New Steam Deck Beta Client Adds New Home Screen Customization Options

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There was a new massive Steam Deck Beta Client update yesterday that adds some incredible new options to give us more customization options for our Decks. We now have a new "Big Art Mode" option to change how our games look on the home screen. This makes the artwork behind the games bigger, making it feel more like a console interface.

We also have a new Screensaver feature, where the device will automatically go into a screensaver after a specified amount of time. We can create our own screensavers, have it take artwork from recently played games or use screenshots we took, and we have a retro-inspired bouncing logo we can use as well. It's a nice little option that makes it nicer to leave your console on for a little bit.

There's also a brand new "Default to Desktop Mode" toggle in the system settings. This may not seem like a huge change, but being able to default to Desktop Mode when the system starts up is pretty wonderful. If you are using the Steam Machine as a PC, this will be very helpful.

The Personal Calendar feature has been added to the Recommended tab of the home screen, while there are new notifications for confirmations to end VR and what the current user is when waking the device from sleep, if you have multiple users. There are also some SteamOS compatibility dialogs in desktop mode; the "Select compatibility tool" dropdown will now always be visible, and there's improved CPU performance at runtime and in Steam Input configuration loading. There are also some fixes for the SteamRT3 Experimental Beta client, fixing the performance overlay slider and non-Steam game issues.

This is a pretty awesome update, and I can't wait to see it move to the stable branch. You can download the update yourself in the System Settings on the Steam Deck. Make sure your update channel is set to Beta or Preview.

Steam Deck Beta Client 9/9/26 Update Changelog:

Home Screen

• Added a new 'Big Art Mode' option for the home screen. This can be enabled in Settings > Home.
• Added Personal Calendar to the Recommended tab on the home screen.

Screensavers

• Added a new screensaver feature, accessible in Settings > Customization. There are two screensavers available:
  • The default is a game art slideshow that can be configured to show artwork from recently played games and your recent in-game screenshots.
  • A retro inspired bouncing logo screensaver
• Custom screensavers are also supported. Similar to startup movies, they can be placed in directories at ~/.steam/root/config/uioverrides/screensavers/.

General

• Added notification about the current user when waking from sleep, if there have been multiple recent users. The notification can be activated to switch users and dismisses immediately on any other input. This notification can be toggled from the Notification Settings.
• Added confirmation step to "exit VR" and "switch to desktop mode" power menu actions, and removed it from "sleep".
• Added explicit warning text to power menu confirmation dialogs when proceeding will shut down an active game.
• Added confirmation dialog/user switching ability when waking from sleep would require kicking an active session elsewhere.
• The SteamOS compatibility dialogs will now show in desktop mode when installing games not verified for that HW.
• The 'System Report' dialog is now more responsive when displaying and uploading the gathered system report.
• Added "Default to Desktop Mode" toggle to System settings.
• Fixed a case where Windows games would show as 'Not Compatible' in the library view until a manual Proton version was selected for this app.
• Improved download speeds on high latency connections.
• The "Select compatibility tool" dropdown is now always visible.
  • The recommended compatibility tool, or steam runtime for native games, now shows at the top of the list as the "Default" option.
  • Compatibility tool aliases, e.g. "Proton Stable", can now be selected from this dropdown.
• Updated default artwork when an app does not have library or hero artwork.
• Reorganized the idle timer settings when on battery and AC power

Game Recording

• Fixed some cases where playback would jump to an unexpected point in the timeline when reaching the end of a play session or clip
• Decreased performance impact of game recording for some D3D12 games on Windows

Steam Input

• Improved CPU performance at runtime and in configuration loading
• Added information about which configurations are compatible in the configurator browser when using a game that requires Steam Input API
• Fixed the controller support widget showing "This game doesn't support controllers" for unreleased games that don't have controller support information yet
• Fixed controllers not using the desktop configuration on the desktop UI login window
• Added the missing settings for adjusting emulated joystick adaptive centering on trackpad

SteamRT3 Experimental Beta

• Fixed the Performance Overlay slider.
• Fixed "Add a Non-Steam Game" showing an invalid list of applications.
• Fixed the "Run Steam when my computer starts" toggle.

Remote Play

• A PIN is no longer required to download an app to a remote device. A PIN is still required to Install and Stream from a remote device.
• Adding Download Complete notification for a remote download if you initiated the download on your current device.

In-Game Overlay

• Fixed frame rate hitches in D3D11 and D3D12 games when taking screenshots on Windows
• Fixed rendering the overlay and using other overlay related features (screenshots, game recording, etc.) in Vulkan games that create multiple windows.

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