🧩 [Fixed] SteamVR Not Detecting HP Reverb G2 — Here's Why (and How to Fix It)

[themiln]

If your HP Reverb G2 works perfectly in Windows Mixed Reality Portal, but SteamVR says no headset is detected, you're not doing anything wrong. This is a common issue on fresh installs, and here’s exactly how to fix it.

🧩 The Problem: Missing Driver Registration

SteamVR needs a special driver to work with Windows Mixed Reality headsets like the Reverb G2. It’s called:

MixedRealityVRDriver

This driver is included when you install Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR (from Steam). But here's the catch:
SteamVR sometimes fails to register this driver in its config — especially on clean Windows installs or fresh Steam setups.

That’s why SteamVR shows nothing, even though WMR is fully working.

✅The Fix: Manually Add the Driver Path

1. Open this file in a text editor:

C:\Users\<YourUser>\AppData\Local\openvr\openvrpaths.vrpath

1. Find this line:

"external_drivers": null

1. Replace it with:

"external_drivers": [

  "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\MixedRealityVRDriver"

]

1. Save the file
2. Restart SteamVR 

🔁Alternate Method: Command Prompt (Does the Same Thing)

You can also run this in a Command Prompt:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\bin\win64\vrpathreg.exe" adddriver "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\MixedRealityVRDriver"

That will automatically add the driver path to your openvrpaths.vrpath file.

🚀After That

1. Plug in your Reverb G2
2. Launch Windows Mixed Reality Portal (wait until the headset is fully initialized)
3. Launch SteamVR — it should now detect your headset and controllers

Hopefully this saves someone else the same headache I had and saves you a day of troubleshooting like I did. Thank you ChatGPT.