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How to make your Steam Deck more secure now that it has a lock screen

Do you wonder how to make your Steam Deck more secure? Adding a lock screen is a standard security and privacy option that Valve has added to the Steam Deck with a recent version.

The lock screen is a security feature that prevents anyone from picking up your handheld and fooling around with it. It locks the device and requires a PIN to get into the system and do stuff.

To unlock the Steam Deck, you must enter a six-character PIN that you have memorized.

Considering that the Steam Deck is a full PC, possibly containing all kinds of sensitive information, this is a feature that many people have been clamoring for since the device was launched.

In fact, some people have been scratching their heads as to why Valve hasn't provided this protection before now (aside from just your games and saves).

Trying to figure out how to put this new power to use? As you'll see in the following section, we'll walk you through the steps necessary to make your Steam Deck more secure.

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What's Valve Steam Deck?

Credits PCMAG

Playing your favorite PC games on the Nintendo Switch is a dream come true for many of us. In July 2021, Valve launched Steam Deck, a portable gaming PC that had significant impact on the portable market. Using the Steam Deck, you may easily access your full Steam library. You can play Doom Eternal on it since it runs a modified version of SteamOS. A web browser, other game stores like the Epic Games Store, and video-streaming services like Netflix and Hulu may all be installed and used on it. Connecting a keyboard, mouse, or game controller to a monitor is also possible.

As a result, you can easily transfer game save files between your Steam Deck and PC.

How to make your Steam Deck more secure now that it has a lock screen | How to activate the Steam Deck's lock screen mode.

There are a few things you'll need to do before you can use the new lock screen.

  • First, you'll need to go to Settings > System and install the new update (which includes a whole lot more than the lock screen, including a significant stride forward with full Windows 11 support).
How to activate the Steam Deck's lock screen mode
  • Head to Settings and click on the new tab labeled "Security," which will appear after the upgrade is complete, which may take some time.
How to make your Steam Deck more secure now that it has a lock screen
  • With three options, you may choose whether or not the lock screen will appear when the system is booted and woken, or when the user is logged in and switches to Desktop Mode.
How to make your Steam Deck more secure now that it has a lock screen
  • If you'd rather memorize a pattern than use the touchscreen to set your PIN, you can also use a combination of buttons.

Also worth noting is if you installed the update immediately after its release, and had difficulty with PIN entering due to a glitch in that original version; this issue has now been fixed in the latest update.

Since then, Valve has taken care of the bug, releasing a new version that contains a remedy for it. As a result, if you had any issues after installing the upgrade, we recommend that you do it again.