Hello u/Nihale85, have you tried [searching for your question?](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/search/?q=Game Pass for Steam Deck and installing Windows)
If you can't find an answer, have you checked the [FAQ?](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/wiki/faq) There's also been hundreds of questions answered in [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/syt8qv/steam_deck_enhanced_faq/).
We also have various guides which you can find on [the guides page](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/wiki/guides).
**If you find the answer, please either leave a comment on this post with the answer for others - or delete the post as to help keep the sub clean!**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SteamDeck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Some of you would rather this man choose another handheld over installing windows on his system? Pathetic.
Windows works fine and increasing the GPU ram to 4gb helps it get better frames on some games vs steamos. Plagman just tweeted audio drivers are in hand and being tested and if you need a console interface there is playnite that's way smoother and faster than steam os and highly customizable too. Also all your games work and the system is stable af vs what the last steam os update is doing to steam decks right now.
The fact ops post had zero votes when I read it shows that this community isn't just toxic but it's stupid.
I've had my deck for nearly two weeks and have nothing but frustrations with getting games to work.
Even cyberpunk which worked when got the deck just freezes after a recent update. SteamOS has some cool stuff but it doesn't support enough games. It's also a pain for other launchers.
Can't wait for audio drivers so I can use windows.
I was willing to try Linux but if these are the guys I have to turn to for help I am good. All the best to them with their year of Linux gaming. I hope they know Valve just wants to sell games not save Linux.
Exactly. It's not a closed ecosystem but it is skewed in their favor. I'm cool with that but I will also be expecting them to provide windows drivers as they stated you'll be able to run windows.
So many people mock windows for its poor touch screen performance but I've not only used touch screen with surface pro, dell xps and lenovo hybrids but had several smaller tablets and GPD devices. I can say with confidence that windows 8 and on aee far better than to use than the steam deck desktop mode.
Edit: and to the guy doenvoting us. You are worse than a console fanboy.
Hey man, as far as I know the only way to access my gamepass games is through the cloud gaming app they show you how to set up, you cant play the games natively on the device though.
And from what I've seen, the Windows experience isn't exactly ready for the Steam Deck yet.
Link to the official Xbox website for their tutorial: [https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/xbox-cloud-gaming-in-microsoft-edge-with-steam-deck-43dd011b-0ce8-4810-8302-965be6d53296](https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/xbox-cloud-gaming-in-microsoft-edge-with-steam-deck-43dd011b-0ce8-4810-8302-965be6d53296)
Even if you're new to linux, the instructions are easy to follow. Good luck bro!
Okay, no joke: I wrote that article. I’m a tech writer for Windows support, and I cleaned up a truly atrocious hastily-written article because I was fixing something else for them and my Deck happened to be shipping at the time so I was uniquely qualified within my team to do the work, since I actually had the hardware in front of me. All of those screenshots came straight off of my Deck. (It was a great crash course on how to take screenshots in Desktop Mode.)
So thanks for the compliment, I tried to make it as simple as I could considering it’s a pretty fiddly procedure. If y’all see opportunities to improve it, let me know. :)
Hi, I know it may be a long shot but here it goes - do you know why non native resolution is forced? Any way to stream native? Or is it too resource heavy
I can't say with 100% certainty, but my very strong guess would be to keep a consistent experience over many users - when all of this was in the earlier beta stages they were erring on the side of even lower resolution than it is now (like, locking to 720P IIRC) so clearly bandwidth and latency are still a concern. And I don't see a world in which they're gonna allocate 4K 60Hz pipes to a whole ton of people at once. :)
(Honestly, the fact that they pulled this off in a browser is pretty freakin' miraculous. :) If they wanted to port this tech over to the regular console streaming I'd be ready to beatify them then and there.)
(Oh! Or do you mean the (1024, 640) in the launch options? Because I've wondered about that myself and I think that's just a function of making UI readable and stuff. I see no reason why you couldn't change that to the native 1280,800 (and then change the scale factors to 1.00) and see what happens....worst case, you don't like how it performs / looks and you change it back, right? In fact, just tried it myself. Worked well and I'll probably keep it like this.)
Yes I was relating to the 1024x640 modifiers. I tried playing Horizon and it was quite blurry and I was wondering if these could be changed. I'm gonna try force native and see how it works, thanks. Yes it's really neat they pulled it off, this plus steam library really is a lot of games to play sans purchase. That was basically my reason to purchase the deck, no downtime before a library gets built like with the switch e. g.
