ES-DE Setup Guide — EmulationStation Desktop Edition for Windows and Linux 2026

What ES-DE is: ES-DE (EmulationStation Desktop Edition) is a free, open-source game frontend that replaces Batocera's EmulationStation UI on regular desktop PCs. Unlike LaunchBox, it has no paid tier. It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and is the default frontend used by EmuDeck on Steam Deck. It displays games by system, downloads box art and metadata, and launches the correct emulator per game — but you install and configure the emulators yourself separately.

Download and install:

1. Go to es-de.org → Downloads → choose your platform:
   • Windows: download the installer (.exe) — standard Windows install.
   • Linux: download the AppImage (.AppImage) — make it executable (chmod +x ES-DE*.AppImage) and run it; no system-level install.
   • Steam Deck: EmuDeck installs and configures ES-DE automatically — use EmuDeck's installer instead of setting ES-DE up manually.
2. On first launch, ES-DE asks for the ROMs directory. The default is ~/ROMs on Linux/Mac or %UserProfile%\ROMs on Windows. Point it at your existing ROM folder or accept the default and move ROMs there later.
3. ES-DE will tell you the ROMs folder doesn't contain any game systems yet and offer to create the folder structure — accept it. This creates subfolders like ROMs\ps2\, ROMs\gba\, etc. — put your ROMs in the correct subfolder for each system.

ROM folder naming (critical — ES-DE won't see games in wrong-named folders):

• ES-DE uses specific folder names for each system: ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, gba, nds, n64, gc, wii, wiiu, switch, xbox360, etc.
• The full list is in ES-DE's settings under Other Settings → Scraper or in the ES-DE wiki at es-de.org/docs.
• A mismatch (e.g. naming a folder playstation2 instead of ps2) means ES-DE shows zero games for that system.

ES-DE ships with built-in emulator configurations for over 100 systems. For most popular emulators it already knows what command-line parameters to use — you only need to ensure the emulator is installed and discoverable.

Emulator discovery — Windows:

• ES-DE looks for emulators in its own Emulators subfolder and in the standard Program Files directories. For portable emulators (not installed via an installer), place them in %AppData%\ES-DE\emulators\ so ES-DE finds them automatically.
• Alternatively, configure a custom emulator path: Other Settings → Alternative Emulators → select the system → browse to the emulator executable.

Emulator discovery — Linux:

• ES-DE finds Flatpak emulators (Dolphin, PCSX2, DuckStation, RetroArch, PPSSPP) automatically — if you installed them via Flatpak, they should just work with no extra configuration.
• AppImage emulators: place them in ~/Applications/ and make them executable — ES-DE checks that folder.
• System-installed emulators (via apt/dnf): ES-DE finds them on the PATH.

Test an emulator link: Navigate to a system in ES-DE (e.g. PlayStation 2), select a game, and press the launch button (A). If the emulator opens and loads the game, the link is working. If it fails with "emulator not found," go back to Other Settings → Alternative Emulators and set the path manually.

Multiple emulators per system: ES-DE supports running per-game emulator overrides. Right-click (or hold B) on a game → Edit Game Metadata → Alternative Emulator — override just this game to use a different emulator without changing the system default.

ES-DE uses Screenscraper.fr and IGDB to download box art, logos, descriptions, and videos for your games automatically.

Set up scraping:

1. Create a free account at screenscraper.fr — the default guest mode is limited to 1 scrape/min; a free account gets 10/min.
2. In ES-DE → Scraper Settings: enter your Screenscraper username and password.
3. Choose what to download: Box Art (always), Video Snaps (optional, uses disk space), Game Descriptions, Release Date/Rating/Genre.
4. Go to Scrape → Scrape All Games in All Systems. For a large library this can take hours — leave it running overnight. ES-DE resumes where it left off if you stop and restart.

Scraping individual games: Navigate to a game → hold B → Scrape. ES-DE fetches metadata just for that game. Useful for games with wrong or missing art after a bulk scrape.

If Screenscraper returns no results for a game:

• The filename must approximately match the game's real name. A ROM named sm64.z64 may not match; renaming it to Super Mario 64 (USA).z64 usually fixes it.
• No-Intro / Redump standard filenames work best — they match Screenscraper's database by checksum, not just filename.
• You can add art manually: Edit Game Metadata → image slots accept local PNG/JPG files you drag in from a browser.

Games don't appear for a system:

• Verify ROM files are in the exact ES-DE subfolder name for that system (see S1). Case-sensitive on Linux.
• Verify the ROM file extension is one ES-DE recognizes for that system. Some systems need .chd or .m3u for multi-disc; raw ISOs might need to be .iso not .img. Check the system's entry in the ES-DE wiki.
• In ES-DE: press Start → Game Collection Settings → Re-scan All Games. ES-DE caches the game list; a rescan forces it to re-read the folders.

Emulator launches but the game doesn't start (crash or immediate exit):

• Launch the emulator directly (outside ES-DE) and try to open the same ROM file. If it fails there too, the issue is with the emulator setup, not ES-DE (BIOS missing, wrong ROM format, etc.).
• If it works outside ES-DE but not inside: the emulator expects a specific command-line format. Check ES-DE's Alternative Emulators for that system — there may be a different launch profile (e.g. "PCSX2 (Standalone)" vs "RetroArch PCSX2") that works better for your setup.

ES-DE AppImage crashes on startup (Linux):

• ES-DE requires FUSE to run AppImages on older distros. Install with: sudo apt install libfuse2 (Ubuntu) or sudo dnf install fuse-libs (Fedora).
• Alternatively, extract and run without FUSE: ./ES-DE*.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run.

Themes — change the look: ES-DE supports themes downloadable from the es-de.org theme packs page. Place the theme folder in ~/.config/ES-DE/themes/ (Linux) or %AppData%\ES-DE\themes\ (Windows), then in ES-DE → UI Settings → Theme Set, select your theme and restart ES-DE.