Valve’s SteamOS is streamlined and designed with the Steam Deck in mind, but it’s hard to ignore the unending array of Windows native applications and PC-exclusive games. Thanks to some recently-released drivers, you can now give in and install Windows 11 right on your Steam Deck.

The easiest way to install and run Windows on your Steam Deck OLED is by way of a bootable microSD card. You could wipe the drive and install Windows directly on your Steam Deck’s internal SSD but going for the “fresh start” approach effectively forces you to start from scratch. This complicates the ability to reinstall SteamOS at a later date.

Using an SD card for Windows gives you the freedom to change your mind and switch back to SteamOS to overcome performance issues that are impeding your game of choice. As with any major changes to an operating system, make sure to back up your files and games before proceeding.

To kick off the installation, enable the SteamOS Beta and update your BIOS to version 3.6.9 or later. To do this, press the “Steam” button then navigate to Settings > System > Beta Participation and select “Beta” from the System Update Channel list. You’ll be invited to restart your device, after which a new update will be ready for you. Install it and you’re good to go.

Once your hardware is up-to-date, you will need an ultra-high speed microSD card (UHS-I or faster) with a minimum storage capacity of 64GB. You’ll also need a computer running Windows on which to prepare the medium.

• The first step to creating a bootable microSD card is acquiring the Windows 11 ISO. On your PC, download the Windows 11 or Windows 10 installation media and ISO straight from Microsoft’s website. Both versions of Windows are supported on the Steam Deck, and the installation process is essentially identical.
• Now that you have the ISO, you’ll use the free, open-source wonder Rufus to actually prepare your card. Visit the official Rufus website on your PC and download the latest version of the executable file. Once downloaded, open the executable to run Rufus.

Insert your microSD Card

Insert your microSD card into your PC’s card reader. It should be recognized by your computer, but make sure to format it if prompted.

Launch Rufus, and you should see the application’s main window open. Rufus automatically detects connected USB devices or memory cards. In the “Device” drop-down, ensure your microSD card is selected as the target device. Be careful to select the correct device, as the process will format the selected card.

Boot Selection

In the “Boot Selection” section, click on the dropdown and select “Disk or ISO image (Please select)”. After this, click the “Select” button next to the menu and locate your downloaded Windows ISO file from your system. Once found, click “Open” to load the ISO file into Rufus.

• Now select “Windows To Go” from the “Image Option” menu.
• Rufus Creating Boot Disc Windows 11 Iso
• Partition Scheme and File System
• Rufus will automatically set the “Partition Scheme” to GPT and “Target System” to UEFI (non-CSM), which is necessary for compatibility with modern systems like the Steam Deck. The “File System” should be left as NTFS (default for Windows installations).
• Now is also the time to rename your microSD card by using the “Volume Label” field if you wish.

Windows User Experience Settings

• Once you click the Start button, Rufus will prompt you with Windows User Experience settings. If you prefer to manually configure regional settings or use an online Microsoft account, you can leave the relevant options unchecked. However, for privacy and convenience, enabling these options is recommended.
• Finalize Install
• After confirming your settings, you will be met with a final warning message that all data on your microSD card will be deleted. You’ve already gone this far, click “OK” to proceed. Rufus will now install Windows on your microSD card.

Copy Windows Drivers to Your SD Card

• With your new operating system resting calmly on your SD card, you’re ready to acquire the drivers needed to make software run smoothly on your Steam Deck. Valve’s Steam Deck: Windows Resources page has all the required files. Download the required drivers to your Windows 11 desktop and unzip the files.
• Open up the root folder on your microSD and create a new folder. Now you can just select the folders containing the drivers and drag them into the folder you just generated for later use.

Giving SteamOS the Boot

Your freshly prepared boot disc is ready to bring the Windows 11 PC experience to your Steam Deck.

