Windows 11 on the Steam Deck! - EASY SteamOS Dual Boot Guide

[@TechHut]

What's your favorite game to play on the Steam Deck? I've been loving Orcs Must Die 3. Buy Windows and MS Office Licensed Keys on Kinguin: kingu.in/techhut Use my code TECH20 for 20% off with instant delivery.

[@burhanbudak6041]

Space Cadet Pinball.

[@samuelcabrera8216]

is the windows home key necessary?

[@pseudonymity0000]

If you're putting an SD card in your steam deck, you need to pay very close attention to the ratings printed on them. You want an SD card with an "A" classification, as these cards are rated for being able to run multiple applications off of them and are optimised for random reads and writes. They were originally made for smart phones to allow the running of apps off of the expanded storage. If all you want to do is run games on the vanilla steam deck then an A1 class is ok, however A2 would be better. But if we're talking an operating system, you want an A2 rated card, which has inbuilt cash and command queuing, similar to what you find on a PC SSD. SD card ratings can be complicated. But here is everything you need to know: C rating (a number inside the letter "C"). This indicates its guaranteed minimum write speed for SDHC support. U rating (a number inside the letter U), this tells you the UHS minimum write speed class for SDXC support. U1 (10MBs) U3 (30MBs). V rating (a Roman numeral V with a number to the right.) This is the minimum Mb/s of wrights per second the card can sustain sequentially (This can be higher than the UHS speed class.) I rating (a Roman numeral I or II) denotes the you UHS-Bus standard being used and the theoretical max R/W speed. (I = 104MB/s II = 312MB/s) The best card for putting in the steam deck, especially for running an operating system would be a SDXC UHS I A2 U3 V30. You could get one with a higher V rating, but at that point you'll be spending a lot of money, as they're more aimed at the pro market for video cameras. Also, you should not bother with any II rated cards as a steam deck does not support the U-II bus standard, as well as any card with a higher read speed than 104MB/s. Cards in the U-I class that state higher read speeds then the standard is using proprietary extensions that the steam deck does not support. Edit: Final note. There his rapid firmware hacking going on with SD cards, and you should be very cautious when buying off brand SD cards, and should also look closely at any card you get for signs of counterfeits of established brands. Best thing to do when you get your SD card is to fully test it by filling it, and testing that all the data is not corrupted. If you can fill it completely and successfully verify all the data is intact, then you know the card is not pulling any tricks to state it has a higher capacity than it actually does. You can use tools to check its read/write performance and capacity to see if it's within specification. You can use this article from partition wizard to find the tools, and more information on this issue and how to test your card when you get it. www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/fake-sd-card-test.html You can also do this with any SD card you currently have, because if you bought it recently you can still return it as a fake or defective. Even if it is old, you'll want to know you're not gambling with your data before it's too late.

[@cookieflips]

Thank you for this, this was an unexpected resource I did not expect to read on youtube today.

[@gram.]

I appreciate you taking the time to type this out, thank you. Best wishes

[@ForesterVulpes]

I hope you know how appreciated this comment is. The work you put into it is apparent. From the formatting to the clear amount of research and time this took. Genuinely the best comment on youtube I have ever seen.

[@marekonbike9291]

Great help man!

[@TenthMarigold]

Any recommended products?

[@notsrynot]

you literally make the best video tutorials dude. This is your art. Also I grabbed a win 11 key with your code. I hope this helps you in the long run.

[@q.uantum]

Thanks. I'll be using 2 SD cards. 1 for windows 11 dual boot so I can work on my game on the go, and 1 for SteamOS games

[@Beryesa.]

Good pick of date!

[@Bushidounohana]

Thanks for this demonstration, been curious about this myself but hadn’t tried it out yet. Thanks for saving me the time and trouble just to see how it runs!

[@jessejames7074]

The best guide on the subject i could find.

[@JeyVGaming]

Honestly, the only reason why I want to install Windows 11 on my Steam Deck is because of the Game Pass and nothing else. It almost makes me wish Valve has their subscription service like it so we wouldn't have to do this..

