In just a few moments, you’ll be able to boot your Steam Deck with that. OK, we have our recovery image and the software to flash that to a USB stick. (You can move this anywhere in your home folder and it will still run.)

Right click the “balena-etcher-electron.zip” file and choose “Extract -> Extract Archive Here.” This will unzip into an AppImage file, a self-contained executable to run the program.

Open your file manager (the blue folder icon in your bottom panel) and browse to Downloads.

Now, browse over to and click that green Download button (the site should auto-detect your OS and download a zip file).Agree to the terms and click the Green download button. Download the Steam Deck Recovery Image here.An alternate method is to click the Steam Deck logo at the bottom left of your screen to open the Application Launcher, then type “Firefox.” If this is your first time here, welcome to Desktop Mode! Launch the Firefox browser by clicking its orange icon on the bottom panel.Press and hold the Power button until a menu appears in the center of the screen.Power on your Deck and wait until it boots to the main Big Picture / Gaming Mode.Ready to go? Let’s go! MORE FROM FORBES Steam Deck Desktop Mode Challenge, Day 0: No Command Line Allowed By Jason Evangelho MORE FROM FORBES Steam Deck Desktop Mode Challenge, Day 1: Get A Hub And Get Connected By Jason Evangelho Initial Steps: Power On, Download The Files If you missed that, here’s a link! (The bottom line is: make sure you can connect your USB stick to your Deck.) Since this is a series about using our Steam Deck as our main PC, let’s go ahead and use our Steam Deck! You’re free to use any desktop OS just make sure you have an 8GB USB or larger flash drive.įor my Steam Deck gang, you’ll want to grab a USB adapter or USB-C Hub like we talked about in the Day 1 article. Aside from a few aesthetic differences, the instructions below will apply across Windows, macOS and Linux. This app is free and ridiculously simple to use. I wanted to keep this guide as simple as possible, so I’ve chosen a multiplatform tool: Balena Etcher.

Install steam on usb drive