[SteamDeck] device register failed

[luchihao]

Your system information

• Steam client version: 1769025840
• SteamOS version: 3.7.19
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Opted into SteamOS beta?: No
• Have you checked for updates in Settings > System?: Yes
• SteamOS devkit client version: v0.20260128.1

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Failed to register for steamdeck on my pc(win11), by using steamos-devkit-client. Here is the traceback:

'steamdeck': register command failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Windows\System32\builds\Seqdqh1DU\0\devkit\steamos-devkit-internal\client\devkit_client\gui2\gui2.py", line 953, in draw
  File "C:\Python314\Lib\concurrent\futures\_base.py", line 443, in result
  File "C:\Python314\Lib\concurrent\futures\_base.py", line 395, in __get_result
  File "C:\Python314\Lib\concurrent\futures\thread.py", line 86, in run
  File "C:\Python314\Lib\concurrent\futures\thread.py", line 73, in run
  File "C:\Windows\System32\builds\Seqdqh1DU\0\devkit\steamos-devkit-internal\client\devkit_client\gui2\gui2.py", line 195, in _register
  File "C:\Windows\System32\builds\Seqdqh1DU\0\devkit\steamos-devkit-internal\client\devkit_client\__init__.py", line 1019, in register
  File "C:\Windows\System32\builds\Seqdqh1DU\0\devkit\steamos-devkit-internal\client\devkit_client\__init__.py", line 643, in ensure_devkit_key
  File "C:\Windows\System32\builds\Seqdqh1DU\0\devkit\steamos-devkit-internal\client\devkit_client\__init__.py", line 601, in _fix_key_permissions
  File "C:\Python314\Lib\subprocess.py", line 556, in run
  File "C:\Python314\Lib\subprocess.py", line 1207, in communicate
  File "<frozen codecs>", line 325, in decode
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xd2 in position 0: invalid continuation byte

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Download SteamOS-DevKit-Client on my PC(win11)
2. Keep SteamDeck and my PC in the same network
3. Open development mode on steamdeck
4. Click Pair new hostbutton on steamdeck
5. Click register button on steamos-devkit-client

[delphifirst]

This is because icacls.exe on non-English OS will output non-English characters. One quick and dirty fix is comment out those icacls.exe calls in client/devkit_client/init.py (call by yourself)

[luchihao]

This is because icacls.exe on non-English OS will output non-English characters. One quick and dirty fix is comment out those icacls.exe calls in client/devkit_client/init.py (call by yourself)

Thanks. Finally I resolved this issue by changing the system's default encoding to UTF-8.

[TheLazySharp]

Thanks. Finally I resolved this issue by changing the system's default encoding to UTF-8.

Hi there, got the exact same issue. Could you tell me how did you manage to change the system's default encoding to UTF-8 ?
Thanks !

[luchihao]

Thanks. Finally I resolved this issue by changing the system's default encoding to UTF-8.

Hi there, got the exact same issue. Could you tell me how did you manage to change the system's default encoding to UTF-8 ? Thanks !

Windows 11 has a built-in feature called Unicode UTF-8 Worldwide Support that allows changing the system's default encoding to UTF-8.