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PayPalValve released the latest stable update for Steam across Desktop, Steam Deck / SteamOS and we have all the changes here for you to see.
While the 64-bit change only affects Windows, the Linux client may not be too far behind given some recent changes to the Steam Linux Runtime.
Here's the full list of changes for Desktop Steam:
General
Game Recording
- The Steam client is now 64-bit on Windows 11 and Windows 10 64-bit.
- Systems running 32-bit versions of Windows will continue receiving updates to the 32-bit Steam client until January 1, 2026.
- Fixed non-Steam browser windows erroneously being created sometimes when steamwebhelper is restarted.
Friends & Chat
- Fixed errors copying to clipboard or exporting H265 videos on systems with a NVIDIA 50xx series gpu.
Big Picture Mode
- Suspicious or harassing group chat messages can now be reported directly in the chat window by right clicking the message. You can optionally block and/or unfriend the other user while submitting the report.
Remote Play
- Fixed intermittent in-game purchase failures for some games.
Steam Input
- Fixed being unable to move the mouse to another monitor when using touch controls on the Steam Link app.
- Added support for Nintendo Switch 2 controllers connected over USB on Windows
- Added support for GameCube adapters in Wii-U mode with rumble on Windows
- Added an "Invert Input" toggle in "Regular Press" activator settings. When enabled, this causes button presses to generate releases, and vice versa.
- Promoted the newer gyro modes from beta to the default gyro modes loaded. Older configuration that are using the older modes will still see the option and you can also enable Steam Input dev mode under Settings->Developer to keep them visible all the time.
- Adjusted Dualsense "Create" and "Options" glyphs for better recall.
- In all Gyro Modes, when selecting multiple gyro activation buttons, you can also choose whether "Any" or "All" buttons are required to Enable/Suppress/Toggle the gyro.
- Gyro Haptic On/Off effect is now separated from Gyro Haptic Rotation Effect.
- Gyro to Joystick Deflection Mode: Added "Use Relative Roll" & "Use Relative Pitch" toggles. When enabled, this makes the output Joystick deflection relative to the controller's pose since the Gyro's activation. i.e. turning on the gyro will always center the stick output. When disabled, the deflection angle is absolute vs. the controller's gravity sensor. Previously this was only possible for "Pitch" (old name: "World Auto Tilt"), but it's now available for Roll as well.
- Gyro to Joystick Deflection: "Relative Roll" and "Relative Pitch" toggles are only available if a Gyro Activation Button is selected, because the angles are relative to the pose of the controller each time the Gyro is activated.
- Fixed a case where the desktop version of the configurator could unexpectedly close when trying to preview a configuration for another game on the Search tab
- Fixed Dualsense Edge, Xbox Elite, Nintendo JoyCons in paired mode not finding the correct config to edit.
- Fixed Gyro to Joystick Deflection: Lock Extents not working as intended.
- Fixed Gyro to Joystick Deflection: Some combinations of "Relative Roll" and "Relative Pitch" toggles resulted in zero joystick output.
And also for Steam Deck / SteamOS these look to be specific from the changes:
- Selecting Sleep in the Power menu will now prompt the user to enter Display-off downloads when appropriate.
- Fixed news items not updating in the "What's New" tab on the Home screen.
- On the Bluetooth settings screen, we will now detect and notify the player when trying to pair/connect an Xbox controller with older firmware versions that cannot properly connect to Steam Deck. To fix these issues you must connect the controller to a Windows PC and update the firmware via the Xbox Accessories App.
- Moved the Screen Reader's "Stop Talking" button to X so that external gamepads can still open the Quick Access Menu with Guide button + their equivalent of A button.
Is there specific bug you're waiting on being solved?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Dawe
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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Quoting: LoudTechie32bit libraries or wine binaries are not needed in WOW64 mode. That's the whole point. Although I suppose Steam will have to ship them for older Proton builds.Quoting: tuubiBy providing 64bit and 32bit libraries(a.k.a 64 and 32 bit wine).Quoting: LoudTechie64 Bit wine can't launch 32 bit applications.Proton has included support for Wine's WOW64 mode for a while now. This shouldn't be a blocker anymore.