[@DreadfulUtopia]

I think running off a Micro SD card is probably not ideal, though it is the easier way to use Windows on the Deck. I would definitely suggest using Tiny 11 or Ghost Spectre instead of the regular Windows 11 though, especially if you're only planning to use it for a few Windows-only games. You'll see some marginal but beneficial increases in FPS and it'll probably be kinder to your Micro SD card with less bloat and random stuff running in the background.

[@MrGamelover23]

The best Windows to use for this kind of thing is LTSC edition, because unlike those other versions where You can't get updates without downloading the whole distro again, LTSC continually get security updates. But no matter what system you use, you should set it to boot directly into Steam, completely bypassing the windows shell. Not only will this make your computer boot twice as fast, but it means even if you're using the regular bloated windows, all the telemetry and background resources won't be used because you completely bypassed it.

[@Ekim2F94]

​@MrGamelover23 you got access to a guide for this somewhere man ?

[@Gendreau113]

I used to use Specter, but people worried me when they mentioned how your using a un verified windows operating system, and it could literally have ANYTHING built into it under the hood.... Not only could the creator of Specter just have easy access to all of your computer, files, chrome passwords, bank info, etc but if there's any security risks your leaving it up to that random guy to update and fix.... I hate windows as much as anyone else. But I'd ONLY use the actual Microsoft edition for safety reasons

[@gubeyVS]

I have no idea how you managed to get such horrid framerates in Fortnite. I'll post my recommended setup for it since it worked like, 60fps for me perfectly without issues. I was using a SanDisk 128GB Extreme microSDXC UHS-I A2, V30, U3 SD card with Windows 10 Pro. I hope this helps anyone. This is both tested in Chapter 4 Season 2's Battle Royale and Save the World. -Rendering Mode: DX12/DirectX 12 -Disabled High Res Textures (Found through Epic Games Launcher options) -Screenspace OFF -Low settings (Textures, Effects, Post Processing) -Medium Shadows -Ambient Occulusion can be turned on, it's safe and doesn't hurt frames. -TSR Medium -Temporal Super Resolution: PERFORMANCE -Optimized Windows 10 (I fully recommend Chris Titus' iex powershell command for quick setup. Don't use TinyW11.) -Disabled Cosmetic Streaming (Also, found through the EGS launcher options.) -Disabled Replay Settings (Located in Game Settings) -BIOS UMA Frame Buffer Size - 4GBs (Found within the SteamOS BIOS) -Virtual Memory - 10GBs to 11GBs (Found in Windows Performance Advanced Options, I set mine to 10000 as the inital memory and 11000 as the other option.) Edit: TSR, DirectX 12, BIOS and Virtual Memory stuff helps so much for this to work so well. Don't skimp out on optimizing!

[@hksduhksdu]

One thing you didn’t change is the GFX shared memory, just go to bios, change the GFX shared memory from default 1GB to 4GB or 2GB minimum, you will see major major improvements on Fortnite. I did that for mine, I forced the resolution to 1080p on the external monitor via the official dock, my Fortnite could run constantly over 50FPS, only when over 10 plays on the same screen busy jumping and shooting, it dips to 25FPS for a split second.

[@creightonmccathern]

How do I make it so when I press B it doesn't open my menu? Do you know?

[@unkown34x33]

I got the deck a couple days ago, I was amazed how much faster, and well linux was in the beginning... ! if all my programs worked on the steam os, I would not have got back to windows 11. tho there's a windeck version that debloat the hell of it. but! I really hopen valve and microsoft work together, to bring more and more compatability! :)

[@tambuchalinux]

There's a custom windows is called Tiny 11. It is more optimized and uses less resources than regular Winblows.

[@Gendreau113]

Be careful with custom forks of windows. The creator could have literally control over any of your system, and you can't do shit. Not to mention security risks that are fixed on windows, leave you wide open

[@randomgamingin144p]

@@Gendreau113 either use windows or use something like the chris titus tool/msmg toolkit to debloat it etc

[@unkown34x33]

also the trackpads... are gold! main reason I went with the deck. no regrets

[@fenn_fren]

I've had Windows 11 on my Deck for a long time. Initially wanted Windows 10 but the installer kept spitting errors at me. 11 was painless. I use it as the main system but am thinking of jumping to HoloISO since for some reason the controller stopped working entirely.