• First, power off your Steam Deck completely. Now Insert the SD card into the Steam Deck’s microSD card slot. Hold the “Volume Down” button and press the “Power” button, then release both buttons once you hear a sound.
• You’ll be taken to the boot selection menu. Select your SD card and press “A” to set up Windows.
• Once inside Windows, you can return your screen to its rightful horizontal position. Right-click and head to Desktop > Display Settings > Scale & Layout > Display Orientation > Switch to Landscape to fix the screen layout.
• With Windows installed and booting on your OLED Steam Deck, it’s time to set up those essential drivers we left snug in the root directory of your SD card. Navigate to the folder and proceed to install each driver.

Install the APU Driver

• Find the “setup.exe” file in the folder for the APU driver and run it to install.
• Install the SD Card Reader Driver
• Go to the “BayHub_SD_STOR_install” folder and run the “setup.exe” executable.
• Install the Wi-Fi Driver
• Navigate to the Wi-Fi driver folder, right-click the “qcwlan64.inf “file, and choose “Install.”
• Bluetooth Driver
• For Bluetooth, right-click “qcbtuart.inf” in the Bluetooth driver folder and select “Install”. Keep in mind, if this doesn’t work, you may not have remembered to update the BIOS for your OLED Steam Deck.

Audio Drivers

• You will need to install three different drivers for full audio functionality: “cs35l41.inf”, “NAU88L21.inf”, “amdi2scodec.inf”. For each driver, right-click, then select “Install.”
• Once all drivers are installed, Windows will function on your OLED Steam like the desktop you dragged to your buddy’s basement to get in some matches of Counter Strike in 2001.
• Reverting to SteamOS
• Since you made the wise decision to install Windows 11 on a bootable SD, it’s a breeze to return to SteamOS if you so choose.
• First, power off your Steam Deck completely. Hold the “Volume Down button and press the “Power” button. Release both buttons once you hear a sound. You’ll be taken to the boot selection menu.
• Select your Steam Deck’s SSD and press “A” to boot back into the intended OS.

Alternatively: Installing Windows Directly (Not Recommended)

• If you are still hellbent on nuking the Steam Deck’s SSD in order to go “full Windows” on your handheld, it’s a similar process with just a few tweaks. Grab a USB drive that can hold at least 32GB of data and connect it to your Windows PC. Download the ISO from Microsoft’s website in the same fashion as previously mentioned, run Rufus, and choose your memory stick of choice in the “Device” window.
• You will still choose “Disk or ISO Image (Please select)” from the “Boot Selection” menu, click the “Select” button next to it, and open the Windows ISO file. Since you are installing the operating system directly onto the hard drive, select “Standard Windows Installation” from the “Image Option” drop-down.

• When greeted by the “Windows User Experience” window, make sure the box next to “Remove requirement for “4GB+ RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0” is checked and proceed to finalize the installation.
  Optimal Rufus Settings for Windows 11 Install
• Once you have finished setting up your USB, create a folder in the root and download the drivers, and you are ready for installation.
• Power off your Steam Deck completely and insert your flash drive into the Steam Deck’s USB port. Hold the “Volume Down” button and press the “Power” button. Release both buttons once you hear a sound. You’ll be taken to the boot selection menu.
• Select your USB drive and press “A” to start the Windows 11 installation process. Go through the setup and select “Custom: Install Windows Only” when prompted. When asked where to install Windows 11, delete all partitions and create a new one.

There’s no turning back now—this will delete all the information stored on your OLED Steam Deck. Choose the new partition as the installation location. You are good to go. Now fix the screen, install the drivers, and enjoy your odd-shaped Windows 11 laptop.

• Windows on a Steam Deck is nice, but not essential. There are lots of options for playing games from the Epic Game Store on your Valve handheld that don’t involve a Windows installation.

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Scenario 1: Install a Printer You’ve Never Connected to Your Wi-Fi Network

If you’re trying to set up a printer that you’ve never connected to your Wi-Fi network, you’ll have to use your printer’s utility to connect it to your wireless network first. How you do this depends on your printer’s manufacturer and the specific printer model. I’ll show you how to do that for a Canon MG3670 Wi-Fi printer as an example.

