also publishes a recovery imageallowing users to reinstall SteamOS on the handheld.

Audio drivers are currently also being worked on, so that the built-in speakers and the 3.5mm jack do not yet work in Windows. However, users can use Bluetooth headphones or a USB-C audio adapter. The handheld will initially only support Windows 10. Valve will later release a bios update that adds fTPM support and thus enables Windows 11 installations.

Valve already mentioned in the announcement that the users can install other operating systems on the Steam Deck, because the handheld is in fact a PC. For example, users can play games that are not available in the Steam store through Windows. After all, users can install other launchers on that OS, such as the Epic Games Store, GOG and Microsoft’s Xbox app for Game Pass.