The Three Prong Path to Wireless FreedomWhen it comes to wireless Xbox 360 on Windows you have three options: the expensive and easy way, the cheap and somewhat frustrating way, and the grey market middle ground. If you’re sitting at your computer desk and not across the living room, for example–then you might just want to skip the whole hassle, just, and be done with it. A wired controller is pure plug and play with no hassle–but if you absolutely must have wireless play at your PC, you’ll need to buy a USB-to-wireless adapter.That’s right, you can’t just connect a wireless Xbox 360 controller to your PC using Bluetooth, or anything like that.
Xbox 360 controllers use a propriety 2.4Ghz communication method that need a specific a USB adapter made for the Xbox 360 controller–no substitutes allowed.RELATED:This is where the decision making process gets slightly complicated. Microsoft doesn’t sell the adapter by itself. They sell it in a bundle with a wireless controller–but if you already have a wireless controller, you probably don’t want to buy another one just to get the adapter.If you want to buy the adapter separately, you can, but you’ll either be buying a Chinese knockoff product, or an official adapter that’s been separated from its kit by a third party. Picking from these potential options is the most important step in the project. The Official Bundle: Expensive, But Headache-FreeIf you don’t mind paying a premium (and potentially buying an extra controller you don’t need) then the most frustration-free and guaranteed-to-work method is to. Despite the Xbox 360 getting a little long in the tooth, you can still find official Xbox 360 “For Windows” controller packs both on the shelves at many electronics retailers, online,.
And hey, if you only need the USB receiver, you can always sell the controller on Craigslist and try to get your money back.RELATED:The MSRP of the official bundle $59.95, and you’ll usually find it at close to that price at places like Best Buy. If you can find it cheaper from a reputable retailer, then by all means jump on it. If you must shop on Amazon, be sure you’re buying a product marked “fulfilled by Amazon” and be ready to return it if it ends up that the product is not an official model. (Remember,.) The Dubious Aftermarket Clones: Cheap and Doable, but a HeadacheOn the opposite side of things, you’ll find piles upon piles of knockoff USB receivers sold separately all over Amazon, eBay, and other big online marketplaces. Typically, you’ll find them ranging in price from $7-15 and they’re either flawless clones that are indistinguishable from the official adapter dongle or they’re terrible knockoffs that will give you a headache setting them up.The official Microsoft Xbox 360, seen above left, is always branded as “Microsoft” on the front and says “Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows” on the back. The knockoffs are almost always branded “X360”, seen above right, and usually say “PC Wireless Gaming Receiver” or a variation on the back. Note the purposeful omission of any copy or trademarked names like “Microsoft”, “Xbox 360”, or “Windows”.
In general, we don’t recommend buying these. But if you already have one, we’ve got your back–scroll down for detailed instructions on getting it up and running, even when Windows doesn’t want to place nice. The Official Orphans: A (Nearly) Sure Bet, as Long as You Can Find OneIn between the expense of buying an official Xbox 360 Windows controller bundle and cheap $7 eBay specials, you’ll find a sort of grey market happy medium if you’re willing to make a small gamble.
If you look on Amazon and eBay, you’ll find hundreds of official Microsoft brand Xbox 360 PC dongles that have been separated from their controller mates.Your best bet is to look for listings that include not just the dongle (with proper markings and tags, as we saw above) but also include an official driver CD and booklet. While you don’t need either of those things to use the controller (Windows will download the drivers automatically), it’s generally a good indicator that the listing is legitimate. It’s not really profitable (or legally wise) for companies to go to the extra hassle of creating fake Microsoft support materials.Just remember that Microsoft does not officially sell these separately, so if you’re buying one separately, you are taking a bit of a gamble. While we recommend you carefully study each listing, read reviews, and make sure there is a good return policy for whatever online retailer you’re using, we can say that we’ve had great luck purchasing (specifically fulfilled by RushHourWholesalers). Every one we’ve ordered has shipped with a driver disc, documentation, and is identical in terms of branding, construction, and labeling to those found in the official bundle. How to Install an Official Microsoft AdapterIf you’ve purchased the official bundle, got your hands on an official adapter, or just happened to have purchased a knockoff adapter of exceptionally good quality, then the installation process is incredibly simple.On Windows 8 and above, you can simply plug the adapter right into your PC. A few seconds later, it will be automatically detected and Windows will install the drivers.
