Like many other Aussies, I recently ordered a Steam Deck. After two years of peering through the international shop window and swatting away the temptation to import one from the grey market, Steam finally brought the handheld PC to our shores. Straight out of the box, the Steam Deck is an impressive bit of hardware, able to run anything from indies to AAA titles, as long as you’re willing to compromise and tinker with a setting or two. Another huge boon is the Steam Deck’s versatility and customisability.
Sure, Steam offers a range of customisation options natively, like boot-up animations that you can purchase from the store, but why settle when there are better and more numerous options just off the beaten path? There are plenty of homebrew plug-ins and emulators to experiment with, but after spending some time tinkering and testing, one stands out as a must for all Steam Deck owners: Decky Loader.
Deck Loader is a one-stop shop offering a range of downloadable customisation options to change, alter and enhance your Steam Deck experience. Once installed, you can download individual plug-ins that allow you to change visuals and audio, enhance quality-of-life settings, improve UI functions, provide additional info on installed games, and more. I’ll get to my personal recommendations a bit later, but first, let’s step you through how to install Deck Loader.
Here are the steps to download and install Decky Loader on a Steam deck:
- Hold the power button
- Select “Switch to Desktop”
- TIP – When using desktop mode, use the righthand trackpad to control your cursor. While the thumbstick will work, it’s harder to use. Alternatively, you can use the touchscreen
- Open your preferred browser
- Search GitHub Decky Loader, or follow this link: Decky Loader
- TIP – Press the X face button to pull up the digital keyboard
- Scroll and click on the large Download button (as shown below)
- Once downloaded, navigate to the download folder, then click and drag the file deck_installer.desktop onto the desktop
- Double-click on the newly created icon to start the installation
- TIP – If you’ve set an admin code on the Steam Deck, you’ll need to enter it here; otherwise, you can choose to allow the Deck to set a temporary one
- Once the download is complete, click ok
- Double-click on the “Return to Gaming Mode” icon
- Press the Quick Action button (three dots below the right trackpad)
- A new plug-in option will appear as the last icon (as shown below)
- Move across to the shop icon and open the Decky Store
Now that you have Decky Loader installed, you can browse the many community-made plug-ins and install the ones that suit your interests and needs. You can manage the plug-ins you install from the Quick Action menu at any time, so you’re free to experiment to your heart’s content. That said, I’ve done some investigating for you, so here are a few suggestions:
ProtonDB Badges – Simple, yet incredibly useful. The Steam Store does an alright job of letting you know if a game can run on the Deck, but the verified, playable, unsupported and unknown categories don’t paint a very clear picture. This plug-in adds community-driven badges to every game in your library, ranging from borked to platinum, each with a complete rundown of what works, what doesn’t and what you may need to do to get the game to a playable state.
Animation Changer – As I said at the beginning of the article, Steam offers a range of boot-up animations that play when you turn the console on or wake it from sleep, but they’re quite limited. Animation Changer lets you browse hundreds of community-created animations, some of which are very creative. Want to have your Steam Deck boot up like a PS2 (like me), then go right ahead.
Audio Loader – Another one that’s unnecessary, but it gives the Deck some personality. The Audio Loader lets you install a range of UI sound effects and music to the system menus. If you wanted to, I don’t know, match the menu sound effects to match that PS2 boot-up you’ve installed, you can do just that.
HLTB for Deck – Back to something more practical, this plug-in uses the How Long to Beat database to show you the length of the games in your library. If you’re short on time and don’t want to make a big commitment, this one might save you.
Notebook – This sounded so unnecessary to me right up until I started playing puzzle games on the Deck. This is as simple as it gets. The Notebook plug-in gives you access to a small notepad to write notes using the touchpad. It sits there, waiting to be used in the plug-in menu, so it’s never far away.
There we have it; now you’ve got access to dozens of useful plug-ins for your Steam Deck. Let us know which plug-ins you downloaded and how you’re enjoying the Steam Deck in the comments or on our social media.
