Windows is Now Officially Supported on OLED Steam Deck

Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzmod to Steam Deck@sopuli.xyz – 194 points – Windows is Now Officially Supported on OLED Steam Deck - Steam Deck HQ
steamdeckhq.com

To be clear, while the article says this is "official support", this is only drivers provided by valve.

Per valve:

We are providing these resources as is and are unfortunately unable to offer 'Windows on Deck' support.

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I'd rather have SteamOS officially support more devices including desktop. Good on Valve for giving people options though.

I would rather trust GamingOnLinux here:

While it is not in any way officially supported by Valve, they have now released Windows drivers for the newer Steam Deck OLED model.

(emphasis mine)

Yeah, that is a good point to make.

Main reason I linked the steamdeckhq coverage is because they covered it last night, where gamingonlinux didn't have any coverage of it until a few hours ago.

Cool but also meh, I really like steams and have had 0 issues getting games to play.

It's a great option for people who wants to play those games where the anti cheat system doesn't support Linux

The assholes with that anticheat need to be pressured to do Linux support properly, not people that run after them!

A part of me wishes hackers do a Crowdstrike on Vanguard to stop this trend.

Nah, i hope they steal the code and build viruses on it that use the kernel level permissions so these asshole are liable for everything.

We should just stop supporting those games.

Blech! Why would somebody sully such a wonderful device with a piss patty OS?

I could imagine that games with invasive anti cheats are a reason.

As someone who played a couple, i just stopped playing them.

I'm a little sad they did this, i hoped that the pressure on the game devs would rise so they support Linux, oh well.

Personally, I think this is great because I can now use my game pass subscription on the steam deck, I know I could use the cloud functionality on steamos, but it is not the same.

This limitation made be realize the vendor lock-in that game pass is, sure it provides awesome value, but forces you to have windows or buy an Xbox.

Why did you subscribe to services you couldn't use?

I only bought a steam deck recently, when I subscribed for 3 years, I mostly gamed on Windows or on my Xbox.

True, still a little salty I had to cancel the subscription, I genuinely liked it. But I'm not installing Windows.

Good news, Lemmy! You will no longer be forced by big tech corporations to run uh... [checks notes] a version of Linux on your Steam Deck anymore!

I’ve used the ASUS ROG Ally and I do not recommend running Windows on anything, let alone a handheld. Don’t tarnish your Steam Deck with this!

I fully agree, but the Deck should be less painful to run windows on thanks to the track pad.

And then there’s me, who got a new laptop a couple of days ago after looking into things, and the pre installed Windows worked perfectly to test the hardware worked fine… before being replaced by Linux.

who would use it when Linux just works in addition to Microsoft's continued enshitification of Windows?

The only reason to use Windows over Linux is compatibility with certain games (or even applications). Also the price of the device is pretty low. That means people who are interested into handheld PCs who want to use it as a sort of laptop for cheap and don't care about Linux, can still install Windows on it. I'm not recommending it, but I'm glad people have this option and Valve is not actively trying to stop people (unlike other companies).

Yeah I'm sure they have their reasons but if it were up to me I would never allocate resources for that.

"Let it rot and fester somewhere else"

Perhaps it's due to the games I play not being online multiplayer for the most part, but I've yet to encounter a game that I couldn't get to work on Linux, with ~99% requiring absolutely no effort (besides clicking a drop down menu).

And this includes games that Steam has labeled "unsupported" (not even just "unverified").

At risk of being that annoying, "but have you tried lately?" guy but... Have you? Because it's pretty wild. In many cases, the Windows version of the game, played using Proton, works better than the native Linux runtime.

Yes, I'm playing unsupported and unverified games just fine too. Its the nature of progress, where the game, the drivers/system or Proton gets updated and the tested state no longer is accurate. There was a few cases when I tried the Windows version over Linux native build to see how it works. However I was never in a position where I needed that or when it was obviously much better. I always have this in mind in case I need to switch. Maybe in future versions where the native build is no longer functional under Linux.

Some games have security software that requires Windows. Destiny 2 for example.

Well, at least for me the solution is simple: don't buy those games.

That's... that's a lot of games.

https://www.protondb.com/explore?sort=fixWanted

On the 1st page I found exactly one game that I'd maybe want to play, but not like I couldn't live without it. None on page 2 and one game again on page 3. Every single game I wanted to play on the Deck works (true, some of them needed some tinkering).

Remember, I said the solution is simple for me. Generally the games that don't work are not really my cup of tea, like online games and generally stuff that's more cash-grab than a game. There are few games that would make me consider getting Windows to play, but luckily all of those work well. I still wouldn't install Windows on the Deck, though, I'd probably stream it from some PC.

Yeah, I dunno if that list was supposed to be convincing lol... Most of the games on there are total "games as a service" garbage.

Every single one of these games looks like trash. Like 4 out of 5 (on page 1 at least) of the games on the list are games I've only heard about from YouTube advertisements that I didn't use SponsorBlock on.

Not very convincing.

The Call of Duty franchise is one of the biggest games going. PUBG Battlegrounds is huge, so is Destiny 2.

Dude there’s like, maybe twenty real games in that pile. Most of which I wouldn’t want to play on my steam deck anyways, not that I’ve ever wanted to play a battlefield game, but I sure don’t want to try and aim with a controller.

Gyro-assisted aiming is actually quite effective.

Thst's not to say anything about those games though.