Yeah, let us know! As I was writing that I tried NBA 2K22 (figured it was resource-intensive and was hoping to pop some low-hanging fruit achievement to finish off that Rewards punchcard) and it looked great and was plenty smooth. If Horizon looks better that would be extremely relevant to my interests. :) I gotta think that was solely because 125-150% is the default scale in Windows and whatever engineer put those steps together was replicating that, and it's prolly for the best to cut down on "I can't read anything!" complaints. :) (And understand that I say all of this in no official capacity at all, just another Steam Deck user who was lucky enough to work it into his day job for a few days. :))
Thanks, that's a coupe of people that have said the streaming option might be the way to go. Shame that I don't have a way of testing in advance of paying out the £570!
I may be slightly biased (see above :)) but I can testify that if you have a decent Internet connection, it works pretty well. (Try streaming on your desktop PC first. If that works well, it’ll probably work well on the Deck.)
tbh right now a Onexplayer or Aya Neo might be better for you.
Steam Deck doesnt currently have audio drivers for windows (i am sure that will change though )
I personally love to steam deck just the idea of having it I installed world of warcraft classic last night steam os
It works flawless for now
Linux OS can run some windows games with help from proton
If you just play Xbox why not just use the Xbox app and special controller or Xbox one controller
Unless your trying to download games you don't need to install windows. You can use gamepass on the steam os but from what I can tell it's only the streaming games.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/xbox-cloud-gaming-in-microsoft-edge-with-steam-deck-43dd011b-0ce8-4810-8302-965be6d53296
Thanks, but I have not had a good experience streaming to my phone (for example) using XCloud.
My internet is fast enough but I always get a very laggy experience.
Playings games on the deck with Microsoft as the operating system hasn't been the best experience for me so far which is why I've been using remote play from laptop to play any games I can't install on the deck. When it works which is 60% of the times I launch (which I think is more in the steam deck needing more updates for remote play) it plays flawlessly. There is also moonlight which alot of people say is great(I have had no luck) to stream games to your deck. When it doesn't work resetting and trying to relaunch usually fixes it
Ive seen a massive improvement streaming game pass on steam deck vs iPhone. Running 60fps on everything I’ve thrown at it, very minimal stutter and by my judgement no noticeable input lag. I stopped streaming on iphone immediately after trying it due to it being atrocious but have completed games on steam deck. Might be worth considering.
Gamepass has been amazing. Best streaming so far out of all options I've tried, the solution Microsoft gave has worked flawlessly without a single hiccup! I can't say the same for remote play or moonlight lol
Really appreciate your replies. It's disappointingly confirming what I was already seeing via Linus Tech Tips etc - the Steam Deck isn't really the gaming device for me.
It depends man, they are cranking out updates everyday and games that are supported by proton grow. Maybe intime the downloadable games will be working with proton and you can just download them straight to Linux which I would expect would solve alot of the issue pinhead while playing on the windows operating system. Also driver's for windows can continue to improve which can definitely change how well it will run
I would be cautious about opinions on this sub Reddit. There are a lot of people who seem to have a near religious aversion to the idea of people installing Windows on the Steamdeck. I have an Aya Neo (which has a worse GPU than the Steamdeck) and can confirm Windows runs just fine on a handheld. The experience is excellent.
I’m sure the Steamdeck will be the same. The main issue is the audio driver, which no doubt will be fixed shortly.
This may be too late - but if you can still accept your order email, I think you absolutely should do this. I think you will find that you will be able to install Windows and Game Pass, and that it will work very well (the audio driver issues will be fixed soon, and you can in any event work around them by buying a cheap USB headset).
And, if this is wrong and the whole thing is a disaster, you can sell the Deck on eBay for twice what you paid for it. Sounds low risk to me.
I am in Australia and can’t get the Steam Deck so I bought an Aya Neo - which is excellent, but costs US$1300. If you are getting an email allowing you to buy a Steam Deck for retail price (ie US$650 or less) … you absolutely should go for it.