To start, launch a web browser on your PC and head to your printer’s manufacturer website. In my case, I’m heading to the MG3670 page on the Canon site. Click “Download” to download the utility that lets you connect your printer to your Wi-Fi network.

Then, launch the downloaded utility and choose “Yes” in the User Account Control prompt. Select “Start Setup” on the wizard’s first page.

Choose your country from the drop-down menu and select “Next.” Agree to the terms and conditions and keep following the on-screen instructions. When asked to choose the connection method, select “Wireless LAN Connection” and choose “Next.”

Select “Connect via Wireless Router (Recommended)” and select “Next.” Turn on your printer if it isn’t already and wait for the wizard to find the printer. Then, select your printer on the list and choose “Next.”

Follow the on-screen instructions to finish connecting and installing the printer on your PC.

Scenario 2: Install a Printer That’s Already Connected to Your Wi-Fi Network

If the printer you want to add to your PC is already connected to your Wi-Fi network, install the printer automatically or manually using the following methods.

Method 1: Automatically add the Printer from Settings

Launch Windows 11’s Settings app by pressing Windows+i. From the left sidebar, select “Bluetooth & Devices.” On the right pane, choose “Printers & Scanners”.

At the top of the screen, select “Add Device”. You’ll see your printer listed on the list. Next to the printer, click “Add Device.” Windows 11 will add the selected printer to the system. You can now start using this printer with your PC.

Method 2: Add the Printer Manually

If Settings can’t automatically find your printer, manually find the printer’s IP address and add it to your system.

Step 1: Find Your Printer’s IP Address

To install a wireless printer manually, first, find the printer’s IP address. This is how your PC will locate your printer on the network. To do that, use a free IP scanner app like Advanced IP Scanner or Angry IP Scanner. I’ll use the former one.

Download and run Advanced IP Scanner on your PC. When asked to install the app, choose “Run,” which lets you use the app without installing it. When you see the app’s main interface, at the top, click the large “Scan” button. This initiates the scan process for your Wi-Fi network. You’ll see the discovered devices on the list. The “Manufacturer” column will help you find your printer. Once you find your specific printer on the list, note its IP address.

Step 2: Add the Printer to Your PC

• Open Settings by pressing Windows+i. From the left sidebar, choose “Bluetooth & Devices.” On the right pane, select “Printers & Scanners.”
• Choose “Add Device” and select “Add Manually.”
• On the Add Printer window, select “Add a Printer Using an IP Address or Hostname” and choose “Next.”
• Click the “Device Type” drop-down menu and choose “Autodetect.” Select the “Hostname or IP Address” field and type the printer’s IP address you noted earlier. Then, click “Next.”

• Select the “Printer Name” field and type a name for your printer, then choose “Next.”
• Select “Do Not Share This Printer” and choose “Next.”

Finish installing the printer, and it’ll be ready for use.

Print a Test Page With the Newly-Added Wireless Printer

To check if the printer is working correctly, print a test page with it. Do that by opening Windows Search, typing Printers & Scanners, and selecting the item with that name.

• On the open window, select the printer. Then, choose “Print Test Page.”
• Your printer will begin printing the test page.

Troubleshoot Issues With the Wireless Printer

If you run into issues installing or using your Wi-Fi printer with your PC, here are a few troubleshooting tips to use.

Restart your Windows 11 PC

If your printer doesn’t appear on the printer list even after adding it, give your Windows 11 PC a reboot. The reboot will refresh the system, making the installed printer available to use. To do that, press the Windows key, select the Power icon, and choose “Restart”

To use a wireless printer with your Windows 11 PC, your printer must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your PC. If that’s not the case, connect your printer to your network first.

Windows 11 may not always install all the drivers for your printer. If you can’t use certain printer functions, download the additional drivers for your Canon, HP, Epson, Brother, or another printer and install those drivers. Make sure to restart your PC to bring the changes into effect.

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LocalSend is a completely free and open-source wireless file-sharing solution that’s available for almost everything. You can send and receive files as long as you have the LocalSend client installed on two devices that share the same Wi-Fi network. The app is built on the REST API and HTTPS, which means it uses the same level of encryption as much of the web.

