Windows on Steam Deck

 Here I am again blogging using my Steam Deck. This go round I am killing time while some files copy from my portable hard drive onto the new SD card of my Steam Deck. The biggest difference between my last attempts to blog and use the Steam Deck as a laptop replacement is pretty much major: I am working on Windows. Yep. I am using Windows 10 on my Steam Deck. 

The first question that came to my mind when I decided I wanted to give this a try was, "Why?" The Steam Deck Desktop Mode has a rather robust functionality. What would a person need Windows for? Turns out there isn't much actually. Steam Deck desktop mode can do most everything that you'd want to do on PC. 

The thoughts about this little project started when I packed away my gaming laptop to dedicate my computer gaming to the Steam Deck for as long as I could hold out. I had split my Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age play through between the Steam Deck and the laptop. Sometimes I played with the handheld. Other times while I was sitting at my desk in my office I used the gaming laptop rather than use the Steam Deck in the dock. My office TV is well placed, but I found myself less comfortable than if I just faced ahead playing on the laptop screen. Meanwhile, I was quite happy to dock the Steam Deck in the bedroom (I have three docks at this point) so I could stretch out and game. 

Challenging myself to make the full journey through FFXIII on the Steam Deck seemed logical after I got it configured correctly. I quickly realized that sitting the Steam Deck on the dock and playing with a controller was comfortable. By unhooking my HDMI cord it was simple to keep the Steam Deck happily charged. 

As of today (21 December 2022 since this won't post until the first week of January) I am stuck on the final boss of Final Fantasy XIII. It, like so many other parts of XIII, is extremely frustrating. I have put in tons of work grinding up Crystarium Points, getting my team powered up and figured out, and (less) time on getting gear upgraded. I must admit if I can finish the game as is I will eventually revisit the game armed with a strategy guide so I can get all of that done correctly and completely. 

As a result, I have taken several detours to other things that interest me rather than continuing to grind on Final Fantasy XIII. I got PS3 emulation working on the Steam Deck. That was awesome. I have attempted to escape the Underworld again in Hades a time or two. I found out I could watch classic wrestling on the Peacock App and lost some time to that. 

It was unlocking the PS3 emulation that got my head spinning on how amazing the Steam Deck is. I started thinking about the things I knew it could not do. I could not install and play Diablo from my GOG account. I could not emulate Xbox 360 games which I can do on my gaming PC. I must admit here that there is precisely one game that I own for the 360 that I would even bother to play and that is the original Saint's Row. I have never finished the game. I have completed all of the rest of the series except that original game and the new game reboot. I didn't go after the 2022 release of Saint's Row because it released on the Epic Games Store. I am oddly Steam loyal. 

I kept thinking about getting a Windows emulator installed in Desktop mode. There are ways of making that happen in Linux builds. The catch there is getting my Xbox controllers supported. I found myself contemplating what Window specific things I use regularly. The answer was that most of them were web based and easy enough to access without having Windows installed. The exception was the Xbox 360 emulator, GOG, and the Epic Games Store which would allow me to play Strangers of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. So, clearly the answer is Windows installed on the Steam Deck. 

I worked that out. The Steam Deck doesn't currently allow a dual boot. It does have a boot loader which allows booting into a USB or SD card. Creating a bootable SD card with a Windows installer is pretty simple. After that installs it requires two frustrating reboots. Then Windows updates. 

The great news is that Valve makes the drivers for the Steam Deck available on their website. A few installs later thanks to my JSAUX dock having an ethernet port I am into Windows and functional. The magic happens about fifteen minutes later. 

Obviously, I am playing Diablo with a mouse and keyboard. What you cannot see is that I have my TV connected as a second monitor. I admit I didn't play Diablo long after confirming that I have proper game play, sound, and navigation. 

I moved in to work on a few other things to make Windows function. Once I get all of the updates worked out I will give a few more modern games a try including working on the Xbox 360 emulation. For now, I need to wrap up this post and reboot.