Microsoft Releases Xbox One Controller Drivers for Windows

I've been using my spare Xbone controller to play games the past week, and I'm enjoying it. Actually tempted to buy another controller just for use on my PC.

This is bizarre they're on Nelson's blog...hopefully they'll get stuck the correct places soon.

Guess this answers the question about whether or not the One pad works through USB!

@clapmaster said:

These are the drivers I use for my DS4 and as I said little to no issue @tychoid, hope you can get them working.

Look for the drivers from scarlet.crush. He makes DS3 and DS4 drivers and they pretty much just emulate xinput from the 360 pad so the controllers work with any game that a 360 controller works with, USB or Bluetooth. The DS4 thumbsticks still don't feel quite as good as the Xbone pad but good enough and those drivers work great. Overall I think the DS3 and Xbox One controller feels best for PC.

They have 6 and 10 feet cables on amazon between $4-$6.

Sorry to hear that, I've had no issues with the DS4 since I've used it and only had one game give me a little problem but when I looked up issues all controllers had problems with the game. All I can say is I use a wired set up but I understand wanting to use a wireless one.

Just got my DS4 in the mail a few hours ago. I really like the feel of the DS4 over the 360 controller, but the community drivers are indeed still super janky:

• I have to manually pair through Bluetooth using a convoluted process every single time I want to use the controller wirelessly
• Straight up doesn't work with about 25% of games I have tested it with (Lords of Shadow 2, Metal Gear Rising)
• No working rumble
• All games that I that it works with that I have tested show keyboard/generic gamepad button prompts (e.g. "Press button 9"), and not xbox 360 button prompts

Looks like the 360 or xbone controller will still be choice #1 for people who want hassle-free compatibility. Here's to hoping the DS4 gets better PC support in the future.

You don't need batteries to use the XBone controller on PC. Plugs in with a micro USB cable. Used it play watch dogs last night and it worked flawlessly.

@stumpsock: Cool! Which one are you using?

I opened it up and was going to bypass it, yeah, but I thought better of it. For a few days before it blew the fuse, other usb connected devices have randomly been turning off and on, indicating that that dongle thingie is drawing too much power and messing things up. Bypassing a fuse is not something I want to do if the thing is defective (there are a few stories out there about how the dongle can blow fuses in the pc too).

they did for the 360 controller.

i dont necessarily need an official option either.

They sure do love hinting at a new Halo 2 but not confirming it don't they.

I tried my DS4 on my PC. What a nightmare. There's just no point to it. Besides, the cables that Sony bundles are only 1.5m short, making the whole experience just that much more annoying .

I've read up and the Play and Charge Kit comes with a 2.8m cable, making it fit for normal humans and not just Tyrion Lannister.

Great news. My wired 360 controller took a few tumbles to the floor after playing Dark Souls II, so it's high time to upgrade.

I just hope the 2.8m cable is long enough, unlike the 1.5m cables that came with my ps3/ps4 and annoy the hell out of me. What was Sony thinking? Such a minor thing. I feel like they're lacking respect for customers, and purely out of protest I refuse to spend any more money on a longer cable.

I have one of these 30-ft extension cables so I could use a wired controller from across the room. Works great, combined with a 6-ft micro-USB, and I can properly hide the cable around the sides of the room.

I honestly don't think that will ever happen.

as long as it has rumble, I'm totally in. I have a DS4 but it doesn't work with a handful of games and no rumble.

It's also funny how half the people are complaining about the XBO pad not being wireless and then others love to complain about batteries.

Personally for my PC I use a wired gamepad because I'm not a monster and don't keep a computer hooked up in the living room so a cable isn't a problem when sitting in front of my desk.

another shameless monopolistic practice by Microsoft

Wait, what? Speak for yourself. I much rather play with a wired 360 gamepad than even touch a DualShock. Too small and the even layout of the sticks makes my finger cry.

I pity the poor fools who use a Dualshock 3 for PC gaming.

a fucking micro usb come on damn those cables, they're so short all the time.

Didn't they just mention wanting this to happen on the podcast this week or last? Good call.

@re_player1: Yep. I'll be keeping my 360 controller a while longer I guess.

This is fantastic news to hear form Microsoft. An official driver for their Xbox One controller was sorely missed. It's good that it is now out and will be seamlessly supported via WIndows Update.

I do slightly share Patrick's feels that having to have the USB makes the controller still not ideal for our usage scenario. More than likely Microsoft released the driver earlier than planned, so the PC targeted controller plus wireless receiver kit probably wasn't ready. I might be mistaken but I thought the Xbox 360 and One have different wireless protocols or frequencies. Rigging the 360 wireless receiver to work with a One's controller might not be the ideal setup that gamers want for the lowest latency.

I think we're gonna need a bigger box.

@rollingzeppelin: Xbox one controllers uses a signal than xbox 360. White-fi. Therefore, MS and other companies need to manufacture new adapters for this new way of doing things.

i'm happy about this, only own 1 360 controller that I use for PC gaming but have 2 xbox one controllers so now I can enjoy the likes of Sportsfriends and Nidhogg!

Well, got it working and tried out a little Dark Souls (1), It felt pretty good, of course this is coming from someone who uses an old as beat up wired 360 controller for PC games normally.

its about time

DO MAC DO MAC

This DualShock 3 has served me well, so far. I'm good.

