What makes SteamOS so great is the fact that it is a console-like experience for a PC, which means you can turn it on and everything is instantly available to you from the comfort of your couch. However, it’s still a PC, which means for those of you interested in going further, you can customize it with pretty much anything you can imagine that runs on Linux, which unlocks the potential of it far more than any other console will allow.
Because the Steam Deck has been out for several years now, people have been tinkering with SteamOS for a while, and there are a lot of options available to you. Even though this stuff was designed around the Steam Deck, most of it just works on any other SteamOS device. This means if you’re one of the lucky few who got a Steam Machine, you have all this additional customization available to you right out of the box.
There are a lot of ways you can customize SteamOS, which is made unique from other Linux distros by the inclusion of game mode. Within game mode, Valve doesn’t provide you with a ton of options for customization, which is where an incredibly useful third-party tool comes in: Decky Loader.
It’s an open-source project that allows for the side-loading of plugins into SteamOS. it’s essentially SteamOS’s version of homebrew. The whole appeal of Decky Loader is that everything you do with it works within the game mode, which means that once it’s all set up, you can just activate everything from a controller, essentially improving that console-like experience.
Setting Up Decky Loader
Installation is super easy.
- From game mode, press the “Steam” button and go all the way down to “Power.” You’ll then want to scroll down and click on “switch to desktop mode.”
- From the desktop, go to your web browser of choice.
- If this is your first time in desktop mode, you’ll need to download one. An icon for Firefox is set up on the task bar. Click that to download it.
- Visit https://decky.xyz/. Click the download button on the top right of the page to download the installer.
- Open Dolphin (your file manager), head to your downloads folder, and double click the install file. You’ll be asked what to do with the file. Click “Launch.” You might get a warning. Click “Continue.”
- The Konsole will open and begin the installation. If you haven’t set an admin password on steamOS, a prompt will appear asking for Decky to temporarily set one up. Click “yes.”
- You’ll be asked to select a branch to install. You’ll want to stick with the default “release” branch if you are running a stable version of SteamOS.
- Once the installation is complete, press “ok” to close the Konsole. You can go ahead and delete the installer from your downloads folder.
- Return to Game Mode by pressing the shortcut on the top left of your desktop.
Back in game mode, press the Quick Access button, and now you have a little plugin section at the bottom. From here, you can load up the store, and now you have access to tons of free plugins that you can install to customize your SteamOS experience.
It is worth mentioning that Decky Loader is a third-party open-source software, which means it is prone to breaking occasionally, especially whenever Steam puts out a new update. Decky Loader is pretty good about fixing it with an update, but it can happen.
I did once have an experience where it broke so badly that going to the plugin page caused a full-screen error that I could not get away from and the only way to fix it was to hard reset the Steam Deck. This turned out to be an easier fix than I thought, though. I went back to desktop mode, reinstalled Decky, and then everything worked fine. I didn’t even need to reinstall my plugins; it just worked.
But it’s a good reminder that while Decky is designed to be a smooth experience, you’re still entering the realm of open-source customization, so hiccups will happen.
But what can you actually download on this thing? A lot. We have alarm clocks, animation changers, side-loading custom sound effects, battery trackers, and keyboard changers. There’s a lot you can go through.
I’m not going to touch on everything, but I do want to highlight a few plugins that I use all the time and think are worth checking out as a good way to get you acquainted with what Decky Loader is capable of, and then you can go from there and see what interests you.
SteamGridDB
The Decky plugin I use by far the most is called SteamGridDB. For those of you not aware, SteamGridDB is this excellent resource that gathers alternative cover and key art for all your Steam games. Sometimes you just don’t like the way a cover looks, or there isn’t a cover on Steam and it makes your library look ugly.
The way you would normally handle this is you would go into desktop mode, load up SteamGridDB on a browser, download the assets you want, and then in Steam you click on the game, go to the customization page, and manually update all of your images. It’s a huge pain.
SteamGridDB on Decky Loader allows you to do all of this with a touch of a button from game mode. You go over to a game, click the options button, and now there is a new option called Change Artwork. This provides you with a wealth of options to change the cover (which they call capsules), wide capsule, hero art, logo, and icon of any game you choose.
This is incredibly useful, especially if you’re somebody who likes to side-load a lot of non-Steam applications like me. Now it’s really easy to quickly change the artwork on a game.
Something you might not know is that Steam actually allows for the support of animated images. There are all these really cool animated covers and even logos that you can get for some of your games.
The one thing to keep in mind is that animated images do take a second to load in, and if you have too many in your library at once, the interface starts to chug, especially on the Steam Deck. So don’t go hog wild and make every cover animated. Just stick to a couple for fun.