When you send a file using LocalSend, it is not uploaded to the internet first but rather transferred directly between LocalSend applications. The file is then saved locally on your device. It allows you to send files wirelessly between operating systems and devices that are not normally associated with this kind of seamless interoperability.

First Install LocalSend

To get started, head to the LocalSend website or download the LocalSend client from your store of choice. Apple users can download iOS, iPadOS, and Mac versions from the App Store, while Android users can use Google Play, F-Droid, and the Amazon Appstore (or grab the APK and sideload).

Windows users can download an EXE or a portable version of the app in a ZIP archive. For Linux there are pre-built DEB and AppImage files, plus Flatub, Nix, Snap, and AUR packages. Alternatively, anyone can build LocalSend for themselves by grabbing the source code from the GitHub page.

With LocalSend open on both the sending and receiving device, all that’s left to do is queue some files to transfer. Use the “Send” button to add files, folders, text, or the contents of your clipboard. On a desktop, you can drag files here to queue them up.

With your files ready to go, make sure the receiving device is on the “Receive” page and make a note of the (randomly generated) name you see on the screen. Now initiate the transfer by selecting the target device on the origin device and accepting the transfer on the receiving device

LocalSend should immediately spring into action. How fast your transfer goes depends on how close you are, how fast your Wi-Fi is, and what interference is nearby. In our tests, a 30MB video file sent from an iPhone to a Mac (both with Wi-Fi 6E) took a few seconds.

Set Up LocalSend for Better Results

On the “Settings” page of the LocalSend client, you change a few settings to make your life a bit easier. The first is to change the name of your device to something less random, that’s easily recognizable. Remember to use a random name if you want to hide your true identity.

On desktop you can specify a save location, whereas on iPhone there’s just a toggle for saving media to your “gallery” (Photos library). Turning this off will let you save with Files instead.

You can also turn on “Quick Save” to automatically accept all new incoming transfers (handy if you use LocalSend purely for your own personal devices), add a PIN for better security, and turn on “Auto Finish” to automatically dismiss the transfer summary screen that appears.

LocalSend can replace AirDrop for Apple Users

Perhaps the most surprising thing I noticed when testing LocalSend was that the service appears to be more reliable than Apple’s own AirDrop protocol. This might not be the case for all users, but as someone who uses a VPN on both their Mac and iPhone, AirDrop frequently doesn’t work for me.

Normally I have to turn off my VPN, make an AirDrop transfer, and then remember to turn on my VPN again. This wasn’t necessary with LocalSend. Sending a file from my iPhone to my Mac was effortless, with both devices appearing immediately and the transfer initiating without the usual “will they, won’t they” dance I’ve become accustomed to.

On top of this, LocalSend appears in the “Share” menu on macOS alongside other locations like Messages, Mail, and so on. This makes it easy to select media from your Photos library, hit Share, and then tap “LocalSend” to transfer files wirelessly.

With LocalSend always running in the background on my Mac, I can now easily transfer screenshots (like the one above) with a few taps on my iPhone by automatically accepting all new transfers on my Mac. The biggest roadblock you’re likely to run into is convincing other people to download the app, which of course isn’t the case with AirDrop.

Android User? Try Quick share for Windows or NearDrop for Mac

If LocalSend isn’t doing it for you and you have the very specific combination of Android and macOS or Android and Windows, there are two other apps you can resort to. Quick Share is Google’s own app for transferring between Android and Windows, which was revamped in early 2024.

Install the app on Windows and then log in with your Google Account. You can then set up device visibility preferences, and send wirelessly between the two using Google’s own nearby sharing technology. NearDrop is a free Mac app that works in much the same way, except it’s not at all affiliated with Google. Install it using Homebrew on your Mac, then make sure your devices are sharing the same local network before trying to send.

