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.

There is no tour and nothing to sit through. vrOS starts in English; pick any of the nine languages in Settings → Language, and switching offers the matching keyboard board. Point with the laser on either controller, and add your first window from the Add tab on the Dash.

Setting up the vrOS driver

The first time vrOS starts, it shows one card: SET UP THE VROS DRIVER. The driver adds playspace movement, calibration and virtual trackers to SteamVR. Everything else — windows, the Dash, the keyboard, extensions — works without it.

The card names the tools that setting up turns off. These are other SteamVR drivers that fight over the same things, such as OVR Advanced Settings and the Space Calibrator family. Their apps and profiles stay installed.

SET UP backs up your current SteamVR setup and checks the backup, turns off the tools it named, and registers the vrOS driver, which loads when SteamVR next starts:
- SteamVR closed: the driver is there the next time you start it.
- SteamVR open with nothing running in it: the button reads SET UP · RESTART STEAMVR and restarts SteamVR for you.
- SteamVR in use: setup waits until you quit SteamVR — nothing changes while it runs — and CANCEL SETUP backs out.
NOT NOW skips it. The card does not come back for this version of the driver; you can set up later from Settings → General → SteamVR Driver → SETUP / REVERT.

That same button opens the driver card again at any time. REVERT restores your previous driver registrations and startup settings as one unit; vrOS playspace, calibration and virtual trackers then stay off until you set up again. RESCAN, OPEN BACKUP and DELETE BACKUP are there too.

What vrOS registers with SteamVR

When vrOS attaches to SteamVR it writes out its action manifest, its five 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, Virtual Desktop controllers, and Steam Frame 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.

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.