This is welcome news since I vastly prefer the Xbox One controller to the DS4 (still a great controller, the analog stick placement of the Dual Shock drives me batty, though.) Plus just this morning my PC had a minor freak out with the DS4 where it was showing 2 wireless controllers when it was connected to USB, but the USB device couldn't be recognized and the controller wouldn't even charge, etc.. Fun PC stuff which I eventually got figured out, but made more than happy to have a simple plug and play solution.

Try not moving your finger from the trigger at all and press the bumper with the inside of your knuckle. The way they're designed, you can click them with very little effort even if while holding down the trigger. They are definitely different from the 360 ones, but I welcome the change. Even though I know and like how they're designed, I still find myself trying to use them like a 360 controller, and everyone's right, they work like crap that way. =D Especially for Dark Souls, if I move my hands so just my fingertips are on the clicky parts of the bumpers, it's fine and feels comfortable, but it's a different way than I've been holding a controller for years. Gotta get that out of my system. Plus, I don't know how comfortable that is for different hand sizes.

Or at least had it work natively with the 360 drivers, and release these drivers down the road to add that functionality - maybe alongside the wireless peripheral. They should know more than anyone the benefit of being the primary PC controller, and everyone knew Sony wouldn't be on the ball with theirs. It boggles my mind.

Awesome! I've been needing to replace my old, well-used USB 360 controller. It's literally held together with painter's tape (it was the only tape I had), superglue, and a spare screw from an old Gateway laptop I don't even have anymore.

And this is probably the only way I'll ever own an XBO controller anytime in the foreseeable future.

Also, it is exceptionally stupid that Microsoft--makers of Windows, in case anyone on the planet forgot--did not have a PC driver for this controller before it even showed up in stores.

I think one of the Xbox people misspoke early on and said the controller was wi-fi direct.

@amafi said:

Why does everyone think this? The Xbox One controllers don't use Wi-Fi Direct, they use a proprietary wireless protocol. The Xbox One does have Wi-Fi directly functionality, but it's for Smart Glass/Tablets, not the controllers.

Done, and done. Now to go back to my Steam backlog while I wait for them to make games for Xbox One.

Well that's cool I spose but the no wireless thing means I'ma stick with my 360 controller. Even though I'm right beside my PC. Cause I do what I want.

I'm pretty sure that your theory is 100% correct.

If only it was a good controller. Ill be sticking with 360 controller...

Planning to buy a wireless 360 controller for my PC this week as I've just finished setting up my HTPC. I wish they release a Xbox One wireless dongle soon, for now I'm still gonna get that wireless 360.

It probably has to do with the dead zone being bigger since its emulating the 360 pad thus the reduction of responsiveness. That's just my theory though!

@drzing: I've been playing DS2 with the Xbox One controller all day and I definitely got used to the bumpers within the the first 45 minutes and the first thing I noticed is that thumbsticks feel so much more responsive and natural than the DualShock 4 thumbsticks do. Maybe it's because the DS4 drivers are community developed and just emulate the 360 drivers and these are official. I don't know but I'm loving this One controller. From now on I'll most likely only use my DS4 with stuff that mainly uses d-pad movement like 2d platformers, it does have the best d-pad probably ever.

Yeah, it was latency. Wi-fi Direct is faster compared to current Bluetooth.

Also, the primary reason why they delayed it is to ensure backwards compatibility with games that natively supported the X360 gamepad, not just current gen games. In a way, devs of future and current games don't have to worry about having support for both the Windows 360 pad and the XB1 pad.

The only difference would probably be that future games can bring over the same rumble that they used for the XB1 version of a game over to the PC (since it is more elaborate than the 360 pad).

Since the drivers were just released and we had to DL and install it ourselves and it's not yet natively part of the OS yet (they'll be doing that in a future update), I'm wondering if they are eventually going to end up having Wi-fi direct support to go along with that Windows update several months down the line.

Still using my 360 controllers on PC, might as well since I have 7 or 8 of them lying around. Official wireless support may sway me to finally get some new controllers.

So I just picked up a Xbox one controller because of this and wow...

This controller feels like a downgrade from the 360 pad. The sticks are tiny and loose, the bumpers feel weird also, harder to reach. And finally, what the hell did they do to the triggers? They have very little resistance... I don't know how they topped it but the d-pad seems even worse. I'm really disappointed with this considering the 360 controller was one of the best of all time.

Really wanna try this but for some reason I can't get this thing to work. Downloads and installs fine. Plug in the controller and Windows is looking for a driver to intialize and fails. In the device manager I get a Code 37 (Device driver failed to intialize) Haven't found a fix for this issue on the internet yet... Any other duders having this issue?

They are pretty good... it pretends to be a 360 controller for the most part if you do try it and run into any issues turn off the touchpad as being a mouse emulator I love that feature but it can cause issues in game, rarely but it has happened.

I'll stick to my DS4 which feels a million times better than the xbone controller or the old console controllers. I still think overall dpad aside even the normal 360 controller still feels better than the Xbone controller. Don't like it at all.

Is a Micro USB cable really that much of a wrinkle? They're super standard and can be bought dirt cheap. They are found literally in any store that sells anything tech related. Why would that be a detractor in using the X1 over the 360 controller?

I vastly prefer wired controllers over wireless because I HATE dealing with recharging. I like just sticking the cable in and not worrying about battery life.

@asherv20: You can use the controller with no batteries as long as it's plugged in. You don't need to have batteries and a wire in there. And you can use any Micro USB cable.