Valve has announced the release of Windows drivers for its Steam Deck portable game console. This is big news because it now allows Steam Deck owners to install Windows on their consoles and use the device as a portable PC. However, the drivers that the company releases are intended for Windows 10 and not the latest Windows 11 operating system. Also read – Studio Display works with Windows PCs, but Apple as Apple limits its capabilities
The company has already released Windows 10 drivers for the GPU, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It has announced that it is currently working with AMD on audio drivers. This means that you can currently install Windows 10 on your Steam Deck but will not get any audio output through the speakers or the 3.5mm headphone jack. However, users can still connect external speakers, headphones via Bluetooth and/or via USB. Also Read – Microsoft Finally Releases a New Video Editor for Windows, But It Costs More Than Adobe Premiere Pro
Valve has also announced that it is also working with AMD on Windows 11 drivers, which will later be rolled out with a BIOS update that will enable fTPM support, which is mandatory for Windows 11. It’s also working on adding support for dual booting, which will be introduced later this year. Currently, if users want to install Windows on their Steam deck, they have to replace the existing SteamOS and vice versa if they want to go back. Also read – MWC 2022: Realme Book Prime launched with 11th Gen Intel processor and 16GB RAM
Since Steam Deck is an x86-based PC, on paper you can install any desktop operating system. However, full functionality still requires native driver support. The device comes preinstalled with Valve’s SteamOS, which supports the Proton emulator to run Windows games available on the Steam Store.
SteamOS does not currently support all games on the Steam Store, nor does it support installing games from other sources. For that reason, the ability to switch to Windows is a welcome change.
