The Steam Machine now has official Windows drivers

[zohaibahd]

Connecting the dots: Valve's Steam Machine only started shipping on June 30, and this week it has already gained a major addition: official Windows drivers. Users who prefer Microsoft's operating system no longer need to manually piece together the necessary drivers themselves. The move does not come as a surprise, as the Steam Machine is essentially a PC, much like the Steam Deck, and is therefore open to running alternative operating systems.

Four drivers are available, covering the GPU, Bluetooth, wireless connectivity, and SD card reader. After installing Windows and loading the drivers, the display, networking, and card reader work as they would on a typical PC.

Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat spoke with Tom's Hardware shortly before the files went live, explaining how the process was designed to work. Aldehayyat said the setup mirrors the Steam Deck approach, with Valve simply hosting the necessary drivers on its website for users to download.

At the time of the interview, Griffais said some drivers were still being finalized, including the Bluetooth driver. He also noted that Valve was working with AMD on graphics support so users could receive the latest fixes rather than rely on an outdated launch build. With the drivers now available, it appears the remaining pieces were completed on schedule.

Keep in mind that switching to Windows wipes the drive. Griffais said dual-boot support is on Valve's roadmap, but for now, the available options require manually resizing and repartitioning the storage. Valve plans to add a proper wizard to SteamOS in the future, as noted on the drivers website, although no release date has been announced.

It's also worth noting that a fresh Windows installation does not include the Steam Machine's Wi-Fi driver, meaning wireless connectivity will not work until it is installed separately. This creates an issue because Windows setup requires an internet connection at one point during installation. To work around this, users will need to connect the machine via Ethernet instead.

As for why anyone would install Windows when SteamOS already handles gaming well, the biggest reason is anti-cheat compatibility. Many multiplayer games rely on anti-cheat systems that developers have not enabled for Linux, making Windows the safer choice for those titles.

Before making the switch, however, users should know that Valve does not provide support for Windows installations. The drivers are offered without official assistance, meaning users are responsible for troubleshooting any problems. Valve's only official recovery option is the SteamOS recovery process, which wipes the system and restores the original operating system.

Permalink to story:

The Steam Machine now has official Windows drivers

 

[The Talking Tech]

Let me know when the price gets to reflect the capabilities of its hardware.

 

[maxxcool7421]

Everything is off the shelf.. why did there need to be ''blessed drivers'' ....

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Everything is off the shelf.. why did there need to be ''blessed drivers'' ....

Because it is custom silicon and Our Lord And Savior AMD refuses to allow custom silicon to use normal drivers, they must have their own separate approved drivers.

The same thing has been hitting people with the Z1 series chips.

 

[bviktor]

Because it is custom silicon and Our Lord And Savior AMD refuse sto allow custom silicon to use normal drivers, they must have their own separate approved drivers.

The same thing has been hitting people with the Z1 series chips.

Nope, it has nothing to do with AMD. You could just insert any off the shelf M.2 chip into any PCI-E slot, like the Intel AX210, and there, you have BT + WiFi with Intel DSA support, pretty much forever. You'd have to do absolutely nothing to keep them working, Intel would update them automatically via Intel DSA, ~indefinitely.

But OEMs tend to prefer this way, modifying 2 hardware bits and thus making them "custom", which adds absolutely nothing of value but at least it breaks OEM drivers, just for the sake of it.

Some OEMs go the extra mile to even display a nice error message during boot, like "you need to purchase official Dell chips, this module isn't supported". Why? Bingo, because then Dell can sell you the same Intel cr@p, with those 2 bits adjusted, for double the price.

Even though it's all just standard PCI-E comms.

 

[yRaz]

Because it is custom silicon and Our Lord And Savior AMD refuses to allow custom silicon to use normal drivers, they must have their own separate approved drivers.

The same thing has been hitting people with the Z1 series chips.

Actually, HDMI forum won't give AMD full HDMI2.1 support if they don't cater to them in certain ways. The steam machine lunched without HDMI2.1 until the HDMI forum approved their drivers. The windows drivers are likely already ready and they're just waiting on them to be approved. The 90 series only recently got full hdmi 2.1 support because of this.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Nope, it has nothing to do with AMD. You could just insert any off the shelf M.2 chip into any PCI-E slot, like the Intel AX210, and there, you have BT + WiFi with Intel DSA support, pretty much forever. You'd have to do absolutely nothing to keep them working, Intel would update them automatically via Intel DSA, ~indefinitely.

But OEMs tend to prefer this way, modifying 2 hardware bits and thus making them "custom", which adds absolutely nothing of value but at least it breaks OEM drivers, just for the sake of it.

Some OEMs go the extra mile to even display a nice error message during boot, like "you need to purchase official Dell chips, this module isn't supported". Why? Bingo, because then Dell can sell you the same Intel cr@p, with those 2 bits adjusted, for double the price.

