Steam Deck Windows 11 Update Possible, SteamOS Should Hold Tight

Valve revealed the Steam Deck a play-anything portable console with AMD hardware inside. Steam Deck comes with SteamOS 3.0, made specifically to run software available with any given user's Steam account, but the console CAN run Windows 10. Given the imminent release of Microsoft's next-generation Windows 11 operating system, it seems only natural to wonder whether this Steam Deck machine could make the leap.

One of Valve's selling points with this Steam Deck machine is that the user, the buyer, the owner of the machine can do with it what they like. They can choose to run SteamOS, based on Linux, or they can choose to dig deep in the code and run whatever software they deem necessary. Valve appears to be aiming to make SteamOS 3.0 so very simple, essential, and powerful that the user of a Steam Deck won't want to use any other sort of operating system.

In a chat with PC Gamer this week, Valve Steam Deck designer Greg Coomer said that "there's work looking at TPM just now," and that "it's also a conversation that's going on with AMD to make sure that, at the BIOS level, we can accommodate that."

Coomer went on to confirm, "So there's nothing to indicate to us yet that there'll be any issues with Windows 11." This is really only for the people that'll eventually plan on moving past SteamOS if they want to turn the Steam Machine into a retro emulator of games from other brands – but it might end up being a moot point. Valve's intention is to get the Steam Deck so very compatible with the entire contents of the Steam platform that effectively any game will be able to be played without issue.

If you need a crash course in what the Steam Deck is and what Valve intends this piece of hardware to be all about, drop in on our Five ways Valve's Steam Deck seems too good to be true. There you'll find info on Steam Machines, the promise of the Steam Deck, the many buttons on the Steam Machine console, and the release dates and price of the hardware.