This $30 app is the best purchase I've made for my Steam Deck

Valve has done a remarkable job with the Steam Deck. The hardware itself is great, sure, but the bedrock of Steam makes it easy to transfer your progress from Windows to Linux without any fuss. Once you start going beyond the Game Mode interface, however, you’ll quickly recognize a problem: Windows and Linux don’t play nicely with each other.

As a fan of retro games that uses the Steam Deck as my primary emulation platform, this is a problem I’ve been trying to deal with for a while. If you install a micro SD card in your Steam Deck, it’ll be formatted to the EXT4 file system. Windows doesn’t support the EXT4 file system. If you insert your micro SD card into a Windows PC, it’ll be formatted to NTFS. The Steam Deck supports NTFS, but you’ll need to manually mount the drive each time you reinstall your micro SD card. And, once you go back to Windows, you won’t be able to read or write to your micro SD card. When you’re frequently transferring ROMs and configuring files between a Windows PC and the Steam Deck, you can see the problem.

Instead of going through the process manually each time I wanted to transfer games, I spent $30 on the Linux File Systems for Windows app from Paragon Software, and it’s easily the best purchase I’ve made for my Steam Deck.

Linux File Systems for Windows just works

It feels like you’re using the same file system

Let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. A file system is a structure that allows your operating system to read and write data to a drive. It determines where metadata and data are stored, as well as how to recall that data through software. Since Windows NT, Windows has used NTFS. Linux includes an open-source NTFS driver, but most Linux distributions (including the one used on the Steam Deck) use EXT4 by default, which is the fourth iteration of the extended file system that has been a part of Linux since 1992.

So, when you take your micro SD card out of your Steam Deck and put it in your Windows PC, all the data is still there. Windows just doesn’t know how to read that data, at least not natively.

There are ways around this problem that don’t require you to spend any money (I’ll get to those next), but Linux File Systems for Windows makes going back and forth easy. And that’s because it just works. Pop your micro SD card out of your Steam Deck, plug it into your Windows PC, and it pops up in File Explorer like any other drive. Take it back out and put the card into your Steam Deck, and it’s recognized right away without any intervention in Desktop Mode. It’s a seamless solution. It’s so seamless that I forget I have the app installed half the time.

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The main function is to mount drives with a Linux file system into read/write mode within Windows. It supports EXT2 up to EXT4 in read/write mode, as well as XFS and BTRFS in read-only mode. Outside of mounting a Linux drive, you can also format drives to a Linux file system within the app, as well as verify the integrity of your drive. You can see the app in action for yourself without shelling out $30, too. Paragon offers a free trial, which will continue working after the 14-day trial period, though with vastly reduced transfer speeds.

It’s been a huge time-saver when going back and forth with my emulated games. I have EmuDeck configured on the micro SD card I use on my Steam Deck, and I’m constantly going back and forth between my Steam Deck and my Windows PC to configure everything. There may be free ways to accomplish the same thing, but for the convenience that Linux File Systems for Windows provides, it’s $30 well spent.

Paragon Linux File Systems for Linux

Linux File Systems for Windows allows you to mount, read, and write data to EXT4 drives from within Windows. 

What to do if you don’t want to spend $30 on Linux File Systems for Windows

There are other ways around this issue

If you’re a die-hard emulation fan but don’t have the cash to spare right now, don’t worry. There are still ways to transfer files between your Windows PC and Steam Deck. The most obvious solution is to cut your Windows PC out of the equation entirely. A USB-C hub and a couple of minutes swapping wires around is all you need to get a full desktop experience on your Steam Deck, so you can configure all of your games and emulators directly on the device. It’s a fine solution, though you’ll probably spend around $30 on a proper Steam Deck dock anyway.

The other option is to mount your drive manually each time you transfer it. Thanks to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2), you can mount EXT4 drives in read/write mode in Windows, and Microsoft even has documentation on how to accomplish that through PowerShell. If you go the other route and format your drive in NTFS, you’ll need to remount it in Desktop Mode each time you reinsert the micro SD card into your Steam Deck. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, there’s also an open-source script that will automatically mount NTFS drives on the Steam Deck.

If I wasn’t using Linux File Systems for Windows, I’d format my drive in NTFS and use that script. Formatting the drive for EXT4 and going through PowerShell each time I want to mount the drive in Windows is time-consuming and, frankly, annoying. The functionality is available within Windows, but going through a string of PowerShell commands each time I want to transfer a few files to my micro SD card isn’t ideal.

However, the best solution out of them all, including Linux File Systems for Windows, is a KVM through your monitor. If you have a monitor with USB-C power delivery and a KVM, managing your Steam Deck files involves nothing more than plugging in a cable and changing your monitor input. If you don’t already have a monitor with USB-C power delivery and a KVM, though, that’s a heck of a lot more expensive than dropping $30 on a piece of software.

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A niche solution for those who need it

Linux File Systems for Windows isn’t something every Steam Deck owner needs to pick up, but it’s made my emulation experience on the Steam Deck much better. With the software, I’m able to easily bulk up my library on my micro SD card regardless of what PC I have available to me. And, when I go through the process of dumping my physical games, I’m able to do so through Windows where I understand how the process works.