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Install SteamOS

Valve supports installing SteamOS on your own hardware. This guide sticks to the official image, so there are no mods and no workarounds to maintain later.

Official SteamOS only. This guide uses the image Valve publishes, nothing else: no Bazzite, no mods, no workarounds. The builds and prebuilts on this site are AMD-based precisely so that the official image just works.

Before you start

What do you need to install SteamOS?

An AMD machine

A Radeon GPU or an AMD APU. SteamOS has no Nvidia driver support, so an Nvidia card will not get you a working desktop.

A USB stick, 8GB or larger

It gets completely erased when the image is written to it.

A second computer

Windows, macOS or Linux, used only to download the image and write the stick.

An empty target drive

The install takes the whole drive. Anything on it is gone, including an existing Windows installation.

A network connection

Wired or Wi-Fi. SteamOS signs in and updates itself during first boot.

About an hour

Roughly 15 minutes of work and a lot of waiting for downloads.

This erases the entire target drive. There is no dual boot option in the official installer and no way to keep an existing Windows partition on the same disk. Back up first.

Step by step

How to install SteamOS

  1. 1

    Back up everything on the target drive

    The installer reimages the entire disk. There is no option to shrink a partition and there is no repair path once it has started. Copy your files to another drive or to cloud storage, and if Windows is on that disk, make sure you have installation media before you continue.

    • Check which physical drive you are about to wipe, not just its letter
    • Export your game saves separately if they are not cloud synced
  2. 2

    Download the official recovery image from Valve

    Valve publishes SteamOS as a recovery image rather than a normal installer. Get it from Valve’s own support page and nowhere else. Community spins and patched installers exist, but they are not the official operating system and they do not get Valve’s updates.

    • The file is a compressed disk image, several gigabytes in size
    • Keep the download; you can reuse it to reinstall later
  3. 3

    Write the image to the USB stick

    Use Rufus on Windows, or Balena Etcher on macOS and Linux. Select the image, select the stick, write. Do not format the stick first and do not copy the file onto it as a normal file, it has to be written as a disk image.

    • Writing takes 5 to 15 minutes depending on the stick
    • Everything already on the stick is erased
  4. 4

    Set up the BIOS on the target PC

    Restart the target machine and open the BIOS, usually with Delete, F2 or F12 during boot. Disable Secure Boot, make sure the machine boots in UEFI mode rather than legacy mode, and set the USB stick as the first boot device.

    • Secure Boot blocks the installer from starting
    • Save and exit, with the stick already plugged in
  5. 5

    Boot from the stick

    The machine starts into the SteamOS recovery environment, a small desktop with a handful of icons. Give it a minute; the first boot from USB is slow. From here nothing has been written to your drive yet.

    • If it boots into Windows instead, the boot order did not stick
    • A black screen usually means Secure Boot is still on
  6. 6

    Run the full reimage

    Pick the option that reinstalls SteamOS onto the internal drive. Confirm the target disk carefully, because this is the destructive step: it wipes the drive completely. Partitioning and copying take roughly 10 to 20 minutes and must not be interrupted.

    • Do not unplug the machine or the stick while it runs
    • When it finishes, shut down and remove the USB stick
  7. 7

    First boot and login

    SteamOS starts into its own setup: language, network, and your Steam account. It will download an update and restart at least once. After that you land in the console-style Big Picture interface.

    • Pair your controller over Bluetooth in Settings
    • Switch to desktop mode from the power menu if you need a browser or file manager
  8. 8

    Check that the hardware works

    Run through the basics before you install a large library: sound over HDMI, Wi-Fi or ethernet, sleep and wake, and the resolution and refresh rate of your TV. Valve labels installing SteamOS on your own PC as beta, so this is where you find the rough edges.

    • Test a game you already own before buying new ones
    • Check ProtonDB for the multiplayer titles you play
Good to know

Questions people ask first

Not officially. The installer takes the whole drive, and Valve does not support a dual boot setup. Use a second drive and your BIOS boot menu if you really need both.

No. SteamOS supports AMD graphics only. That is why every build and every system we recommend is AMD.

Most games run through Proton, but some multiplayer titles block Linux at the anti-cheat level. Check ProtonDB for the games you play before you buy hardware.

Exactly like on a Steam Deck. SteamOS updates itself in the background and you restart when it asks.

Yes, the image comes from Valve. Valve does label installing SteamOS on your own PC as beta, so expect the occasional rough edge.

Yes. SteamOS has a desktop mode with a normal file manager and browser, the same as on the Deck.

Valve officially supports the Steam Deck, the Steam Machine and a handful of AMD handhelds. Installing on a self-built or prebuilt PC is possible and is what this site is about, but Valve labels it beta. An AMD GPU or APU is the hard requirement.

Boot from the same USB stick again and reimage. Because the install is a full disk image, reinstalling is the standard fix and takes about the same time as the first attempt.
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