You can confirm this by opening up the Windows Device Manager–press the Start button and type “device manager” to access it. Look down at the bottom of the hardware list for the Xbox adapter entry:On Windows 7 and earlier, you’ll be prompted by the “Add Hardware” wizard to add the USB adapter. You can select “Install the software automatically”, and if your version of Windows has the drivers the process will continue automatically. If you don’t have the drivers already on your PC, you can either use the included driver disc or download the appropriate drivers.Once the adapter is installed (and you’ve confirmed its presence on the Device Manger list) you can jump down the section “Pairing Your Controllers to Your PC”. How to Install a Knockoff AdapterIf you’re stuck with one of the lower-quality knockoffs, we’re sorry–by comparison, it’s a huge pain. Fortunately for you, it’s not hard to get them up and running as long as you know the completely non-intuitive way to do it.First, plug your device into your computer.
We recommend plugging it directly into a port on the back. If you must plug it into a USB hub, make sure it’s a powered hub.
We’d also recommend picking a port that you’ll be able to leave the device more or less permanently attached to. Whenever you unplug it, you’ll need to repeat the annoying steps we’re about to outline–so you’ll want to leave it plugged in at all times, if you can.Let’s emphasize that last point again: with the majority of aftermarket adapters we’ve come across if you unplug the adapter you have to repeat the annoying multi-step installation process. In my experience, it was worth the extra money to buy another genuine adapter just to avoid this hassle.With the adapter plugged in, navigate to the Windows Device Manager. Press the Start button and type “device manager” to access it. Look under “Other Devices” in the list of devices under the entry for your computer.We know it’s quite nondescript, but unless you have multiple Unknown Devices on your PC, that little “Unknown device” entry is your knockoff Xbox 360 controller adapter. Right click it and select Properties.Select the Driver tab in the Unknown device Properties box and then click Update Driver.When prompted to select whether you want Windows to search automatically or for you to browse your computer for the drivers, select “Browse my computer for driver software”. Don’t worry, you don’t actually need any drivers, as they’re already included with Windows. (On the off chance that yours have gone missing, however, you can.)You’ll be given the option to search for the drivers in a location you specify or you can pick from a list of device drivers already installed.
We want the latter, so select “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”.Scroll down the list until you see “Xbox 360 Peripherals”. Double click on it.Note: These screenshots are from the setup process on Windows 8 and 10; under Windows 7 it’s possible that you may need to look under “Microsoft Common Controller” instead of “Xbox 360 Peripherals”.On the next screen, select “Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows Version 6.3. Xxxx”. Click Next. When prompted by the driver update warning, click Yes. The hardware signature of the knockoff doesn’t, in fact, match the driver signature, but it will work fine just the same.You’ll receive a confirmation that the device was installed properly.If you get the error “Xbox 360 Controller for Windows / This Device Cannot Start. (Code 10)”, then you’ve accidentally selected the drivers for the controller, not the receiver.
You’ll need to go back into the device manager, delete the erroneous entry and repeat the tutorial from the start.Back in the Device Manager, scroll down to the bottom and double check that there is now an entry for the Xbox receiver:If you see that entry, you’re in business–it’s time to add your controllers to your PC. How to Pair Your Controller(s) to Your PCThe only thing left to do at this point is to sync your controller to the new wireless receiver.
Every PC master race folk may decide to start using an Xbox 360 controller on PC to play games. There’s nothing bad in this, experiments are a great thing. Once this idea popped up in your head, you start scouring for articles about how to setup Xbox 360 controller on PC (we know you’re not a noob, you always use Google before doing somewhat serious stuff), and the one you’re reading right now is the only article you need!So, using an Xbox 360 controller on PC is often not a problem at all, because this controller is usually compatible with PC. But there’s a very spreaded issue — some games may not recognize the gamepad, or simply don’t have controller support at all. Or what if you need to?
You can easily start using an Xbox 360 controller on PC for all-the-above stuff with reWASD! How to setup Xbox 360 controller on PC for any gameYou’ve installed a game, but it has no controller support? That’s one of the many ways where reWASD steps into the breach. All you need to know are game keybindings and the following steps:. Download reWASD.
Connect your Xbox 360 controller to PC. Once it’s connected, you’ll see the indicator at the bottom left of reWASD window. Add a new game profile, the config will be created automatically.
