Quest Newbie: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Desktop

Shane R. Monroe
16 min readJul 9, 2020

While most people purchase the Oculus Quest because they do not have a “VR Ready” PC to begin with, there are many Quest owners that actually have a computer powerful enough to run AAA titles like Half-Life: Alyx or The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. Oculus has offered a wired solution called Link that lets you play PCVR games on their headset — but there is another WIRELESS solution for those with the right network and setup. It’s called Virtual Desktop. Last Updated: 2021–02–26 to remove Sidequest requirements.

Half-Life: Alyx via Virtual Desktop on Oculus Quest

While not a requirement to use this article, it would probably be a good idea to read this article if you’re fairly new to the Quest platform.

Now that we understand the variations of play, let’s start by seeing if Virtual Desktop is even an option for you.

Requirement 1: The Right PC

First things first. Virtual Desktop does not absolve you of having a top-notch VR-Ready PC.

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Shane R. Monroe
Shane R. Monroe

Written by Shane R. Monroe

I write, blog, record and review anything that interests me — including humanity, parenting, gizmos & gadgets, video games and media.