The team at Valve has said that gamers will be able to install any OS on their Steam Deck device, and now drivers for Windows 10 are available.
Valve is going from strength to strength these days, it seems. Not only has the company just released its hotly-anticipated Steam Deck handheld PC, but its most lucrative asset Steam has recorded impressive growth for 2021, showing that the platform is continuing in popularity. With its portable device now in people’s hands, reviewers and gamers have been getting to grips with it these past couple of weeks. While it’s designed to incorporate the company’s own operating system by default, it is possible to install a different OS and the developer has just added support for Windows.
In a recent post, Valve has now released Windows drivers for the Steam Deck, which users can download from the resources page. However, at the moment, it’s only showing support for Windows 10. The post goes on to say that Windows 11 utilizes a new BIOS, so support for that is not available just yet, but the company says it will be coming soon. The drivers provided support GPU, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, with work still needing to be done for AMD and audio drivers. It’s also not yet possible to dual-boot the device with more than one operating system.
Given that the device is essentially a mini PC, Valve said early on that it is possible to wipe the system and install a different OS, if gamers so wished, this includes putting Windows 10 on the Steam Deck. When the hardware was first announced last summer, many felt it to be a rival to the Nintendo Switch, but as the months went on, and more details became public, it became clear that this had the potential to be something more.
With plenty of positive feedback on the device and a few comments about how it can be approved, Valve itself has been taken aback by the high demand for the device. With it seemingly growing in popularity as the weeks go on, the Steam Deck is expected to become available in other countries soon, and the developer is already thinking about a follow-up, which will likely mean improved models.
There are more than 1,000 games now playable on the Steam Deck, exactly 1,219 at the time of writing, and this number is expected to go up rapidly. While there are a few teething issues according to a number of reviews, the fact that Valve has created essentially a mobile PC could potentially usher in a new era of portable gaming. Gabe Newell himself has said that the Steam Deck represents a “stepping stone” in the industry.
