Today at 7:00 PM Spanish Peninsular Time, the Steam Controller will be available for purchase, one of the three products that announced in November 2025It cannot be ruled out that at the same time they will provide more information about the launch of the Steam Machine and Steam Frame, two devices that use SteamOS like the Steam deckAlthough in the case of glasses it's a little different. What's more interesting is the Machine, for several reasons, and the article we're bringing you today might be useful.
It's about explaining How to install .EXE files on SteamOSBecause Valve's operating system offers very high integration with Steam, including a Wine-based tool called Proton, which is primarily used to play Windows games on Linux. But how do you install the programs? There's no single official way. There are different methods, and we'll explain the best ones.
RUNNING an .EXE on Steam Deck and SteamOS in general: the most official way
That "RUN" in all caps is correct, because this article started by talking about installing, not launching, apps. Steam has an option that allows you to add a non-Steam title to Steam, and it's very simple:
- If you already have the program in an .EXE file, either loose or with everything you need in a folder, open Steam, use the option to add a non-Steam game and select that .EXE file.
- With the program now added, search in the library and click on "Play".
If that doesn't work, you can go into the "Properties" section of the program or game and, in the Compatibility section, choose another version of Proton.
Install an .EXE file without third-party tools
I wouldn't label this method "official," but it's the closest thing, considering that We will only use software available after a clean installation.The principle is the same as when we just want to run an .EXE: we open Steam, select add a non-Steam game, find the .EXE file, and then click play.
A second way to do this is to open Dolphin (file manager), find the .EXE file and select "Add to Steam" ("Add to Steam" if the language has not been changed).
With the program already in Steam, still in desktop mode, we look for the file we added to Steam. It won't have cover art and will probably have the same name as the original .EXE file. We can try launching it as is or "Force the use of a tool..." to select a specific Proton application; both options may work or fail. If one Proton application doesn't work, choose another.
Now all that's left is to click "Play." Since it's an installation file, it will start and, if everything has gone well, it will finish installing the program or game. It's important to note that this only installs the program or game, and you should remove this shortcut (Options/Manage/Remove) because it's no longer needed after installation.
Finishing the process
With the .EXE file already installed, we need to get Steam to find the installed executable. To do this, open Dolphin and navigate to /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata (On Steam, it's probably the user "machine", not deck). The dot before steam means the folder is hidden.
The best way to find the file is to sort Dolphin's display by modification date; the most recent will be the one you just installed. You'll have to search for that executable, but it's usually located in pfx/DRIVE_COnce we find it, we just need to do the same as explained in the "RUNNING an .EXE" section: add it to Steam. We can force the use of a specific Proton or not, and it's recommended to test which one works best in each case.
Third-party tools on Steam Deck
If we're trying to install a program, it's probably worth using a tool that isn't installed by default. For example, Wine. It's on FlathubHowever, this Flatpak version of Wine Is Not an Emulator isn't as user-friendly as the official repositories: file access is restricted by the Flatpak sandbox, and if the .exe file is outside your home directory, Wine might not recognize it. Sometimes you need to grant extra permissions, for example, by typing flatpak override –user –filesystem=/path/to/your/files org.winehq.Wine in the terminal. To install the program you would need to use flatpak run org.winehq.Wine file.exe.
It is also possible to use Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris or BottlesAmong my recommendations are the first one for games (it's what I use) and the third one for programs.
Ultimately, the Steam Deck is perfectly capable of opening all kinds of Windows programs. You just need to learn how, and that's what we've explained here.