Steam Deck

Steam Deck

CANT PLAY OR INSTALL GAMES ANYMORE??
I have a ton of games installed that I can’t play anymore cause it says it’s windows only. There are also games I want to reinstall that say they’re windows and Mac only that I have previously played on the deck. Is this a new OS or policy??
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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments
Originally posted by goob:
I have a ton of games installed that I can’t play anymore cause it says it’s windows only. There are also games I want to reinstall that say they’re windows and Mac only that I have previously played on the deck. Is this a new OS or policy??
Have you tried using proton?
goob Mar 15 @ 2:49pm 
Originally posted by Lil B_999:
Originally posted by goob:
I have a ton of games installed that I can’t play anymore cause it says it’s windows only. There are also games I want to reinstall that say they’re windows and Mac only that I have previously played on the deck. Is this a new OS or policy??
Have you tried using proton?

That’s not the issue. The issue is it won’t even let me install games. It’s greyed out with “for *insert platform here*” now
goob Mar 15 @ 3:05pm 
Originally posted by Lil B_999:
Originally posted by goob:
I have a ton of games installed that I can’t play anymore cause it says it’s windows only. There are also games I want to reinstall that say they’re windows and Mac only that I have previously played on the deck. Is this a new OS or policy??
Have you tried using proton?

I think it’s cause I was using GE-Proton for most games. Whatever update I installed recently practically reset my Steam deck and uninstalled my GE-Proton installations. After going in a manually picking a proton it let me installed. Sorry!
Originally posted by goob:
Originally posted by Lil B_999:
Have you tried using proton?

That’s not the issue. The issue is it won’t even let me install games. It’s greyed out with “for *insert platform here*” now
Certain Window games DON'T work
Haruspex Mar 15 @ 3:48pm 
Originally posted by Lil B_999:
Certain Window games DON'T work
But that won't prevent them from installing the game anyway.

I suspect you somehow managed to disable Steam Play, which would limit you to only being able to install Linux native titles.

Go into desktop mode and open Steam. Click Steam, select settings, and go to the "compatibility" section. Look at the option "Enable Steam Play for all other titles" and make sure it's enabled.
goob Mar 15 @ 4:02pm 
Originally posted by Haruspex:
Originally posted by Lil B_999:
Certain Window games DON'T work
But that won't prevent them from installing the game anyway.

I suspect you somehow managed to disable Steam Play, which would limit you to only being able to install Linux native titles.

Go into desktop mode and open Steam. Click Steam, select settings, and go to the "compatibility" section. Look at the option "Enable Steam Play for all other titles" and make sure it's enabled.

Thanks! I'll see if that somehow turned off during the update!
I think you also need to set a proton layer cause sometimes when you don’t have proton set on games, it will stop you from installing the games the install button will be greyed out like you mentioned earlier, but when you set a proton layer for the game, the install button will become available again also make sure steam play is turned on too The steam deck is a very picky device. If you don’t have steam play or proton set on it won’t let you play many of your games. You’ll be very limited as not. All games are supported on Linux which is why we have proton there is no way around it unless you install windows on your steam deck sometimes even setting a proton layer for whatever game will not guarantee that the game will work
Last edited by Bigbrotherj1992; Mar 15 @ 4:22pm
You seem to have disabled SteamPlay at some point, maybe in Desktop mode (I have not checked if you can even do that), as the setting in Gaming mode does not have the toggle.

Having said that, my recommendation would be to drop to Desktop and attempt to enable SteamPlay for all games and apps, and test. If it fails, restore factory settings, if it also fails, reimage may be the only way.

When you see the message about Windows only programs, usually means SteamPlay is disabled, and hence it won't allow installing any games, but those with Linux binaries.
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Date Posted: Mar 15 @ 2:37pm
Posts: 8