The Steam Deck portable gaming system now has Windows drivers thanks to Valve. Users of Microsoft’s operating system will be able to utilise their devices with greater ease thanks to these drivers.
The GPU, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth chipsets all have new drivers available today. Due to ongoing development between Valve and AMD, audio drivers are not available at this time. As a result, the Steam Deck will not allow audio output through the speakers or headphones. For audio, users will need a Bluetooth or USB device.
Only Windows 10 users will be able to use the included drivers. The fTPM functionality required by Windows 11 will be included in the next release of Windows 11 drivers, which will be available in conjunction with a BIOS update.
Dual booting is not yet supported by the Steam Deck but will be in the future. As a result, if users wish to return to the previous version of the operating system, they will have to do so by reinstalling Windows 10.
There are no restrictions on operating systems that may be installed on the Steam Deck; full functionality still needs native driver compatibility. An operating system that is based on Linux and utilises the Proton emulator to run Windows games from Steam is preinstalled on the device.
Since Windows doesn’t permit installing games from other sources, such as the Epic Games Store or the Microsoft Store (the latter of which is necessary for Game Pass), SteamOS isn’t compatible with all of the Steam store’s titles. As long as you’re prepared to cope with the drawbacks, there is a compelling argument to install Windows on the Steam Deck right now.