First run

Launch vrOS from Steam. It opens as a desktop window. It does not start SteamVR for you, and it does not wait for a headset — if a VR runtime is already up, vrOS attaches to it, and if you start one later, it attaches then.

The three steps

First-run is three screens, and every one of them is skippable. There is no tour and nothing to sit through.

1. Language. Nine locales, listed under a globe in their own names. You can change it later in Settings.
2. How you point. Laser with your controllers, which is also the default if you skip the screen. Gamepad traversal and desktop mouse and keyboard work on every surface without being chosen here. Anything on this screen can be changed later under Settings → Accessibility.
3. Your first window. Pick a window or a whole display from the source list and add it. Grab the edge of the panel to move it; grip to pull it closer. When that panel is up, you are done.

Note

Gaze pointing and dwell select are designed into this screen but are not in the build yet. There is no row that does nothing — they arrive with the gaze work. See Input and authority.

Skipping a step is not a penalty. Nothing later in vrOS depends on having gone through it, and every choice on these screens lives in Settings afterwards.

What vrOS registers with SteamVR

When vrOS attaches to SteamVR it writes out its action manifest, its four controller binding files, and its application manifest, and registers them for the session. The result you care about: vrOS appears in SteamVR under Controller Bindings, with working defaults on Index controllers, Oculus Touch, Vive wands, and Virtual Desktop controllers.

That page is where bindings actually live. vrOS ships defaults so nothing is unbound out of the box, but which physical button does what is SteamVR’s decision, not an invented gesture. Settings → Controls inside vrOS shows you the binding you currently have and has a button that opens SteamVR’s binding editor on the right page.

The Dash comes up on its own

The Dash is visible by default, at every start — you do not need to know a binding to find it. When vrOS attaches to a runtime and there is a live headset pose for the first time, it places the Dash in front of you. Once you have grabbed it or recentered it, it stays where you put it.

The summon is how you put it away again:

• Double-press the bound button to hide and show everything.
• Hold the left finger-gun pose and double-press for the Dash alone.

The default button is the A button on the right controller, and the menu button on Vive wands, which have no face button. SteamVR owns the timing of the double-press and which input it sits on. Both chords are configurable in Settings → Controls, and are covered in full on Input and authority.

Tip

A summon aimed at something already hidden always shows it. The gesture can never be the thing that hides your way back in.

If nothing appears

vrOS also renders as a tab inside the SteamVR dashboard. That tab exists for exactly one situation: your Dash is hidden, lost, or somewhere you cannot see it, and you need a path back that needs no binding at all. Open the SteamVR dashboard and pick vrOS. You get a reduced rail — Overlays, Add, OpenVR, and Settings — so you can add a panel from there.

One thing to expect: while the SteamVR dashboard is open, every world overlay is hidden, including anything you just added. It appears once you close the dashboard.

If the tab is not there either, or SteamVR does not list vrOS under Controller Bindings, start at Troubleshooting.