Even though it's all just standard PCI-E comms.

I dont know why you are talking about Intel's AX210 when I was talking about the GPU.....is this your first time responding to a comment?

Actually, HDMI forum won't give AMD full HDMI2.1 support if they don't cater to them in certain ways. The steam machine lunched without HDMI2.1 until the HDMI forum approved their drivers. The windows drivers are likely already ready and they're just waiting on them to be approved. The 90 series only recently got full hdmi 2.1 support because of this.

Ok, again, this is a totally different subject that has nothing to do with custom silicon not running the generic driver. HDMI support or not, this is something AMD restricts.

But we're not allowed to criticize Su or her company here, so red herrings it is!

 

[Burty117]

Nope, it has nothing to do with AMD. You could just insert any off the shelf M.2 chip into any PCI-E slot, like the Intel AX210, and there, you have BT + WiFi with Intel DSA support, pretty much forever. You'd have to do absolutely nothing to keep them working, Intel would update them automatically via Intel DSA, ~indefinitely.

But OEMs tend to prefer this way, modifying 2 hardware bits and thus making them "custom", which adds absolutely nothing of value but at least it breaks OEM drivers, just for the sake of it.

Some OEMs go the extra mile to even display a nice error message during boot, like "you need to purchase official Dell chips, this module isn't supported". Why? Bingo, because then Dell can sell you the same Intel cr@p, with those 2 bits adjusted, for double the price.

Even though it's all just standard PCI-E comms.

Sorry, I just want to set this straight, it's not all PCI-E comms, I wish it was, with AMD I believe it is, but since you picked the worst company for your argument, Intel, in most of their modern laptops, they use CNVio as the protocol between the WiFi chip and CPU, not PCI-E, completely proprietary to Intel and limits your upgrade options down the road, You can't pop a CNVio2 chip into an older CNVio port for example, CNVio3 seems to be exclusive for WiFi 7 support, so even though I have a laptop with WiFi 6, I can't upgrade it to WiFi 7 because of this.

Yes, Intel do make PCI-E versions of these chips, but they do not work if the laptop has a CNVio interface, which from my experience in recent years (mainly HP and Lenovo laptops) OEM's tend to use CNVio...

 

[dangh]

Actually, HDMI forum won't give AMD full HDMI2.1 support if they don't cater to them in certain ways. The steam machine lunched without HDMI2.1 until the HDMI forum approved their drivers. The windows drivers are likely already ready and they're just waiting on them to be approved. The 90 series only recently got full hdmi 2.1 support because of this.

It is already set to work on Linux: https://www.phoronix.com/news/HDMI-FRL-2.1-Submitted-DRM
It will work on any hardware with the actual 2.1 port...

 

[yRaz]

It is already set to work on Linux: https://www.phoronix.com/news/HDMI-FRL-2.1-Submitted-DRM
It will work on any hardware with the actual 2.1 port...

People don't understand how ****ed up the HDMI forum is. AMD has been having an on going fight for awhile and across generations. Many people think it is just a Linux driver, it is not. nVidia got so fed up with the HDMI forum that they issued a hardware solution and they put a physical display module on all their cards that handles HDMI output instead of having it on the GPU. This way, their drivers don't have to include any of the HDMI forum's proprietary code. The HDMI forum is using intellectual property laws to enable or disable features on its members hardware who don't play ball. This is why TV makers don't put display port on TVs, the HDMI forum won't license the code required to run their standard if they do. I'm not sure if people don't know or just don't care, but the HDMI forum is a massively corrupt organization masking themselves as making new standards to move the industry forward. They're also a nonprofit but make billions a year both in membership fees and on the sale of hardware

 

[dangh]

People don't understand how ****ed up the HDMI forum is. AMD has been having an on going fight for awhile and across generations. Many people think it is just a Linux driver, it is not. nVidia got so fed up with the HDMI forum that they issued a hardware solution and they put a physical display module on all their cards that handles HDMI output instead of having it on the GPU. This way, their drivers don't have to include any of the HDMI forum's proprietary code. The HDMI forum is using intellectual property laws to enable or disable features on its members hardware who don't play ball. This is why TV makers don't put display port on TVs, the HDMI forum won't license the code required to run their standard if they do. I'm not sure if people don't know or just don't care, but the HDMI forum is a massively corrupt organization masking themselves as making new standards to move the industry forward. They're also a nonprofit but make billions a year both in membership fees and on the sale of hardware

yeah, I know, I hate all those mad gatekeepers who are preventing use of an infrastructure. AMD already created a bypass for that, but then hdmi forum decided to give in...
I use DP on my pc, and was always working around the issue, but with the growing linux user base and steam deck / machine Im really happy this is somewhat sorted, but I wish this issue wouldn't be there in the first place. Still, going to stick to DP wherever possible.