- Valve releases Windows 11 drivers for Steam Machine
- This means you can install Windows 11 on the console type PC
- But you probably shouldn’t do it
Valve has released official Windows drivers, which should allow anyone wanting to install Windows 11 on their Steam Machine compact PC to do so.
However, I and many other PC gamers wonder why you would want to do this – 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-robbing issues. It’s also bulky and packed with AI features that few people, especially gamers, seem to want.
So, installing it on a device designed to run a lighter Linux operating system is a confusing choice. Much has been made of Valve’s decisions (some of them made due to the global memory shortage and high component prices) to equip the Steam Machine with rather underpowered hardware. There’s no dedicated GPU, just an integrated GPU 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 that is out of Valve’s control, at least SteamOS, the Linux-based operating system the Steam Machine runs on by default, is much lighter than Windows 11 and is streamlined to prioritize launching and playing games. This means it can deliver better performance
Windows 11, on the other hand, is a much bigger, and some would say rather bloated, operating system that runs on a variety of different hardware, and people use it for different things, not just playing games. This means that performance is often worse even if the same low-power components are used.
So, installing Windows 11 on a Steam machine means you’ll likely get worse performance, and Windows 11’s interface isn’t designed for use on a TV with a controller, unlike SteamOS’ Big Picture Mode interface. You can of course use Steam Big Picture Mode in Windows 11, and Microsoft has been working on a console-like interface with its Xbox Mode, but it’s not perfect.
Why would you do that?
So why would anyone in their right mind install Windows 11 on a Steam machine, especially since it seems Valve hasn’t implemented dual boot (so you can choose between Windows 11 and SteamOS when you turn on the machine, hopefully that comes later)?
Well, even though SteamOS is designed for console-like simplicity, for many mainstream users Windows 11 will be more user-friendly (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 as a standard PC (which Valve says you can), then installing Windows 11 makes sense. Type of.
SteamOS is also essentially Linux with the Steam store as its interface, making it very easy to play and purchase games through Steam. But to play games from other stores, like Epic Games Store, GOG and even Xbox, it’s a little more complicated. You can install Linux or open source versions of these launchers and add them as non-Steam games, but this is again trickier and more complicated than with Windows 11.
Finally, if you play a lot of online multiplayer games, like Fortnitewho use anti-cheat software, you may have no choice but to play these games on Windows 11, as many anti-cheat tools do not support Linux and therefore cannot be played on the Steam machine by default.
Why shouldn’t you do this
However, I still think that overall you should do it, and not just because Microsoft’s operating system isn’t suitable; Valve should also be blamed.
As WCCFTech reports, since 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 well, it’s harder to go back to SteamOS.
As some commenters on the WCCFTech article also point out, Valve has no great reputation for supporting Windows drivers with its Steam devices, the Steam Deck being a great 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 saying people still have to rely on two-year-old graphics and audio drivers.
Needless to say, playing with outdated drivers won’t be pleasant. Better news, Valve has also made using 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 great 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 this option, because 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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