Use The Xbox 360 Controller To Control Your PC

This makes owning a Xbox 360 Controller for a PC super cool! So, I bought a wired Xbox 360 controller & had a bitter-sweet initial experience. To begin with, Windows 7 detected it out-of-the-box & showed the X360 controller icon in Device Stage for a couple of days (now shows a generic controller). Then adding to the pain was that Call of Duty 5 doesn’t support controllers & neither does CoD4. But, this makes up for it. Now I have complete customizable control over my PC via the Xbox 360 controller. Here’s how:

At the heart of this operation is a software called Xpadder. God knows who wrote it, but boy if I were to meet him, beer’s on me. So, go get yourself Xpadder:

Once you have the magic begins.When you run it, click on the wrench that’s been highlighted to get the configuration ‘pink’ window:

NOTE: Windows 7 folks will need to setup Compatibility, right click ‘Troubleshoot compatibility’ … should take care of it.

The pink window is where we setup the layout of the Xbox 360 Controller for the PC. The tabs that we’ll be concentrating on are:

• Sticks
• DPad
• Buttons
• Triggers

Use the following Xbox 360 Controller image as reference for what should be Stick 1, Stick 2 & what’s the Dpad, Buttons & Triggers:

Back in the pink window:

1. Go to Sticks
2. ‘Enable’ Stick 1
3. Follow the onscreen instructions
4. Repeat the steps for Stick 2, Dpad & Triggers

Buttons is a bit tricky, so here’s what you do:

1. Go to the Buttons tab
2. Click ‘A’ on your Xbox Controller & reposition it on the screen like it is on your Controller.
3. Repeat this for rest of the buttons.

Once done, you pink screen should look something like this:

Finish –> Close

The main screen should be something like this:

Now, we configure what button does what. To do this:

Click on the wrench near the Stick 1 & select Mouse –> Normal

The wrench for the Dpad –> Arrow Keys

Wrench for Stick 2 –> Whatever you like

For the rest of buttons, click on the buttons & you’ll be greeted with the following screen (you can even make the controller rumble when keys are pressed):

Choose what button you want should do what. And you’re done. This is what my configuration is like:

All you’re left with is to save the setup, click on the highlighted part & save it. Also, set Xpadder to start with Windows from its settings.

Game on!