Simple Steam Deck Mods

I recently got my Steam Deck and in addition to playing a ton of games, I also made a few modifications.

A new skin.

One of the few things I dislike about the Steam Deck is the smoothness and lack of grip. I added a skin from https://dbrand.com/shop/steam-deck-skins/details and it feels much better. I won’t go into the details of applying the skin since the videos they provide are better than I could, but I do have a few tips.

  • Take your time. What they did in the 12 minute video took me just over an hour.
  • Use heat. It will make the material more pliable and easier to work with.

A custom boot screen.

I also added a custom boot video and I’ll share the steps below.

  1. Change System Update Channel.
  • Press the STEAM button and scroll down to Settings
  • Select System
  • Set Beta Participation to Preview
  • Update and restart the Steam Deck
  1. Go to Desktop Mode.
  • Hold the power button until the menu appears
  • Select Switch to Desktop
  1. Create the file to store your videos.
  • Open Dolphin by clicking the file icon on the bottom left side of the screen
  • Select the hamburger icon (3 lines) and select Show Hidden Files
  • Navigate to ~/.steam/root/config
  • Create a folder called “uioverrides” and open it.
  • Inside the uioverrides folder, create a new folder named “movies”.
  1. Get you video ready.
  • Rename the video you want to use as “deck_startup.webm”
  • Move that file to the movies file you created earlier. I use FileZilla to transfer the file.
  1. Restart your Steam Deck and watch your new boot animation.

I get my videos from https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeckBootVids/ and https://steamdeckrepo.com/. I’m currently using https://steamdeckrepo.com/post/ZYqjP/handheld_history_ultimate_edition_home_ui

To the best of my knowledge you can use any video under 10 seconds. There are also rumors that Steam is adding the ability to add videos in the Steam Points Shop.

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