[@alenezi989a3]

From your experience can you use PC game pass after installing windows?

[@fenn_fren]

@@alenezi989a3 Yes! Either from the Microsoft Store or Steam.

[@alenezi989a3]

@@fenn_fren great, thanks.

[@fenbekus]

Why HoloISO and not just SteamOS?

[@fenn_fren]

@@fenbekus SteamOS has some ridiculous restrictions in place and I can't work it as good as other distros.

[@kayzerjonas]

How do we go SteamOS after does this? I did it and have Win 11 now but i dont know how to go back steamOS?

[@SolanumVR-t2k]

would you recommend me buying a steam deck for mainly games, but also windows with programs like polyboard or sketchup?

[@SonOfLiberties]

I followed all the directions and seemed to work fine. Where I need help is when trying to log into the Activision account within Warzone, the keyboard doesn’t appear for me to enter my credentials. Any advice?

[@luisgarza8636]

I need help please on my steamdeck when am in modern warfare the keyboard doesnt show up so i can login in to my account

[@Qz-ud1yn]

Please I have a question does fiveem work in steam deck

[@luisgarza8636]

I dont know that

[@azku]

When u have dual boot steam os and windows, do u still have the linux desktop?

[@moegreen5227]

Just got my steam deck and 1tb ssd today. Gonna set everything up tonight. Planned to use the sd card slot for roms. I wanted to ask how much of my ssd should i partition for windows?

[@TechHut]

I have not looked into booting SteamOS and Windows on the same drive yet. I know it's not officially supported, but it really depends on how many Windows games. If only one or two 256gb will be fine with a little wiggle room.

[@JohnGregoryGarza]

When you install windows can you download games on game pass and play offline?

[@Elonicy]

If u turn the setting on in the Xbox app

[@samuelcabrera8216]

I can not get the audio to work does not give me an installation option for audio drivers?

[@Gregorius421]

Haha. I love the calmness with which you handle the bigots 🤣 This is good as a joke, but also good for cod players (which I am not), so you hit two birds with one stone. Great content!

[@packagepagan]

Hey brother. You are my only hope at this point. I was able to set up windows 11 on my steam deck thanks to your expertise. Unfortunately my deck did an update automatically in December 2023 and ever since my widows 11 will not boot off the ad card. It just keeps circling stating fixing program when window tries to boot. Please help me on how I can get my steam deck windows option back up and running. Thank you so much and I hope to hear from you soon as I invested in this device just for this option and steam stated they couldn’t help me after they auto updated my software which caused the issue. Hope to hear from you soon brother and thank you in advance. 🙏🏼

[@alenezi989a3]

Can you get the PC game pass to work after installing Windows 11? Also epic store? What about emulation? Does this override the Steam OS or can I choose what OS to boot.

[@DeadlyJun]

Yes, Yes, Yes, at start if you go to the boot menu you can choose the Steam OS from internal storage (if you didnt erase it) or choose the Windows OS in the Sd Card

[@Baja383]

After installing and shutting down, the sd card will no longer show up in the boot manager, any help?

[@joeygonzalez883]

just now i just got a hypervisior error bsod, when i try to install amd apu drivers i'm using the latest version of windows 11, can you give me any advice and solutions how to fix it?

[@landkart7233]

question, can i install game on ssd, when booting on windows sd card?

[@mateo4424]

does this work the same way if i dont want to use a sd card?

[@FreshDnbz]

Can you use the same SD card for both steam os saves and windows save? Or Windows on one card steam on another?

[@pandagaming7944]

No cuz if u download windows, everything gets erased from the sd card

[@Patrick1985McMahon]

the only reason i can see using Windows or any other alt OS on the SteamDeck is when using it in desktop mode for work-related stuff. Making games and web apps on SteamOS is difficult as you can't do all the normal things with the OS as it is locked down for stability. Still haven't found a way to install nodejs on it so that would be one thing another OS would be good for.

[@jeremyfield4148]

Are all the devices showing in device manager?

