Today Valve made it possible to change your Steam Deck startup movie in the easiest way possible. The capability to do this has been available on Steam Deck for quite some time. But Valve only just made it a built-in feature as of March 15.
The company has put out a new update for the Steam Deck on the stable channel that enables this feature. So now, it’s much, much simpler to change your Steam Deck startup movie than ever before. That being said, there is a tiny, tiny bit of setup involved if you want to use custom videos. The built-in feature will still support them, but you do have to get them to the right place first. So we’ve set up this guide to walk you through doing that, and changing the movie using the new built-in method once you have what you want.
If you don’t want to mess with custom videos, not to worry. Valve has created some pretty neat ones that you can buy in the points shop for 3,000 points each. And once you pick them up, these go right where they need to. With all of that out of the way, let’s get to it.
Where to get a custom Steam Deck startup movie
Before we go any further, you’re going to need some custom movies to apply. Thankfully, there’s a really great repository of them on reddit. Head on over to the SteamDeckBootVids subreddit and enjoy scrolling through all kinds of awesome custom videos, all made by Steam Deck users like yourself.
Once you’ve found what you want, you’ll need to download it. So here’s our recommendation.
Launch the Steam Deck into Desktop Mode
While it’s possible to transfer files to the Steam Deck in a few different ways, like through the Warpinator app, it’s honestly more convenient to just download the movies right onto the Steam Deck. You can do this through Desktop Mode which is what we suggest. So hit the Steam button to bring up the menu options, then scroll to and click on power, and click on Desktop Mode.
This will put the Steam Deck into Desktop Mode.
Open your preferred browser
If you don’t have another browser installed, you can use the built-in one that Valve provided as part of Desktop Mode. It should serve your purposes just fine. Or, you can use something like Edge if you have that installed as well. Then simply search for SteamDeckBootVids subreddit and the subreddit should come right up as one of the first results. Head to that page and begin looking for a video you want to use.
Once you find one, click on the post and look for the link that will take you to the movie’s download file. Usually, the poster will have added a link to grab the startup movie if anyone else wants to use it. Then download it and move on.
How to set up your Steam Deck to use custom startup movies
This next set of steps is kind of where it gets a little bit off the beaten path. But don’t worry, it’s not too hard to get everything prepped and ready.
Open up your file browser
First, you’re going to want to open a file browser (such as Dolphin file browser) so you can find and create the folders.
Create the folder where custom startup movies will be stored
You’ll need to create a folder where all the custom startup movies you want to use will be stored. The Steam Deck will automatically know to look for these files if they’re in the right place. First, find the Home folder in the directory. This should be the first option along the side panel.
Click on that then look for the .steam folder. If you don’t see this folder, then it’s hidden. To unhide the folder and any other hidden folders, click on the three-line hamburger icon in the top right corner of the file browser window. It’ll be right next to the search button. There will be an option here to show hidden files. Click on that and then you should now be able to see the .steam folder.
Once inside this folder, click on the root folder. And inside this folder, click on the config folder. Now you can create the folder where you need to store your downloaded startup movies. Inside the config folder, create one called uioverrides. Then open this folder and create the last folder called movies. This movies folder is where you will need to move all of your downloaded startup movies. Now just go to where the movies are that you downloaded, and transfer them to this folder you just created. I found it easiest to move them one by one.
Once you have them all moved, put your Steam Deck back into Gaming Mode.
How to change your Steam Deck startup movie
Now that all of the other stuff is out of the way, you can get to the easiest steps. Changing your startup movie to whatever you want to see when you power on the device every time.
Click the Steam button
Click on the Steam button to open up the menu.
Click on settings
Now head into the settings. Scroll down towards the bottom of the menu and look for customization.
Click on Customization
Inside the customization menu, you will see all of your movies down at the bottom. If all the ones you downloaded are in the right spot, they’ll show up here.
Select a startup movie to use
Now just highlight the movie you want to use, click on it, and that will now be the movie you see when the machine boots up every time. You can store multiples in here so find and download as many as you want. Any that you buy from the points shop will also show up here. Plus, there’s a toggle to shuffle them if you want the Steam Deck to randomly select one upon powering on each time. Though this really only makes sense if you have more than a few of them.
And that’s it! Now you can change your Steam Deck’s startup movie with ease. And if you don’t have a Steam Deck yet, now’s a great time to get one. As Valve just put them on sale for 10% off to celebrate the Steam Deck’s first birthday.
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