Those 32bit libraries make it a 32bit client.
3 Likes
Systems running 32-bit versions of Windows will continue receiving updates to the 32-bit Steam client until January 1, 2026.I don't know how old Windows has to be to be 32-bit. But assume for a moment that there are some people actually gaming on 32-bit Windows, presumably on relatively old computers. After Jan 1, they can't any more. If they want to keep gaming, they have to upgrade to something.
So, what do they upgrade to? They can't upgrade to Win 11, it won't run on their hardware. Probably, most Windows newer than whatever they're using will have problems on their hardware, if they know how to pirate it because MS sure isn't selling the old versions. Also, won't get security updates, but presumably they don't care much about that since they obviously haven't had any for years.
But Linux would run on their hardware. And they'd even get security updates and stuff. If they want to keep gaming that's probably their best and even easiest option.
2 Likes
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI don't know how old Windows has to be to be 32-bit.A better question is how old hardware has to be (x86) to be 32-bit only. AMD stopped making 32-bit processors by early 2000s and Intel shortly after. So I'd say it has to be very old by now. I guess if anyone has such hardware, they could indeed run some 32-bit Linux, but gaming would be the least of their concerns really. I think most distros by now are dropping 32-bit flavors for good, even Debian.
More likely someone running 32-bit Windows is doing it on x86_64 capable hardware, due to some historic incorrect installation. So they can as well install a normal 64-bit Linux there.
Last edited by Shmerl on 22 Dec 2025 at 3:22 am UTC
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Quoting: tuubiIf I install Wine on 64bits system it requires me manipulate my repos to also allow installing 32 bit libraries and then it installs 32 bit wine libraries.Quoting: LoudTechie32bit libraries or wine binaries are not needed in WOW64 mode. That's the whole point. Although I suppose Steam will have to ship them for older Proton builds.Quoting: tuubiBy providing 64bit and 32bit libraries(a.k.a 64 and 32 bit wine).Quoting: LoudTechie64 Bit wine can't launch 32 bit applications.Proton has included support for Wine's WOW64 mode for a while now. This shouldn't be a blocker anymore.
Those 32bit libraries make it a 32bit client.
EDIT: If I want to run 32bit or 32 bit reliant software(its technically optional, but the 32 bit stuff won't work, just like vulcan integration is optional)
Last edited by LoudTechie on 22 Dec 2025 at 12:28 pm UTC
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mr-victory 8 hours ago
Quoting: ShmerlMore likely someone running 32-bit Windows is doing it on x86_64 capable hardware, due to some historic incorrect installation. So they can as well install a normal 64-bit Linux there.Windows doesn't upgrade OS arch during major upgrades ie. Windows 7 to 10. And Windows 7's 32 bits version has been more popular than 64 bits version, so if someone upgraded from Win 7 to 10 (with 8 or 8.1 in between, doesn't matter) they will end up with 32 bits Windows 10. That can be a good thing if the user as ancient 16 bits applications as only 32 bit Windows can run them.
1 Likes
Quoting: LoudTechieThat's because your package is not a pure WOW64 build. That's up to the package maintainer. 32bit Windows software runs on 64bit (WOW64) Wine without 32bit libraries. You can keep claiming otherwise, but I'd rather you just looked into it if you don't want to believe a random person on a forum.Quoting: tuubiIf I install Wine on 64bits system it requires me manipulate my repos to also allow installing 32 bit libraries and then it installs 32 bit wine libraries.Quoting: LoudTechie32bit libraries or wine binaries are not needed in WOW64 mode. That's the whole point. Although I suppose Steam will have to ship them for older Proton builds.Quoting: tuubiBy providing 64bit and 32bit libraries(a.k.a 64 and 32 bit wine).Quoting: LoudTechie64 Bit wine can't launch 32 bit applications.Proton has included support for Wine's WOW64 mode for a while now. This shouldn't be a blocker anymore.
Those 32bit libraries make it a 32bit client.
