When playing around in Desktop mode, you’ll quickly need to know how to right click on Steam Deck. The Steam Deck shortcut has been swapped around since the console first launched, but at the time of writing, here’s how to right click in Desktop mode so you can access secondary menus while tinkering with programs.
How to right click in Desktop mode on Steam Deck
To right click on Steam Deck, you need to highlight the item you’re interested in (move the cursor over it with the touch screen or touch pad) and press L2. That’s the left trigger behind the console.
- (In Desktop Mode) Right Click: L2 (Left Trigger)
- (In Gaming Mode) Right Click: Steam + L2 (Left Trigger)
The Steam Deck right click function used to be mapped to the left touch pad, but the device has since been updated to assign right click to the left trigger instead. We’re not sure why the switch happened, but now you know. Of course, if you have a dock and mouse to plug in, you can also right click the old-fashioned way as well.
Being able to right click is especially useful when it comes to adding non-steam programs like Discord to Steam. Instead of going through the Steam interface and selecting a non-Steam program, you can simply right click and choose Add to Steam from the dropdown menu. This will add the program to the Non-Steam section of your library, even when you’re in Gaming mode. Pretty handy if you want to chat while you play!
If you don’t have a physical one plugged into the Steam Deck dock, you’ll also want to make sure that you know how to bring up the keyboard in Desktop mode, as it’s necessary for searching through any of the system’s menus.
That’s all you need to know about how to right click on Steam Deck’s Desktop mode, but there are plenty of other useful Steam Deck shortcuts and tricks to learn for the device. Read up on how to take screenshots on Steam Deck and transfer them to PC, here.