[@leahjumper2281]

The problem: you cant switch back to its previous os or reverse the process

[@dunklerKurfurstDesDeepstat]

I like you, but that is still heresy. DO NOT SUFFER THE WITCH TO LIVE

[@TechHut]

New title inspired by your comment

[@kija99]

you do not need to sign in with a microsoft account. if you type G for both the email and password it will trick the system and allow you to use a local account.

[@asmrnaturecat984]

Get the stones!!!!

[@augustinvangeebergen3098]

Noah! get the boat!

[@MrAxelStone]

Within an hour of owning a Steam Deck I installed W11 so I can play my fav newer CoD games. Why Steam OS cant find a fix to play the anti-cheat CoD game I have no clue.

[@trevdogg45]

Have you played mw3 yet on windows 11 and if so can you tell me what amd drivers you used I keep getting a error code 182

[@xMRxLAMAx]

It should perform better booting from the internal drive, just partition off 100-200GB and do the dual boot

[@martinlakatos171]

pls can u help me to remove the duall boot and windows ?

[@randomgamingin144p]

so im confused what ur trying to say but heres how i interpreted it if its 2 sd cards or sd card with ssd, you can just format one of the sd cards if its 1 sd card with dualboot, you can delete the partition with either windows or steamos

[@goticogordo]

all i wanted was to be able to keep the steam OS but have windows as desktop instead of linux, like, literally all that i wanted.... i dont feel that is worth it losing the OS if that is not the end goal

[@yaboynook5865]

I install windows on mines and never going back i got tired of steam and all its bugs i installed windows and added stream im good with that's

[@martinmurillojr]

Steam deck or rog ally?

[@eddiehead6964]

that will only install windows on my microSD or will also wipe everything on it? thank you for the guide

[@YOGI-kb9tg]

Will wipe everything on it if I remember correctly.

[@Romar-io]

Does no one play fortnite in performance mode?? I play it on my potato PC an I get 200 fps so if you use that on the steam deck you'd probably get more cause all I had was a 1030 and 8gb of ddr3 ram

[@beefyonyt]

20 dollars for an OEM key? 🤢

[@samuelcabrera8216]

is it necessary to buy the windows key?

[@deality]

No because it's less than a 9 in screen

[@DAtneliS]

First off, thank you for the awesome video! I got win11 running on the S.Deck now for GTA V purposes via RageMP. Question, how to get the onscreen keyboard to pop up to sign-in to things in game 😅 Or will I need a keyboard for that part?

[@DAtneliS]

Update: Just opted for a Hub for USB ports and got a wireless keyboard/mouse for using the Deck at work on Break 🤓

[@vasiliybr9510]

Ок. А как обновлять драйвера GPU AMD 0405?

[@BigGav12]

my fortnite didn’t run like that at all, i was getting good frames in performance mode and low graghics on 15 tdp

[@Eskoxo]

problem with most of these ck key resellers for windows is those keys become invalid like they sell same one to multiple people happened to me multiple times.

[@Jakeu1701]

there are easy ways to create a local account instead of the MS Account. Local Accounts Forever!

[@ValAero07]

You can put in a fake MS account with PW and bypass having to log in during the installation.

[@BIPUStheTHIRD]

Theres a sspecial version of windows with no bloatware and it uses way less ram

[@KniteDad]

Did you do this with your 2TB internal drive?

[@plutorocks1]

I really wish to see someone installing Fedora in Steam Deck 😂😂😂

[@idcrafter-cgi]

Someone did, just look for the post i had randomly found on Mastodon

[@_StreetRat_]

If I downloaded windows 10 pro on the Rufus part but only have windows 10 home, could that be the reason I’m getting an error when booting on steam deck?

[@martinlakatos171]

or explane how to remove i dont need anymore

[@LiquidSnack]

Can you by chance play your steam deck OS games within windows games (since i kinda wanna run some trainers then use that same save on my steam deck)

[@aiddenbecker5083]

Youd need to download it again but yeah. I think you could also create a new partition that both could access and download them there, but thats a wild guess and i dont think it would be worth the setup if you could

[@deality]

​@@aiddenbecker5083it would

[@stevenlornie1261]

Seems like a lot of effort for very little gain. Also, why are you using the stick for a shooter? Get that track pad going. So much better!

