How to Install SteamOS on a Windows Portable Gaming Console

Steam Deck was a game changer for PC gamers, opening up a world of portability that was usually reserved for Nintendo fans. Naturally, manufacturers have tried to follow suit with Windows-based portables, with, shall we say, mixed results. Now, Valve has released official instructions for installing SteamOS on devices other than Steam Deck. Let’s dive into how to do it—and whether it’s worth it.

I should point out up front: This is a murky area when it comes to official support from the company that made your handheld. At the time of writing, the Lenovo Legion Go S is the only handheld with “Powered by SteamOS” branding (other than the Steam Deck itself), which means it’s officially supported by the final build. You can install SteamOS on devices like the Legion Go and ROG Ally, but their support isn’t final.

Also, this should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: If you wipe Windows from your handheld, you won’t be able to play Windows-based games that aren’t supported by SteamOS. This mostly applies to online games that require anti-cheat software , but it’s worth checking sites like ProtonDB to make sure your favorite games will work on SteamOS.

Why should you install SteamOS on your Windows portable device?

So, with that caveat out of the way, what are the pros? To put it (too) simply, Windows isn’t designed for handhelds. In fact, under the hood, Windows tends to treat your gaming handheld like a laptop. Right down to things like Microsoft Teams running in the background or pop-up alerts that interrupt your gameplay to tell you your battery is low.

Now that people can experiment with SteamOS and Windows on the same hardware, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Windows itself is a huge nerf to both frame rates and battery life . Even gaming laptops, which can often last a full day on a regular basis, can struggle to even get a few hours of gaming without a charger. That’s why it’s so important to tweak your settings for better battery life .

Gaming handhelds only exacerbate this problem, with a smaller form factor and therefore smaller battery life. In my own experience, I struggled to get two hours of playtime out of a light game like Stardew Valley on a Windows handheld, while the Steam Deck and even the Switch can last up to six hours or more.

Because Windows is designed as a desktop first (and a tablet second), it’s also harder to tweak settings using controller input. What, exactly, is the controller equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+Delete? While you can plug in a keyboard to dig into your handheld’s settings, it’s simply easier to do so on SteamOS, since its interface was built from the ground up for controller input.

At this point, Valve also showed that running Steam games through the Proton compatibility layer works so well that it’s almost seamless. I’ll admit, when Steam Deck was first announced, I expected games to be broken or perform much worse than their native Windows counterparts. However, after four hundred hours of playing Hades II, it’s clear that many games can actually run better on SteamOS than on Windows.

Step 1: Download and prepare a USB drive with the SteamOS recovery image

With that out of the way, let’s get started. To install SteamOS on your gaming handheld, you’ll need two things: a SteamOS recovery image and a USB drive (preferably USB-C) with at least 8GB of storage. Make sure everything on that USB drive is properly backed up, as this process will reformat the device.

The Steam Deck recovery image can be found here . It’s just over 3GB, so it may take a while to download, depending on your connection. While you wait, you’ll also need a utility to create a recovery USB drive. Valve recommends Rufus for Windows users and Balena Etcher for Mac or Linux users .

Once the recovery image is downloaded, use the tool of your choice to write the recovery image to the USB drive. This process should be relatively simple. For example, Rufus will give you a drop-down list to select the drive to write the file to under Device, and under Boot Selection, click Select to select the recovery image file. Click Start and wait. Reminder: This will erase the contents of your USB drive.

Step 2: Disable Secure Boot on your PDA

This part can be a bit tricky, and the exact process will depend on what kind of laptop you have. Valve provides a breakdown of the steps for a few specific devices here , like the Legion Go and ROG Ally. However, other devices, like MSI or Ayaneo, will have their own process.

In general, the steps usually look something like this:

• Reboot into the BIOS. Just as you can hold Del or F2 on a PC while rebooting to get into the BIOS, your gaming laptop has a similar process. Often it’s holding a button like Volume + while pressing the power button, but check your specific device’s instructions if that doesn’t work.

• Go to the Secure Boot settings. You may have to dig around for this. Look for categories like Security, and you may have to go into the Advanced settings mode or menu to find it. It should be called Secure Boot. Change it to Disabled.

• Save the settings and reboot the device. After changing the Secure Boot settings, be sure to save the changes in the BIOS and reboot the device.

Depending on the device, you may have to use the touchscreen to navigate the BIOS or even connect a keyboard or mouse. Again, Valve has specs for several devices at the link above, but if you’re confused, your device’s manufacturer is your best bet for specific instructions.

Step 3: Boot into the SteamOS recovery image

Once Secure Boot has been disabled, you can plug the USB drive into your Pocket PC and restart it. At this point, you should be in a boot menu that allows you to select a drive to boot from. Again, this process can sometimes vary from device to device, so if you’re unsure how to get to the boot menu, check your device’s documentation.

Once you get to the boot menu, select your USB drive with the SteamOS recovery image on it. This will take you to the SteamOS desktop environment. Here, you will see four shortcuts on the desktop. The one we are interested in is called “Wipe Device & Install SteamOS” . Click on it once (double-clicking will launch it twice, so be careful).

At this point, you should see a warning that performing this step will erase all data on your device . If you had any important game saves, media, or work files (for some reason) on this device that weren’t copied over yet, you can still abandon this process and reboot Windows to save them. However, this is the point of no return. Make sure you’re prepared before moving on.

Step 4: Get to know the features of your new PDA

The setup process doesn’t take long, and when it’s done, your handheld will reboot and begin installing as if it were a real Steam Deck. There are a few oddities, though. For example, during my testing on the Legion Go, the device’s manual pointed to a “Steam button” in the bottom left corner, but used the Xbox logo. In fact, the corresponding button was in the top right corner and had the Legion logo. It also pointed to a microSD card slot on the bottom of the device, which doesn’t exist.

If you’re not using an official “Powered by SteamOS” device, be prepared for some awkwardness when using the device. Beyond the manual, I found that I couldn’t install some games — for example, pressing “Install” in Doom Eternal simply didn’t do anything — and it took a while to figure out which hardware buttons mapped to which Steam Deck inputs.

To my surprise, some things I expected to be broken worked perfectly when I tested it. The Legion Go is unique in that its controllers can be detached, like Joy-Cons, from the handheld. I expected them to be laggy or not work when playing on SteamOS, but they worked perfectly when running Hades II , a game that isn’t very forgiving of input lag.

Your mileage may and will vary depending on what games you want to play and what hardware you want to run SteamOS on. Still, while we wait for manufacturers to officially support SteamOS — or for Microsoft to release its own full-fledged portable console — it’s exciting to finally have a choice of platforms for these devices.

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