EDIT: If I want to run 32bit or 32 bit reliant software(its technically optional, but the 32 bit stuff won't work, just like vulcan integration is optional)
1 Likes
Quoting: tuubiThat's because your package is not a pure WOW64 build. That's up to the package maintainer. 32bit Windows software runs on 64bit (WOW64) Wine without 32bit libraries. You can keep claiming otherwise, but I'd rather you just looked into it if you don't want to believe a random person on a forum.I guess Proton is using that?
So, a 64 bit Linux is starting a 32 bit Steam client is starting a 64 bit WOW-enabled Proton which might be starting a 32 bit Windows game?!?
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Quoting: tuubiA. My excuses you were right about the WoW build and I also misunderstood your claim.(I thought WoW was just some creative abbreviation for wine.)Quoting: LoudTechieThat's because your package is not a pure WOW64 build. That's up to the package maintainer. 32bit Windows software runs on 64bit (WOW64) Wine without 32bit libraries. You can keep claiming otherwise, but I'd rather you just looked into it if you don't want to believe a random person on a forum.Quoting: tuubiIf I install Wine on 64bits system it requires me manipulate my repos to also allow installing 32 bit libraries and then it installs 32 bit wine libraries.Quoting: LoudTechie32bit libraries or wine binaries are not needed in WOW64 mode. That's the whole point. Although I suppose Steam will have to ship them for older Proton builds.Quoting: tuubiBy providing 64bit and 32bit libraries(a.k.a 64 and 32 bit wine).Quoting: LoudTechie64 Bit wine can't launch 32 bit applications.Proton has included support for Wine's WOW64 mode for a while now. This shouldn't be a blocker anymore.
Those 32bit libraries make it a 32bit client.
EDIT: If I want to run 32bit or 32 bit reliant software(its technically optional, but the 32 bit stuff won't work, just like vulcan integration is optional)
B. Proton doesn't seem to [use the WoW build](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/449). This could be for backwards compatibility(reconfiguring all existing Wine prefixes without triggering anti-cheat blocks) and [OpenGL preformance](https://linuxiac.com/arch-linux-shifts-to-pure-wow64-builds-for-wine-and-wine-staging/).
1 Likes
Quoting: EikeI believe even the latest Proton only provides WOW64 as an option, alongside the traditional 32bit build and libraries. They're probably still launching 32bit Windows games in a 32bit Proton/Wine prefix by default. They're definitely doing that with Proton 9 and older.Quoting: tuubiThat's because your package is not a pure WOW64 build. That's up to the package maintainer. 32bit Windows software runs on 64bit (WOW64) Wine without 32bit libraries. You can keep claiming otherwise, but I'd rather you just looked into it if you don't want to believe a random person on a forum.I guess Proton is using that?
So, a 64 bit Linux is starting a 32 bit Steam client is starting a 64 bit WOW-enabled Proton which might be starting a 32 bit Windows game?!?
All I'm saying that the tech is available if they want to go pure 64bit, assuming 32bit Wine is somehow the blocker.
1 Likes
Quoting: LoudTechieB. Proton doesn't seem to [use the WoW build](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/449). This could be for backwards compatibility(reconfiguring all existing Wine prefixes without triggering anti-cheat blocks) and [OpenGL preformance](https://linuxiac.com/arch-linux-shifts-to-pure-wow64-builds-for-wine-and-wine-staging/).Proton is often behind Wine with such features. Wine already fixed the issue with OpenGL performance.
1 Likes
Quoting: ShmerlI'm not sure that is a better question, at least for what I was wondering about. You can run 32-bit Windows on 64-bit hardware, can you not? And quite a lot of the 32-bit Windows out there may be that case, and for that case my surmise applies.Quoting: Purple Library GuyI don't know how old Windows has to be to be 32-bit.A better question is how old hardware has to be (x86) to be 32-bit only.
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyI'm not sure that is a better question, at least for what I was wondering about. You can run 32-bit Windows on 64-bit hardware, can you not? And quite a lot of the 32-bit Windows out there may be that case, and for that case my surmise applies.Point is that if anyone has 64-bit hardware, all the above is a non issue. They were sitting under some rock if they were running 32-bit OS on it until today.
Last edited by Shmerl on 22 Dec 2025 at 5:56 pm UTC
1 Likes
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