- Valve releases Windows 11 drivers for Steam Machine
- This means you can install Windows 11 on a console-type PC
- You probably shouldn’t, though
Valve has released official Windows drivers, which should mean that anyone who wants to install Windows 11 on their Steam Machine compact PC will be able to do so.
However, I and many other PC gamers have wondered why you would want to do that, and it’s not just because of a general dislike of Microsoft’s operating system.
Of course, Windows 11 has its problems, with a worrying increase in bugs and performance-damaging issues. It’s also bloated and full of AI features that few people, especially gamers, seem to want.
Therefore, installing it on a device designed to run a lighter Linux operating system is a perplexing choice. Much has been made of Valve’s decisions (some of them made due to global memory shortages and high component prices) to equip the Steam Machine with underpowered hardware. There’s no dedicated GPU, just an integrated one that uses older AMD technology and 16GB of single-channel DDR5 RAM.
Those are pretty poor specs for a gaming PC, and while some of this is out of Valve’s control, at least SteamOS, the Linux-based operating system that runs Steam Machine by default, is much lighter than Windows 11 and is optimized to prioritize launching and playing games. This means it can deliver better performance.
Windows 11, on the other hand, is a much larger, and some would say quite bloated, operating system that runs on a variety of different hardware, and people use it for different things, not just gaming. This means that performance is usually worse even if the same low-power components are used.
So installing Windows 11 on a Steam Machine means you’ll likely get poorer performance, and Windows 11’s interface isn’t designed for use on a TV with a controller, unlike SteamOS’s Big Picture Mode interface. You can use Steam Big Picture Mode in Windows 11, of course, and Microsoft has been working on a console-like interface with its Xbox Mode, but it’s not perfect.
Why would you do this?
So why would anyone in their right mind install Windows 11 on a Steam Machine, especially since it appears Valve hasn’t implemented dual boot (so you can choose between Windows 11 and SteamOS when you turn on the machine, hopefully that will come later)?
Well, while SteamOS is designed for console-like simplicity, for many everyday users, Windows 11 will be easier to use (if you’ve ever had to troubleshoot a problem with Linux, you’ll know it’s not for the faint of heart). If you plan to use the Steam Machine like a standard PC (which Valve says you can do), then installing Windows 11 makes sense. A bit.
SteamOS is also essentially Linux with the Steam store as its interface, and that makes playing and purchasing games through Steam very easy. But to play games from other stores, like the Epic Games Store, GOG, and even Xbox, it’s a little more complicated. You can install Linux or open source versions of those launchers and add them as non-Steam games, but again it’s more complicated than with Windows 11.
Finally, if you play a lot of online multiplayer games, such as fortnitethat use anti-cheat software, you may have no choice but to play those games on Windows 11, as many anti-cheat tools are not supported on Linux and therefore cannot be played by default on Steam Machine.
Why shouldn’t you do this?
However, I still think that in general you should do this, and not just because Microsoft’s operating system is not suitable; Valve should take some of the blame too.
As WCCFTech reports, because there is currently no way to dual boot these operating systems, installing Windows 11 on the Steam Machine will overwrite SteamOS, so if you find that Windows isn’t working right, it’s trickier to switch back to SteamOS.
As some commenters on the WCCFTech article also point out, Valve does not have a excellent reputation when it comes to supporting Windows controllers with your Steam devices, Steam Deck being a good example. Valve’s handheld also runs SteamOS and you can install Windows 11 on it, but Valve has been pretty poor at updating its drivers, with one claiming that people still have to rely on two-year-old graphics and sound drivers.
Needless to say, playing with outdated controllers won’t be fun. In better news, Valve has also made having to use Windows 11 less necessary for many games by continually updating its Proton compatibility layer, which allows you to run Windows 11 games on Linux, rather than having to wait for a Linux port of the game (which rarely happens due to discrepancies in user numbers for the two platforms).
As Neowin reports, Valve has updated Proton to support even more games than ever. It’s a brilliant tool that means there’s less need to use Windows 11 with Steam Machine or Steam Deck.
So while I applaud Valve for giving users the option, as it helps show how open the Steam Machine and gaming PCs in general can be, I think Valve has also made this option pretty useless, for both good and bad reasons.
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