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DocumentationUser ManualSetting a game up by hand

Setting a game up by hand

On this page

Junk Store Pro’s tools work on Steam entries, not on games from a particular store. Once a game has an entry in your Steam library, everything else applies to it: artwork, the executable it launches, what it runs under, how it’s tuned.

That includes entries you make yourself. Nothing has to know about your game in advance no extension, no store, no compatibility list. If the files are on the Deck, you can make an entry and then treat it like anything else.

This page is the route for a game that no store covers: something you installed by hand, an old game from a folder, an emulator, or a tool you want in your library.

Why this is worth knowing

Steam can already do most of these things, and on a desktop you’d use its own settings. On a Deck in Game Mode you largely can’t: the options exist in a shortcut’s properties, but the file picker behind them misbehaves under gamescope. In practice, setting up a non-Steam game properly has meant dropping to Desktop Mode and finding a keyboard.

Here you don’t. Every step below is done from the controller, in Game Mode, and it’s the same set of tools the shipped stores use.

The steps

Not all of them apply to every game. Do the first, then as many of the rest as it needs.

1. Make the entry {#1-make-the-entry}

Browse to the game’s program in the File Manager and use Add to Steam.

The game's folder in the File Manager, with its executable focused among the other downloads.

The File Operations menu with Add to Steam highlighted.

For an .exe, that’s most of the work. Junk Store Pro sets the launcher to Proton and records the program, its folder and the install path, so it’s ready to run. Anything else is added as a plain entry, and you set what runs it yourself at step 3.

The game appears in your Steam library straight away.

2. Point it at the right program {#2-point-it-at-the-right-program}

Installers often leave several programs in a folder, and the obvious one isn’t always the game.

From the File Manager, the Steam submenu sets Set as Game Executable on a file and Set as Working Directory on a folder. Browse the whole folder and pick exactly what you want.

The Steam submenu on a program, offering Set as Game Executable.

From the game’s page, Run Exe offers a shortlist of the programs it found, which is quicker when the one you want is on it. Remember the toggle-then-X order if the program needs to run from its own folder.

Some games need the working folder set or they won’t find their own data. If a game starts and immediately complains about missing files, that’s the usual cause.

3. Choose what runs it {#3-choose-what-runs-it}

On the game’s cog, the platform’s configs sets what Junk Store Pro launches the game through, Proton for a Windows game, or another platform where that fits.

Add to Steam already does this for an .exe, so it’s mainly the step for anything else: a DOS game, something for an emulator, or a Linux program.

If a Windows game needs a particular Proton version, that’s Steam’s setting rather than this one. Press Y on the game’s page to reach its Steam page and change the compatibility tool there; the Junk Store website covers it.

4. Give it artwork {#4-give-it-artwork}

A hand-made entry starts with nothing, so it sits in your library as a plain box.

The new entry on the Other tab, showing a blank placeholder where the artwork would be.

If you have pictures of your own, assign them with the Steam submenu: browse to each image and give it a slot.

The Steam submenu on an image file, listing Hero Image, Logo, Grid Icon, Vertical Cover and Library Background.

If you don’t, Search SteamGridDB finds artwork by name and applies it for you, which is usually the faster route. It needs a key set up once.

5. Tune it, if it needs tuning {#5-tune-it-if-it-needs-tuning}

Proton settings on the game’s cog has the things people reach for when a Windows game misbehaves or runs badly: anti-cheat runtimes, ESYNC and FSYNC, a frame cap for battery life, FSR upscaling, and frame generation.

Skip this unless something’s wrong. The defaults are what most games want.

6. Install anything it’s missing {#6-install-anything-its-missing}

Old Windows games sometimes want a runtime that isn’t present. Copy the installer into the game’s folder and run it with Run Exe, it runs inside that game’s own environment, so what it installs is there for the game and nowhere else.

What you end up with

An entry that behaves like any other: it launches from Steam, it has artwork, it runs under a compatibility layer you chose, and its settings are per game.

Some things won’t apply. A hand-made entry has no store behind it, so there’s nothing to refresh it from, no DLC or language list, and no verify or repair. Those come from an extension knowing how to talk to a store.

It’s manual, and that’s the trade. A game from a store arrives configured; this is you doing that work yourself, a step at a time. What you get for it is that the answer to “can Junk Store Pro handle this game?” is usually yes, by this route, whatever the game is.