Time to start remapping!Note: Hook feature! Press the button you want to remap, reWASD hooks it right away. Same story with keyboard buttons, there’s no need to scroll the whole list to find Space. Just press it when the controller button that you want to remap is chosen in main interface!. Now all the controller buttons are at your disposal: assign keyboard mappings to controller buttons to use an Xbox 360 controller on PC in a game that doesn’t have the native controller support.Note: See that Rumble checkbox? It does miracles.
How To Connect Xbox 360 Controller To Xbox One
ReWASD can add haptic feedback to any of digital controls (all except sticks and triggers). Once you’ve added all mappings you need, press Apply. Then you can start using an Xbox 360 controller on PC with the refreshed set of bindings!Test your luck: you can check out with lots of ready-to-go presets for many different games.
It would be useful for you if you’re new to remapping world, and don’t know how to setup Xbox 360 controller on PC yet.There are so many great configs to check out! By the way, we also post the newest presets on our, so don’t forget to follow us. You can also contact us via Facebook messages and ask questions, we’ll give you the answer right away!On top of that, you also can calibrate Xbox 360 controller hardware settings, like stick response or deadzone for analog controls. Let’s review what exactly you can customize with reWASD! How to setup Xbox 360 controller on PC with reWASD: hardware settingsThere are a lot of other features that ease the way how to use Xbox 360 controller on PC. The one we consider the most important is Unmap: if the game has the gamepad maintenance, you can overlap it with reWASD bindings if you turn off native controller support. That’s the best feature to use if you don’t know what to do with the uncomfortable layout and want to apply your custom one.
Find out more about in out blog post. Rickety sticks?
Calibrate Xbox 360 controller deadzones!If your controller is an old buddy and the analog controls (sticks and triggers) are rickety, you can adjust deadzone on Xbox 360 controller for PC usage. This setting is available for both sticks and triggers.
In that case, you can make the deadzone bigger to avoid the unwanted actions.Moreover, if your controller is out-of-the-box and you’re savagely pushing them to get the minimum response — reWASD will save your day as well. Just make the deadzone smaller, your analog controls will become more sensitive. Calibrate Xbox 360 controller sticks behavior for the better gameplayreWASD gives you one more way of how to setup Xbox 360 controller on PC. You can change the angle where stick direction mappings reproduce together or separately — configure Stick axis range.
Just to make it clear, if you set the basic WASD to stick, this option permits to tune the area where W+A, A+S, S+D and D+W reproduce:You also can change the range where only W, A, S and D reproduce. To make your stick super accurate, you need to set the vertical and horizontal axis ranges to maximum. Thus, the transitional movements won’t happen. That’s one of the ways to calibrate Xbox 360 controller and make your in-game actions more legible.Another feature that makes using an Xbox 360 controller on PC easier and relates to analog controls are Zones. You can add 3 additional mappings that will reproduce together with the main mappings when the stick or trigger moves to a certain area. Make your in-game actions unintentional: remember pressing Shift and Alt together with WASD so your character run or walk? ReWASD makes it possible!Map WASD as main mappings, Alt (control for walking slowly) to Low zone, and Shift (control for running) to High zone.
As a result, when you lightly press the stick you’ll walk slowly, the Medium zone is empty, so you walk regularly. And if you press Stick to the edge point you run.
How Do You Program A Xbox 360 Controller
Isn’t that the best way of how to setup Xbox 360 controller on PC?;) Come check out the blog for more information and for a detailed guide! Map more buttons to Xbox 360 controller on PC with reWASDSome games have lots of controls to use, and in most cases the regular 24 controller buttons are not enough.
That’s where reWASD comes in hand once again: we propose two ways of how to use Xbox 360 controller on PC and increase the number of mappings: it’s Shift mode and Slots feature.Shift mode: basically, you set one controller button as Shift modifier before using an Xbox 360 controller on PC, and when you press and hold it — other controller buttons change to another set.Thus, you have your main configuration, and another set of bindings that is active while the Shift modifier is pressed. ReWASD permits to add up to 4 Shift modifiers to one config, and that can be 117 different keybindings!
Don’t hesitate to to find the answers to all your questions;)Slots feature: appeared in one of our latest releases. It permits to apply up to 4 different configs to one controller simultaneously. To switch between the configs you need to use the hardware combination — press two bumpers and one of XYAB buttons.Isn’t that a comfy way to multiply bindings for Xbox 360 controller on PC? Learn more about.So here it is, now you know the best way of how to use Xbox 360 controller on PC! If you still have some questions — don’t hesitate to contact us in the comments below or via.
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