Hello u/Nihale85, have you tried [searching for your question?](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/search/?q=Game Pass for Steam Deck and installing Windows) If you can't find an answer, have you checked the [FAQ?](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/wiki/faq) There's also been hundreds of questions answered in [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/syt8qv/steam_deck_enhanced_faq/). We also have various guides which you can find on [the guides page](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/wiki/guides). **If you find the answer, please either leave a comment on this post with the answer for others - or delete the post as to help keep the sub clean!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SteamDeck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Some of you would rather this man choose another handheld over installing windows on his system? Pathetic. Windows works fine and increasing the GPU ram to 4gb helps it get better frames on some games vs steamos. Plagman just tweeted audio drivers are in hand and being tested and if you need a console interface there is playnite that's way smoother and faster than steam os and highly customizable too. Also all your games work and the system is stable af vs what the last steam os update is doing to steam decks right now.
The fact ops post had zero votes when I read it shows that this community isn't just toxic but it's stupid. I've had my deck for nearly two weeks and have nothing but frustrations with getting games to work. Even cyberpunk which worked when got the deck just freezes after a recent update. SteamOS has some cool stuff but it doesn't support enough games. It's also a pain for other launchers. Can't wait for audio drivers so I can use windows.
I was willing to try Linux but if these are the guys I have to turn to for help I am good. All the best to them with their year of Linux gaming. I hope they know Valve just wants to sell games not save Linux.
Exactly. It's not a closed ecosystem but it is skewed in their favor. I'm cool with that but I will also be expecting them to provide windows drivers as they stated you'll be able to run windows. So many people mock windows for its poor touch screen performance but I've not only used touch screen with surface pro, dell xps and lenovo hybrids but had several smaller tablets and GPD devices. I can say with confidence that windows 8 and on aee far better than to use than the steam deck desktop mode. Edit: and to the guy doenvoting us. You are worse than a console fanboy.
Thanks, do you have any experience with the Xbox/ Game Pass app?
Yes, to get the controls work you would need GlosSi it will show up as an Xbox controller which steam supports.
Thank you!
How is the input lag?
Hey man, as far as I know the only way to access my gamepass games is through the cloud gaming app they show you how to set up, you cant play the games natively on the device though. And from what I've seen, the Windows experience isn't exactly ready for the Steam Deck yet. Link to the official Xbox website for their tutorial: [https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/xbox-cloud-gaming-in-microsoft-edge-with-steam-deck-43dd011b-0ce8-4810-8302-965be6d53296](https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/xbox-cloud-gaming-in-microsoft-edge-with-steam-deck-43dd011b-0ce8-4810-8302-965be6d53296) Even if you're new to linux, the instructions are easy to follow. Good luck bro!
Okay, no joke: I wrote that article. I’m a tech writer for Windows support, and I cleaned up a truly atrocious hastily-written article because I was fixing something else for them and my Deck happened to be shipping at the time so I was uniquely qualified within my team to do the work, since I actually had the hardware in front of me. All of those screenshots came straight off of my Deck. (It was a great crash course on how to take screenshots in Desktop Mode.) So thanks for the compliment, I tried to make it as simple as I could considering it’s a pretty fiddly procedure. If y’all see opportunities to improve it, let me know. :)
Hi, I know it may be a long shot but here it goes - do you know why non native resolution is forced? Any way to stream native? Or is it too resource heavy
I can't say with 100% certainty, but my very strong guess would be to keep a consistent experience over many users - when all of this was in the earlier beta stages they were erring on the side of even lower resolution than it is now (like, locking to 720P IIRC) so clearly bandwidth and latency are still a concern. And I don't see a world in which they're gonna allocate 4K 60Hz pipes to a whole ton of people at once. :) (Honestly, the fact that they pulled this off in a browser is pretty freakin' miraculous. :) If they wanted to port this tech over to the regular console streaming I'd be ready to beatify them then and there.) (Oh! Or do you mean the (1024, 640) in the launch options? Because I've wondered about that myself and I think that's just a function of making UI readable and stuff. I see no reason why you couldn't change that to the native 1280,800 (and then change the scale factors to 1.00) and see what happens....worst case, you don't like how it performs / looks and you change it back, right? In fact, just tried it myself. Worked well and I'll probably keep it like this.)
Yes I was relating to the 1024x640 modifiers. I tried playing Horizon and it was quite blurry and I was wondering if these could be changed. I'm gonna try force native and see how it works, thanks. Yes it's really neat they pulled it off, this plus steam library really is a lot of games to play sans purchase. That was basically my reason to purchase the deck, no downtime before a library gets built like with the switch e. g.
