Big Art Mode, Screensaver, Proton option changes, Desktop Mode toggle

10 Sep 2026 at 6:56 am UTC
By Liam Squires-Hand

Valve have been cooking on this one! A new Steam Beta update for September 9th brings some big additions for Desktop and SteamOS systems like Steam Deck and Steam Machine.

For Big Picture Mode you can now enable a Big Art Mode, which does look pretty sweet. Good for showing off a bit or if you just prefer that style. I know a few people were using Decky Loader just for something similar, nice to have one less plugin.

For Linux / SteamOS systems, they've reworked the "Select compatibility tool" drop-down box to now always show - it also now hides really old versions of Proton, with an option to unhide them. Valve also now show aliases for Proton like Proton Stable, allowing you to have games automatically move to each new main stable numbered version of Proton which is very useful.

SteamOS systems also now have a checkbox to default to Desktop Mode - no more special edits or guides needed, it's just right there as a built-in option.

And lots more! All the notes from the Desktop Beta changelog below:

Key Changes - Desktop

Homescreen - Big Picture Mode

• Added a new 'Big Art Mode' option for the home screen. This can be enabled in Settings > Home.

Screensaver - Big Picture Mode

• 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.
  Big Picture mode can also load custom screensavers. Similar to startup movies, they can be placed in the config\uioverrides\screensavers directory in your Steam install directory (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam or ~/.steam/root). You can use the bouncing logo screensaver (in the steamui\screensavers directory) as an example to get started.

General

• Improved Steam Client startup performance .
• Fixed a case where after server maintenance some users might fail to auto-reconnect to Steam.
• Fixed bug where being prompted to refresh credentials more than once could trigger an immediate restart.
• On Windows, using the systray menu to exit while the Steam window is minimized will no longer flash the window visible briefly.
• Dialogs that appear for serious error conditions now stay above the main window.

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.

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.

Big Picture Mode

• Added explicit warning text to power menu confirmation dialogs when proceeding will shut down an active game.
• Updated default artwork when an app does not have library or hero artwork.
• Reorganized the idle timer settings when on battery and AC power.

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.

Linux

• Improved download speeds on high latency connections.

• Compatibility tool aliases, e.g. "Proton Stable", can now be selected from this dropdown.

The SteamOS compatibility dialogs will now show in desktopUI when installing games not verified for that HW.

On Desktop Linux we will now show the SteamOS unsupported dialog when installing games that are known to not work with Proton.

Improve distro information collection for hardware survey, preferring data from /etc/os-release.

SteamRT3 Experimental Beta

• 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.

And for the SteamOS / Steam Deck Beta update changelog - these are the specific changes that are not listed in the Desktop changelog:

Key changes - SteamOS

• 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 confirmation dialog/user switching ability when waking from sleep would require kicking an active session elsewhere.

• 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.

• Fixed the Performance Overlay slider (SteamRT3 Experimental Beta).

Overall it all sounds fantastic. Valve just keep on making Steam / SteamOS as a whole better based on feedback.

🌐 External Sources: steamcommunity.com, store.steampowered.com Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com. Tags: Steam Deck, Steam Machine, SteamOS, Beta, Misc, Steam, Valve 1 Likes Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:OpenTS is a new open-source reconstruction of Command & Conquer: Tiberian SunHand of Fate: Hordes is a bullet heaven survivor-like filled with story-telling and games of chanceLinux VRAM management set for more improvements with kernel 7.3The new 18 minute Fable gameplay has sold me - I want it All posts need to follow our rules. Please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Readers can also email us for any issues or concerns.