Steam Deck has many features that make it suitable for handheld gaming. It’s portable, affordable, and more importantly, hackable, making it the perfect device for any tinkerer. However, like any technology, owning a Steam Deck comes with some drawbacks. First, the list of supported Steam games is still growing, and according to ProtonDB, over 50% of the games in the library are unplayable. This is because Steam Deck ships with SteamOS, which is based on a fork of Arch Linux. Therefore, your favorite game may be refusing to launch on your deck due to anti-cheat software. However, there is a solution to the same problem: installing Windows. Yes, you can also install Windows on your Steam deck and play Xbox Games Pass titles on your handheld console. So, in this guide, we’ll show you how to do just that. 
Install Windows on Steam Deck
Valve offers users the flexibility to install Windows or any operating system on their Steam Deck handheld console. Windows drivers for Steam Deck are readily available . However, as of this writing, the console does not support dual boot. Valve says it is working on tools that will allow users to easily dual-boot SteamOS and another OS.
There are two ways to install Windows on your Steam deck: set up a dual-boot configuration on the internal SSD, or install Windows on a microSD card so you can use Windows anywhere, anytime. The former is best if you have the 512GB variant, but requires prior knowledge of repartitioning drives. The latter, on the other hand, is the best option if you have the Steam Deck 64GB version. Below, we explained how to install Windows 10 on Steam Deck using a microSD card. You can refer to the table below to navigate to the desired section. 
Prerequisites for installing Windows on Steam Deck
- your steam deck (of course)
- 256 GB or larger microSD card for your Steam deck – Install Windows on this storage device.
- USB microSD card adapter – Required to connect an SD card to a Windows machine and create a bootable drive.
- Windows 10/11 Media Creation Tool
- A Windows PC with Rufus installed to create a bootable Windows 10 SD card. I used this tool to create a Windows 11 bootable USB, bypassing TPM, online account requirements, and other restrictions.
- Windows drivers for Steam Deck are linked below.
How to create a Windows 10 bootable SD card
To get started, you’ll need to download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft’s website and use Rufus to create a bootable SD card for use with your Steam deck. We recommend installing Windows 10 over Windows 11 on your Steam deck. Windows 10 is lighter, more stable, and games launch faster. So let’s get started:
1. Download ( visit ) the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and launch it. If you want to install Windows 11 on your Steam deck, download the Windows 11 Media Creation Tools instead. Most of the steps below are the same for Windows 10 and 11.
2. Once launched, allow a few moments for setup, then click Next .
3. Now select the Create installation media option and click Next.
4. On the next page, leave everything as default and click Next.
5. On the Select Media to Use page, select the ISO file option and click Next at the bottom right.
6. Next, browse to the location where you want to download the Windows 10/11 ISO file and click Save.
7. The ISO file will start downloading. In the meantime, install and set up Rufus and create a bootable SD card. Download Rufus from the official website, install it, and launch it.
8. Insert the SD card into a USB stick and connect it to your computer. Rufus will automatically detect and display the name. Make sure the name of your drive matches what is displayed in the tool.
9. If selected, click the Select button to select the ISO file.
10. Select the Windows 10 ISO you downloaded above and click Open.
11. Make sure you select the Windows To Go option from the Image Options dropdown. This will boot directly into your OS setup (in this case on Steam Deck) and create a Windows image that retains all the changes you made to the operating system. When finished, click Start at the bottom right.
12. In the next step, select Windows 10 Pro and check the “Prevent Windows To Go from accessing internal disks” and “Disable data collection” options. That’s it. Once the process is complete, Windows 10 will be installed on your SD card.
14. Now all you have to do is visit this Steam Deck support page and download all Windows drivers . Next, create a new folder on your SD card called “Drivers” and unzip all the ZIP files inside this folder. 
How to install Windows on your Steam deck
Now that you have a bootable SD card with Windows 10 on it, boot the image installed on Steam Deck. Here’s how it works:
1. Insert your SD card into your Steam Deck. Then press the Steam button and go to the “Power” option and press the “A” button.
2. Select the Shutdown option in the Power menu to turn off the console.
3. Once powered off, press and hold the Volume button and then press the Power button until you hear a beep. Next , launch SteamOS Recovery .
4. Now, search for the SD card under “EFI Boot Device” in the recovery and press the “A” button to boot.
5. You can now launch Windows Setup directly. This may take some time depending on the speed of your SD card or USB stick. Also, as you can see in the image, Windows 10 setup runs vertically on the Steam deck.
6. Run the normal Windows setup and once complete, change the orientation from the Display settings. Go to Settings -> Display and select “Landscape” orientation here.
7. Next, open File Explorer and go to “SD Card -> Drivers Folder ” and install all Windows drivers. Some can be installed by double-clicking, while others require you to right-click and select Install.
8. Once the installation is complete, restart your device and you’re done! Windows 10 has been successfully installed on your Steam deck. Now you can insert a USB, SD card, or external SSD to boot directly to Windows and play your favorite games not available on SteamOS.
Windows on Steam Deck makes it easy to play games not available on SteamOS, such as Fortnite, PUBG, Destiny 2, and Genshin. That said, Windows 10 may not be as optimized as SteamOS, which may impact battery life. Needless to say, downloading multiple games from an SD card or USB is very slow, so we recommend using an external SSD instead. For the best experience, we recommend a USB 3.0 stick or class A2 UHS-1 SD card that reaches read and write speeds of at least 120MB/s. If you’ve tried running Windows on a Steam deck using an SD card, please share your experience in the comments section below.
Can I dual-boot Windows on the Steam Deck’s internal SSD?
Although Valve says dual-booting is not possible at this time, there is a way to dual-boot Windows alongside SteamOS on your Steam deck. However, we do not recommend doing the same as it requires fiddling with the SteamOS partition.
How does Windows work on Steam Deck?
For the most part, Windows performs very well on the Steam deck. The game runs as expected on a regular PC.