Also consider SMB for Network Sharing

If you’re mostly concerned with transferring files between computers that are normally on the same network, you can always use the old SMB file-sharing protocol as a fallback. There’s native support for SMB built into Windows and Mac, which makes sharing between Windows and Mac using SMB fairly easy.

On Windows, set up a shared folder as you normally would by right-clicking a file and choosing Properties > Sharing then selecting “Share.” You can further refine these settings under “Network and Sharing Center” in Control Panel. Windows uses SMB by default.

On a Mac, head to Settings > General > Sharing and turn on “File Sharing” then click the “i” button next to the setting to add folders and set permissions. Hit “Options” and enable “Windows File Sharing” for your username. Remember that anyone accessing your shares will need to authenticate with your macOS username and password.

On Linux, instructions will differ depending on which distribution you are using. To create a Windows share in Ubuntu, right-click on the folder you want to share and then click Properties > Local Network Share > Share this folder. You’ll be invited to install the required services and set up your share. You can also install samba and set all of this up using the Terminal.

To make use of SMB, you’ll need to place the files you want to share within the folder you have shared.

When nothing Works, use Cloud sharing

Uploading a file to the cloud to send it to a device that’s within spitting distance is a bit like mailing a letter to your next-door neighbor rather than just dropping it in their mailbox. Sure, it works, but it’s arguably the least efficient method of sharing.

It’s not so bad when the file is small, or you’re trying to collaborate on something (like a text document created in Google Docs), but for larger files like videos or archives that reach into the hundreds of megabytes, there’s almost always a better way.

You’ll have to wait for the upload to complete, have the other party download the file, and then remember to delete it to get your cloud storage back. If everything else is failing you, go for it (but consider using a free cloud storage platform).

How you go about this depends on which service you pick. Most platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive have native clients. This makes uploading easy, and can even add an element of redundancy so that interrupted uploads can easily be resumed.

Failing this, you can always log in using a standard web browser and upload your file this way. Once you’re done use the built-in tools to share the folder with whoever you want.

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Snap Layouts, also known as Snap Windows, is a helpful feature that lets you divide your screen into different sections and place each open application in its designated area. This makes multitasking more efficient, as you can view and interact with multiple apps simultaneously without constantly minimizing and resizing windows.

My favorite layout divides the screen into two halves, each displaying a different application. If you have more than two apps open, you can choose a layout with four sections, each occupying a quarter of the screen.

How to Enable and Customize Snap Layouts

Snap Layouts is enabled by default, so unless you’ve previously disabled it, it should already be active. However, it’s a good idea to double-check. To do this, right-click the Start button and open the Settings app. Select the “System” tab from the left sidebar, then click “Multi-Tasking” on the right. Make sure the toggle next to Snap Windows is turned on.

Next, expand the “Snap Windows” menu to see various options for customizing your Snap Layouts experience. Here, you can turn off any specific functions that you don’t find helpful.

How to use Snap Layouts on Windows

First, open the apps you want to use simultaneously. Then, press Win+Z to bring up the Snap Layouts box. Alternatively, you can access the layout box by hovering over the maximize/restore button in the upper-right corner of any open window or by dragging a window to the top center of your screen.

When the Snap Layouts box appears, choose the configuration that best suits the number of windows you have open. If you’re working with two apps, select the option to split the screen into two halves. For more than two apps, you can choose from layouts that divide the screen into three or four sections.

Once you select a position, Windows will automatically resize the active window and position it in the chosen section of the screen. Then, select the remaining open windows to position them in the available sections. If you attempt to place a window where one is already positioned, Windows will prompt you to select a new spot for the previously placed window.

If a window gets moved off-screen while adjusting Snap Layouts, you can easily bring it back to your desktop .

How to remove an App from the Snap Group

The windows in a Snap layout form a Snap group, and closing one app within the group doesn’t affect the others. To remove an app from the snapped layout, click the close or maximize/restore buttons. If you minimize an app, it will return to the snapped view the next time you open it.

After maximizing a window, if you click the restore button, it won’t return to its snapped position. You’ll need to place it back in the Snap Layout by following the same process.

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