Tired of playing the same old games on your Steam Deck & want console-level graphics on the move? GeForce Now could be the answer & we’ll show you how to install GeForce Now on Steam Deck right here.
Having all of your Steam games easily accessible on the go is one of the many reasons that make the Steam Deck stands out compared to other handhelds. With some clever tinkering, you can expand Steam Deck’s game library even further, streaming game services and apps that aren’t natively supported by the device. This includes streaming games from Nvidia’s cloud-streaming service, GeForce Now.
With GeForce Now on Steam Deck, you can access to over 1,500 games, including titles that are natively unsupported on the handheld. As long as you have GeForce Now subscription, installing GeForce Now on your Steam Deck can significantly expand your portable game library, but you might want to hook your Steam Deck up with a keyboard and mouse via a dock first, as it’ll make navigating desktop mode a lot easier.
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Install Google Chrome on Steam Deck
To set up GeForce Now on the Steam Deck, you first need to install Google Chrome. Installing Google Chrome on the device will enable us to get around the lack of an official Steam Deck GeForce Now app, letting us stream games in gaming mode. To begin, turn on the Steam Deck and switch to desktop mode to access the Discover app.
Open the Discover app in desktop mode by clicking on the icon featuring a blue-colored bag on the bottom toolbar of the screen. From here, click within the search bar and type ‘Google Chrome’ to populate a list of related apps.
Click on ‘Google Chrome’, which should be the top result, and once on the next page, click on the ‘Install’ option in the top right corner of the Discover window. It may take a few seconds for Google Chrome to finish downloading onto your device.
How to set up GeForce Now on Steam Deck
Now that Google Chrome is installed on your Steam Deck, we can get to setting up GeForce Now. While still in desktop mode, click on the Steam Deck Launcher icon in the bottom left corner of the screen, and navigate to ‘All Applications.’
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In All Applications, scroll down until you find the newly installed Google Chrome app, hover over the app, and right-click, either by using your connected mouse or by pressing the L2 trigger button on the Steam Deck.
After right-clicking the app, a new small drop-down menu will appear. From here, scroll down to ‘Add to Steam’ and select it to add Google Chrome to your Steam game library. Now, opening Steam by clicking on the desktop icon will reveal that Google Chrome has been added to your game library.
Open the Steam app while still in desktop mode, and click on the Google Chrome icon within your games library to be taken to its game page. From here, click the small cog icon on the right-hand side, then select ‘Properties’ to access the app’s Shortcut settings.
In the newly opened window, click in the text box below the ‘Shortcut’ menu title, and rename the app to ‘GeForce Now.’ Renaming the app will make it easier to find when back in gaming mode on the Steam Deck.
Lastly, all we need to do is add some text to the ‘Launch Options’ text box to set up GeForce Now on Steam Deck. This is where having a keyboard and mouse will come in handy, however, so long as you’re careful, you can enter the text using the Steam Deck keyboard.
Within the Launch Options text bar, enter the following code. (Make sure you have a space after the “@@u” “@@” text that appears at the end of the existing text, otherwise, this won’t work.)
–window-size=1024,640 –force-device-scale-factor=1.25 –device-scale-factor=1.25 –kiosk “https://play.geforcenow.com”
If it makes things easier, you can always bring up this page in your Steam Deck web browser, and copy and paste it within the Launch Options text bar.
Once you’ve entered the text correctly, close the window and double-click the ‘Return to Gaming Mode’ shortcut to return to gaming mode on the Steam Deck. From here, navigate to your non-Steam games on your Steam Deck game library, and find the newly added ‘GeForce Now’ app from your non-Steam game tab.
Click on the ‘GeForce Now’ app, and select ‘Play’ to run GeForce Now on your Steam Deck. From here, all you need to do is log in with your GeForce Now membership details, and you can play all of your GeForce Now games on your Valve handheld.
