FAQ
Does vrOS need SteamVR running?
Section titled “Does vrOS need SteamVR running?”No. vrOS is a desktop application first, and VR is a presentation layer that attaches when a runtime is there. Without a headset you get the desktop window: the overlay list, settings, and any extension that does its work on the host OS. The process that talks to the VR runtime is only spawned when it is needed.
When SteamVR is already running, vrOS attaches to it.
Does starting vrOS start SteamVR?
Section titled “Does starting vrOS start SteamVR?”No, not unless you opt in. vrOS detects a running runtime by looking for its process; it never launches one, and it never probes by initializing a runtime API. The one path that can start SteamVR is an explicit user action behind a setting that is off by default.
Does closing SteamVR close vrOS?
Section titled “Does closing SteamVR close vrOS?”No. When the runtime quits, vrOS tears down its VR side and keeps running: the core app, your settings, your capture list, and your extensions are all untouched. There is a setting to quit with SteamVR if that is what you want, and it is off by default.
The reverse holds too. A SteamVR crash does not take vrOS with it, and your overlays come back on their own when the runtime does. See Troubleshooting.
Does it run on Linux?
Section titled “Does it run on Linux?”Not yet. Linux support is in development, and vrOS 2.0.0 on Steam is a Windows build. The Linux build targets x86-64 desktop Linux and SteamOS, with a backend for each Linux VR stack — SteamVR for Linux through OpenVR, and Monado and WiVRn through OpenXR — because neither stack implements the other’s overlay API. It gets called supported when it ships on Steam, and not before. Install has the details.
Does it run on Steam Frame?
Section titled “Does it run on Steam Frame?”Native, on-device Steam Frame support is in development, not shipped. Two hardware questions are still open: which overlay path the on-device runtime accepts, and what can be captured there. It gets called supported once it is verified on the device, and not before.
Frame’s main mode does work today. When you stream wirelessly to a Frame from a Windows PC, vrOS runs on the PC inside SteamVR like it does for any other PCVR headset, with no Frame-specific work.
Does it work with headsets that are not SteamVR?
Section titled “Does it work with headsets that are not SteamVR?”On Windows, vrOS 2.0.0 works with any headset that runs through SteamVR, including Quest over Steam Link or Virtual Desktop. The OpenXR overlay backend for Monado and WiVRn is part of the Linux build, which is in development.
How do I get it?
Section titled “How do I get it?”On Steam, app 3873610. Install walks through the first launch.
What languages is it in?
Section titled “What languages is it in?”Nine, everywhere in the app, with no English-only strings: English, Deutsch, Español (Latinoamérica), Français, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어, Русский, and 简体中文. The language picker lists endonyms, not flags — a flag is a country, not a language. The VR keyboard ships six built-in boards: English at 70, 80 and 100 percent, Korean 두벌식, Japanese romaji, and the Japanese 12-key flick board.
These pages are in the same nine languages. “Build an extension” is English and Japanese, and the release notes are English only.
Can I use it without controllers?
Section titled “Can I use it without controllers?”Yes. Every surface is operable three ways, and all three are supported on every screen rather than a subset: laser and controller, gamepad-only focus traversal, and plain mouse and keyboard on the desktop. Nothing is hover-only.
Gaze plus a confirm is designed in throughout — the degree floors, the focus hysteresis, the dwell rules — but gaze pointing is not in the build yet, and there is no setting for it. See Input.
Does vrOS collect any data?
Section titled “Does vrOS collect any data?”No. There is no telemetry and no remote control. Everything vrOS does is local to the one machine it runs on and visible to the person wearing the headset, and nothing it observes — captured windows, keystrokes, window facts — leaves the machine.
Two specifics worth naming, because the mechanisms sound alarming out of context. Window observation is scoped to the captures you chose: it starts when you bind a capture and ends when you unbind it, and there is never a global hook. Text awareness is position-only — vrOS learns that an insertion point exists in a captured window and where it is, so the keyboard can behave; it does not read your text or read keystrokes back.
The core of vrOS never touches the network. The features that do are extensions you turn on — Twitch talks to Twitch and its emote services, OBS Control to the OBS instances you add, VRChat OSC to VRChat on your machine — and each one declares what it connects to on its consent screen before it first runs. The privacy page lists them.
Does vrOS need administrator?
Section titled “Does vrOS need administrator?”No, and it deliberately does not elevate itself. One consequence is worth knowing: Windows refuses injected input into a window running as administrator, so clicks and keys from a panel will not reach one. The source picker badges those windows.
Which v1 features are in 2.0.0?
Section titled “Which v1 features are in 2.0.0?”Not all of them, and it is better to say so plainly. 2.0.0 ships overlays, the laser pointer, the VR keyboard, the input handoff, the performance panel, the O·VR playspace and tracker tools, and audio routing, and five extensions ship with it: VRChat OSC, OBS Control, the Soundboard, Twitch, and Steam Link Face.
Not in 2.0.0: the Time tab, the media widget, VRChat account features, XSOverlay-compatible notifications, Twitch chat commands and channel-point actions, administrator mode, and the custom theme builder, among others. Release notes have the full list, and record what ships in each version after this one.
Can I still use vrOS 1?
Section titled “Can I still use vrOS 1?”Yes, for now. vrOS 1 is on a beta branch: in Steam, right-click vrOS → Properties → Betas and choose legacy. Choose “None” to come back to vrOS 2.
The two versions keep their settings apart, so switching back and forth is safe. vrOS 2 does not import vrOS 1’s settings, layouts or sign-ins — it starts fresh, and you sign in to Twitch and OBS again in their extensions.
Can I write my own extension?
Section titled “Can I write my own extension?”Yes. Extensions speak one protocol over a local socket, contribute UI as Slint panels that vrOS renders itself, and ask for the specific capabilities they use — which you grant the first time you enable one, and can revoke later in Settings → Extensions. Third-party extensions use the same API the built-in ones do; that is deliberate, because it is how the API stays honest.
The first release installs extensions from a local folder with a consent screen listing what they asked for. Start at Build an extension.
Where are my settings and layouts kept?
Section titled “Where are my settings and layouts kept?”Settings live in %APPDATA%\vrOS\config.toml on Windows (and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vros/config.toml in the Linux build). The file appears the first time you change a setting. vrOS 1 kept its settings in %LOCALAPPDATA%\vrOS; vrOS 2 leaves that folder as it is.
Overlays, saved presets, and custom keyboard layouts are not config: they live in vrOS’s own database and are restored when it starts. Extensions get their own persistent store, which is why an extension’s state survives a runtime crash, an app restart, and a reboot.