Tab Master
Another great way to customize your Steam library is with Tab Master. This lets you customize the different tabs in game mode, though it’s kind of wild that you can’t just do that by default.
You can create brand-new tabs, which you can set up using all sorts of different filters and customization to get it exactly how you want it. I often have a collection for “backlog”, “actively playing” or games from third-party storefronts and all of these make for great tabs.
You can also reorganize your tabs. You can even hide tabs that you’re not very interested in.
I always like to hide the soundtrack tab, because when am I going to listen to a soundtrack on my Steam Deck? The answer is I’m not and I would rather just remove the tab and have a much cleaner-looking setup.
ProtonDB Badges
When it comes to compatibility on SteamOS, there is Steam’s verification system, which offers a basic glimpse at playability on Steam Deck. But it’s pretty limited when it comes to actually giving you any sort of specifics, and sometimes it’s just straight-up wrong; the new Steam Machine version will have a separate verification check, but still suffers from the same issues.
For years, Steam has claimed that Skyrim is “unsupported” on the Steam Deck, which I guess in some sense is technically true, but you can run the game just fine.
If you’re looking for more in-depth compatibility information, this is where ProtonDB Badges come in. ProtonDB is an open-source verification system for games running on Proton, the compatibility layer needed to run Windows games on SteamOS. The Badges plugin applies a handy link for a game’s ProtonDB page directly onto the game’s Steam page.
So even though Valve claims that Skyrim is unsupported, on ProtonDB it gets a nice little gold badge which says, “Hey, this thing works pretty well on the Steam Deck.” And because users can leave comments, a lot of them will actually dive into specifics about what worked about it, what didn’t work about it, and tweaks to help you out if you need to adjust anything to make the game run.
Right now Proton DB badges are tested for the Steam Deck, not the Steam Machine. Because they run on the same OS, proton compatibility should be the same. But since the Steam Machine is far more powerful, there will be more games it can support. Once the Steam Machine comes out and more people get their hands on it, I expect ProtonDB to get a tab for the Steam Machine.
Deck Settings
Even if a game runs on SteamOS, you often have to tweak the settings to get it just right. Sometimes, that’s made easy by developers: For example, Cyberpunk 2077 has a Steam Deck graphics preset. But a lot of games don’t go this extra mile, and it’s up to users to make tweaks like you would on a PC. This is where Deck Settings comes in.
Deck Settings pulls from DeckVerified.Games, an online resource where users can upload their specs for how to get a game running as best you can. They’ll detail what compatibility tool you need, what performance settings on the Steam Deck you need to set up, as well as settings in the game itself. Sometimes they’ll even mention if there’s a mod you should install.
Deck Settings is a great resource, but it is dependent on its users uploading the settings for you. And sometimes you click on a game and there just isn’t anything. But for less tech-savvy players, it can make this process much smoother.
Like with ProtonDB badges, Deck Settings right now don’t offer anything for Steam Machine. But again, hopefully that will change soon.
I’d also point out that a limitation of Deck Settings is that it only works for games that are on Steam itself. If you’re playing a game launched through another third-party application, like, say, Alan Wake 2 on the Epic Games Store, you can’t find anything for that on Deck Settings, so you’re going to have to look elsewhere for guidance.
Junk Store
Speaking of third-party storefronts, if you’re looking to play any games that aren’t in your Steam library, typically you have to go to the desktop mode and install third-party launchers like Ubisoft Connect or the Epic Games Store.
It’s not as complicated as it seems, and there are actually some really great resources. Heroic Game Launcher is an excellent native application that lets you access Epic Games, GOG, and Amazon Games all from one launcher. It’s super convenient and easy, but you still have to do it through the desktop.
If you want to access some of these shops through game mode, there is Junk Store.
Junk Store aims to offer a multi-store solution. You access Junk Store from the plugins menu, set up your Epic Games account, and then you have access to all your games ready to install from game mode.
However, there are some limitations to Junk Store on Decky Loader. The Decky Loader version only comes with support for Epic Games. If you want GOG, you have to pay an additional $6.
There is a Junk Store Pro version that has access to all sorts of additional storefronts. This version comes with a seven-day free trial, but if you want the full thing, you have to pay $40. I imagine that sticker shock might be a little surprising for people who expect plugins like this to just be free, but this is a small project made by two people, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for them to expect to be paid for the amount of work that goes into making something like this.
If you just care about Epic Games Store, then don’t worry, as the Decky version is free, and if you really are bothered by the price, you can still always just go to the desktop and use something like Heroic Game Launcher for free.