Good to have the option, but probably only worth it if you play anti cheat infested games or subscribe to game pass. I'll stick with the OS optimised for the hardware

This is definitely meant to make it less painful for the players of those games.

So. Many. Ads. Omg

"I see youre trying to shutdown your computer. Would you like to buy more OneDrive storage?"

Geez why are some people so ready to install malware.

If you can get Rocksmith 2014 running without ear piercing screeching or extreme audio latency then by all means.

Until then, it's a good thing people have more options, even if it's not a great one.

Valve are working on getting SteamOS to work on the ROG Ally X so maybe they're doing this to help get SteamOS to work on windows first handhelds and make it work better across the 3rd party handheld landscape.

Like you've got to take two steps back to take a step forward

I don't see why this would help. More likely there are two different teams/people working on either side separately from each other. I bet the windows work involves a lot more work on Microsoft's or the chip manufacturer's side than valves.

Weird that the drivers are that dramatically different for the OLED version.

The standard Steam Deck Windows drivers have been out for ages, I have a Win11 external SSD and it works fine.

Weird that the drivers are that dramatically different for the OLED version.

The WiFi and BT modules are completely different (the OLED's product page says this since the announcement), hence new drivers required.

It's a bit late. The original Steam Deck had drivers for Windows too. But is this really "official support"? I mean Valve gives no guarantees that Windows will work fine. Valve gives the drivers away, so people can do whatever they want, but makes no promise and do not support it officially on their website. So I'm a bit confused by the terminology. Maybe its still too early in the morning...

Yeah calling this official support isn't quite what is actually happening. "Windows works now on the SteamDeck OLED" on the other hand doesn't generate as many clicks...

@Fubarberry Why thou?

Some games have security software that requires Windows. Destiny 2 for example.

@jordanlund Too true. Does this new arc version of SteamOS allow for dual booting?

As far as I'm aware, all Steam Decks can dual boot. On my machine you hold volume down on power on to access the boot manager.

I didn't partition the internal drive because I wanted to preserve the original install, so I boot from the external SSD for Win 11.

So now you can play fortnite on the steam deck. I like to think valve did this just to mess with epic.

Also... Photoshop I guess?

I guess it's nice of them to release the drivers but that still won't make it a good experience. They should have designed the deck to use full length nvme so you could get bigger drive sizes and not feel like a dual boot leaves no room for games. Not that I would do this or recomend it, yuck.

I use a 2TB Kingston SSD through the USB-C port. All the Steam Deck stuff stays on the internal drive, Windows 11 on the Kingston.

https://www.kingston.com/en/ssd/xs2000-portable-usb-c-solid-state-drive

There are also docks that support NVMe:

https://jsaux.com/products/m-2-docking-station-for-steam-deck-hb0604

Is that faster than loading it on a microsd card? That's how I currently boot windows on my steamdeck, but it's a little slow to load and initial loads for some games can be painful.

Yeah, the MicroSD slot is around 100mb/s:

https://www.polygon.com/deals/22938610/steam-deck-best-sd-card-micro-storage-price-speed

USB-C is anywhere from 5 Gbps to 20 Gbps. Not sure what standard the Deck supports, but even the slowest is 625 to 2500 mb/s.

Thanks, I'll have to take a look into that, I can definitely tell the microsd struggles (and it would free up my microsd slot for extra steamos storage).

That kinda makes it not very portable. However, it's true that you can get short high capacity drives. They're just a bit harder to find.

Anecdotally: I worked from home today, my primary laptop is Linux mint. Helldivers 2 wouldn't start, seems an update broke the settings I had. I tried a couple generic fixes through terminal and started getting huffy because everything would be easier if I just used windows. Non of this would be happening if I just took the blue pill...about 30 minutes in I turned off steam sync for saved games and suddenly it all worked again.

Moral of the story: sometimes Linux isn't this complicated beast, and it's as simple as something that even windows would have a problem with. It's only difficult until you figure out the problem. Windows is a necessary evil some of the time but never all of the time.

Just keep swimming. You'll figure it out. Not trying is being lazy and complacent.

Also though, you have to consider not all gamers are tech savvy, and your "generic fixes" through terminal would immediately make some of them have a quit moment.

I think Linux users forget the amount of base knowledge that they had to learn in order to simply use their software proficiently sometimes.

I'm a systems engineer, I do sometimes forget common knowledge isn't everyone's knowledge with IT stuff.

I for one welcome the ability to:

  • play flash games,
  • Games without launchers or not on steam
  • Run vortex, wemod, obscure mod installers without winetricks that are more hassle than they're worth (if they work at all)
  • Literally just not have to find workarounds for everything I want to do that isn't through steam that adds another hour of research and installation to the process.

You may now begin the downvotes. (Even if you're wrong I respect your opinions)

play flash games,

I don't think there's currently any supported software running flash files that's Windows exclusive, is there? Adobe ended support and the most mature solution is ruffle, which is open source and runs on Linux as well.

Games without launchers or not on steam

??? When has this not been possible?

I'm actually shocked and disappointed by this. Why valve? You made a sick operating system. Dedicated countless hours to development on Linux. All this to get away from the Microsoft monopoly. Now, you're dedicating more hours to the support of Windows? Will this be installed on the Steam Decks by default? What is your plan?

It's literally just drivers that enable user choice. Steam OS is great and nobody reasonable is switching, but for those that do it's good that they have support for the hardware.

User choice is great and all but it comes at a cost. They could be using the engineering power and time to work more on steamos