Third-party applications have been accepted to the Steam Deck. This includes the Rockstar Launcher as well. Installation for these applications can be rather difficult. But by following the correct steps, the Rockstar Launcher can be installed onto your Steam Deck in no time!
How to install the Rockstar Launcher – Steam Deck
Starting, you want to go to your desktop mode and open up Mozilla Firefox. From here you need to download the Rockstar Launcher normally as you would for your PC version.
The next step is to open up your Steam and head into the “Games” option at the top of the application. Look for “Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library”.
This will open up a Browse window, you will need to go and find the folder where you have downloaded the Rockstar Launcher. By default it should be:
/home/deck/Downloads/
Here you will want to select the “File Type” to be “All Files” and select the Rockstar Launcher.
Click on “Add Selected Program” and find the Rockstar Launcher in your Library. Once it has been found, right-click the application and go to “Properties”, to enable Compatability Proton Interface. After that just press “Play” so the application installs.
From here you will want to look for the .lnk and .exe files in order to set up and link the Rockstar Launcher to your Steam Deck.
To begin this process, go to your “Games” tab in the top center border of the app and press “Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library” and search in the following order:
You will encounter folders that are named as numbers. The largest numbers of folders are the third-party applications that have been installed. Smaller amounts of numbers are the applications and games that have been downloaded and installed from Steam itself.
To make sure you find the right folder, simply look at the Date Modified section. The Rockstar Launcher should be the first one to pop up as it is the most recent installed application on Steam. From there follow the next order of files:
/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/ ((Number of Rockstar Folder)) /pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/desktop
In this specific folder, you will find the Rockstar Games Launcher.lnk file. If it does not show up, simply change the File type to All Files and you will see the .lnk file.
From there you will want to open this .lnk file and add it to your library as a shortcut.
Go to your library and right-click on the Rockstar Games Launcher.lnk, press on Properties, and enable the Proton Compatibility.
From the “Properties” window on the .lnk file, press browse and look for the Rockstar Launcher.exe file, you can find the file in this order:
/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/ ((Number of Rockstar Folder)) /pfx/drive_c/Program Files/Rockstar Games/Launcher
Here you will be able to find a file named Launcher.exe
Open that file and it will automatically be selected as the following file every time you decide to open up the Rockstar Launcher from your Steam Deck. Just make sure that all files are checked for Compatibility.
The Launcher itself will begin to install and you will be able to install and play games from your Steam Deck.
Once everything has been installed, simply go to your Steam Deck and open Library. From there move over to the Non-Steam section where you will find the Rockstar Launcher installed.