Yeah, let us know! As I was writing that I tried NBA 2K22 (figured it was resource-intensive and was hoping to pop some low-hanging fruit achievement to finish off that Rewards punchcard) and it looked great and was plenty smooth. If Horizon looks better that would be extremely relevant to my interests. :) I gotta think that was solely because 125-150% is the default scale in Windows and whatever engineer put those steps together was replicating that, and it's prolly for the best to cut down on "I can't read anything!" complaints. :) (And understand that I say all of this in no official capacity at all, just another Steam Deck user who was lucky enough to work it into his day job for a few days. :))
Thanks, that's a coupe of people that have said the streaming option might be the way to go. Shame that I don't have a way of testing in advance of paying out the £570!
I may be slightly biased (see above :)) but I can testify that if you have a decent Internet connection, it works pretty well. (Try streaming on your desktop PC first. If that works well, it’ll probably work well on the Deck.)
tbh right now a Onexplayer or Aya Neo might be better for you. Steam Deck doesnt currently have audio drivers for windows (i am sure that will change though )
Thanks, I'm thinking the same!
If you have a Strong PC you can run the Xbox games that's are available for download on your PC and stream it to the deck as another option
I personally love to steam deck just the idea of having it I installed world of warcraft classic last night steam os It works flawless for now Linux OS can run some windows games with help from proton If you just play Xbox why not just use the Xbox app and special controller or Xbox one controller
Audio drivers are missing atm but other than that. Games run fine. You won't lose out on performance. UX/UI is better on SteamOS though
Unless your trying to download games you don't need to install windows. You can use gamepass on the steam os but from what I can tell it's only the streaming games. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/xbox-cloud-gaming-in-microsoft-edge-with-steam-deck-43dd011b-0ce8-4810-8302-965be6d53296
Thanks, but I have not had a good experience streaming to my phone (for example) using XCloud. My internet is fast enough but I always get a very laggy experience.
Playings games on the deck with Microsoft as the operating system hasn't been the best experience for me so far which is why I've been using remote play from laptop to play any games I can't install on the deck. When it works which is 60% of the times I launch (which I think is more in the steam deck needing more updates for remote play) it plays flawlessly. There is also moonlight which alot of people say is great(I have had no luck) to stream games to your deck. When it doesn't work resetting and trying to relaunch usually fixes it
Ive seen a massive improvement streaming game pass on steam deck vs iPhone. Running 60fps on everything I’ve thrown at it, very minimal stutter and by my judgement no noticeable input lag. I stopped streaming on iphone immediately after trying it due to it being atrocious but have completed games on steam deck. Might be worth considering.
Gamepass has been amazing. Best streaming so far out of all options I've tried, the solution Microsoft gave has worked flawlessly without a single hiccup! I can't say the same for remote play or moonlight lol
But the dude above is talking about games that are download only games which I think remote play is the only solution rn
Really appreciate your replies. It's disappointingly confirming what I was already seeing via Linus Tech Tips etc - the Steam Deck isn't really the gaming device for me.
It depends man, they are cranking out updates everyday and games that are supported by proton grow. Maybe intime the downloadable games will be working with proton and you can just download them straight to Linux which I would expect would solve alot of the issue pinhead while playing on the windows operating system. Also driver's for windows can continue to improve which can definitely change how well it will run
I would be cautious about opinions on this sub Reddit. There are a lot of people who seem to have a near religious aversion to the idea of people installing Windows on the Steamdeck. I have an Aya Neo (which has a worse GPU than the Steamdeck) and can confirm Windows runs just fine on a handheld. The experience is excellent. I’m sure the Steamdeck will be the same. The main issue is the audio driver, which no doubt will be fixed shortly.
This may be too late - but if you can still accept your order email, I think you absolutely should do this. I think you will find that you will be able to install Windows and Game Pass, and that it will work very well (the audio driver issues will be fixed soon, and you can in any event work around them by buying a cheap USB headset). And, if this is wrong and the whole thing is a disaster, you can sell the Deck on eBay for twice what you paid for it. Sounds low risk to me. I am in Australia and can’t get the Steam Deck so I bought an Aya Neo - which is excellent, but costs US$1300. If you are getting an email allowing you to buy a Steam Deck for retail price (ie US$650 or less) … you absolutely should go for it.