I Installed Windows on My Steam Deck, and I'll Never Do It Again

Steam Deck is not born for Windows: a frustrating attempt

Steam Deck is optimized for SteamOS, not Windows. Valve has extremely limited software support for users who try to run Windows on Deck. Running Windows on Steam Deck requires third-party applications to control fans, TDP, and many other features. If Steam Deck is my only gaming device, I might endure the dual boot setup for Windows and SteamOS.

After I got the Steam Deck, I tried to install Windows purely for fun, but the experience was very bad. Nearly two years later, I still think Steam Deck and Windows don't match.

Valve built Steam Deck for SteamOS from the beginning. This handheld console and SteamOS are optimized for each other. While Steam Deck is a normal PC that can run an operating system that any normal PC can run, Valve's software support for Windows is almost non-existent, which is completely understandable. Why does Valve support an operating system that its devices are not designed to run?

If you want to install Windows, you can do this, Valve provides some necessary drivers—CPU and GPU, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, card readers and audio—but beyond that, You have to figure it out yourself.

Want to control fan speed, TDP, or any other feature that cannot be directly controlled in Windows? That requires a third-party application. My personal choice is Handheld Companion, which I have used on both my Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally.

I have to say that considering this is a community project, this app is pretty good. Its UI is a bit clumsy and can't match the game mode on SteamOS, but overall it's a good enough tool for all Deck users who want to try Windows.

However, there is a major problem that can never be solved when running Windows on Steam Deck: You cannot update the GPU drivers for Steam Deck on Windows.

If a game that works well on SteamOS doesn't work well on Windows, you will never see improvements unless the developer releases a patch to fix it. This is extremely unlikely to happen given that there are few Steam Deck users using Windows as a daily driver.

Run the perfect game on SteamOS and experience visual flaws and errors on Windows? Well, you have to endure these issues as you won't be able to get new GPU drivers. Got a game error caused by GPU driver-related issues on Steam Deck? Valve will most likely solve it, but it will only solve it on SteamOS.

You shouldn't expect any other Steam Deck Windows driver updates, which is good, because I'd rather see Valve put resources into SteamOS than wasting time creating new OS for its devices that are not designed for Driver. What Valve might do in the future, but it's better to assume they won't do it, and if something happens, be pleasantly surprised.

This clumsy, incomplete, unstable experience is the main reason why I documented how to switch back to SteamOS after a few days of installing Windows on Steam Deck. This experience feels bad, especially compared to the excellent user experience offered by SteamOS’s game mode, which is the best PC user interface I’ve ever seen.

It's extremely slow to run Windows on microSD card

My initial Windows test was installing the operating system on a (quite fast) microSD card. Let me tell you that running Windows 11 on a microSD card is frustratingly slow. Any operation takes a long time to complete. Even simple operations, such as opening settings or launching an application, require a long wait. As you might expect, this ruins the user experience.

So I decided to back up SteamOS and install Windows on the internal SSD. The performance is much better, but still unstable Windows experience has brought me back to SteamOS a few days later.

Now, I could have dual booted Windows and SteamOS on the same drive, but I don't want to do it just to play Game Pass games. Finally, I installed Moonlight and started streaming games from my PC to my Deck, which is now my main way to play large games on my PC handheld.

Later that year, I bought an ASUS ROG Ally, and now it is my main PC handheld. As for my Steam Deck, I turned it into the ultimate emulator machine. Currently, I have a bunch of emulators and ROMs installed on it, and I have to say that Valve's handheld is perfect for simulation. It runs most of the simulation systems I'm interested in, and I can stream larger games from my PC - like Switch games.

The only scene that made me endure Windows

Now, if the Steam Deck is my only gaming device and I can’t buy a Windows PC handheld, there is a situation where I would endure the clumsy Windows experience on the Steam Deck.

You guessed it: PC Game Pass. The only way I can play Game Pass games on my handheld is to run them locally. I'm not interested in cloud streaming, especially Xbox cloud streaming, which is the worst of all in terms of image quality and latency.

If my Deck is the only way to play video games, I might choose a dual boot method and endure all the problems that initially discourage me. This way I can play most of the games I want to play on SteamOS, while playing PC Game Pass and some multiplayer games on Windows.

At this point, you have to question whether choosing a Steam Deck over a dedicated Windows handheld like the ROG Ally X makes sense. If Windows gaming is your main attraction, please choose Windows handheld console and enjoy it.

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Steam Deck is an excellent handheld gaming console with an equally great operating system. SteamOS is tailor-made for Steam Deck, and the combination of the two is perfect. On the other hand, Windows has many disadvantages.

While I can endure these shortcomings on my ROG Ally, they become a barrier on my Steam Deck, because SteamOS is undoubtedly the better PC platform for handheld gaming on both.

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