[@Majcher_Patrik]

Its going back to seam os

[@vedranart]

well. It was ok until ofcource, blue screen. Forgot why I hate Windows. ehhhh...

[@HecticNova]

But i dont own a computer :(

[@danielneave6748]

This dude "I brought windows home" Me " yeah nah not going to do that"

[@TheRealAwesomeG203]

Are you still able to keep Gamming mode?

[@plexyglass429]

Ill be using this to play xenia games, RDR1 on RPCS3 just isnt there yet

[@barrdack]

NO!

[@DDosAndDonts]

I tried tiny11 from SD card and it was miserably slow, even with a U3 V30 A2 1TB SD card

[@theunforgiven9538]

if your screen is 7" or less windows is free

[@danielelam2853]

How do I uninstall windows 11 off of my steam deck?

[@alchkosac]

this is not real "dual boot" its not from the same ssd :(

[@veggyp]

I loved the part when we could duil boot it

[@Joshua97776]

This is a great tutorial but I highly recommend NOT installing Windows on a sd card absolute pain in the 🍑 and your Sd might not make it that long.

[@informal_]

is it the same process with windows 10?

[@trustTV]

You misleading with half steps man

[@johneagle9925]

^^ , April Joke..?..

[@rapit7]

GTA Online Stop working, instaling Windows or waiting for Update is last hope nah

[@AzatskyDungeonMaster]

april fools joke

[@pIRatZE]

The title is a joke..I thought it was a guide to dual booting the device

[@X862go]

Agreed I tried it was awful ROG ally for the win. 🎉

[@LocomanDC]

@@X862goyour a joke lil bro

[@inferno7528]

​@@X862gowrong answer, try again

[@dylon0107]

​@pIRatZE this is literally a guide on duel booting but okay

[@StarlordStavanger]

i have to unsubscribe. that last 3 months worth of videos have not be useful nor relevant to me. regardless good luck with the channel, but i'm out peace!

[@TechHut]

What kind of videos were you expecting? I have some Windows vs. Linux benchmarking coming up. Also some good Homelab stuff.

[@dktol56]

@@TechHut Maybe he's pranking you. I personally don't care much for this April Fools youtube tradition.

[@theredstonehive]

illegal!

[@curbappealne8486]

Lol the tutorial for the pros. Deffo not for me……

[@Sharp931]

Absolutely disgusting

[@zebraDtoriko]

every game you tested is trash . yu can use windows to play repacks , thats what you should say .

[@manavharsana8905]

Windows for the win!!! (First)

[@manavharsana8905]

@@darktoaster69 Dude, everyone on this channel knows that, its april 1st can't we be a little sarcastic? (I use Gentoo btw)

[@TheDarthChungus]

Personally I would love to use Linux as my main desktop OS but some of my favourite games are from the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises and I doubt either will ever be Linux compatible whether that be native or wine/proton. I am the type of person that loves to tinker with my OS which Linux is obviously infinitely better than windows for that lol. Also I could never get any Linux distro (Tried Manjaro, Ubuntu, and Mint) working properly on my 2017 MacBook Pro no matter what I tried which is unfortunate, the drivers just don't really exist for the weird proprietary hardware in this laptop.

[@TheDarthChungus]

I still enjoy running Manjaro and Ubuntu on my other various devices every now and then. And obviously enjoy SteamOS on my deck lol

[@manavharsana8905]

@@TheDarthChungus Idk, but if they have anticheat (which I think they do) then 99% it won't work on linux, as anticheats and linux do not go hand in hand

[@TheDarthChungus]

@@manavharsana8905 yeah I’m aware of the anti cheat problem. That’s why I said I doubt it will ever be Linux compatible.

[@N30Dr4g0n]

Many people who buy a Steam Desk do so to get away from Windows. The very idea of putting Windows on the Steam Deck is ludicrous, pointless and frankly dumb.

[@deality]

No it's not.

[@TBHJR]

No, they don’t. And no, it’s not.