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:

download 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.

configuring Xbox 360 controller to use as mouse to control PC with Xpadder

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:

Xbox 360 controller to control mouse & PC setup

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:

Xbox 360 controller xpadder main screen to configure buttons

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

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

Xbox 360 controller stick as mouse using Xpadder

The wrench for the Dpad –> Arrow Keys

Xbox 360 Controller pad as arrow keys to control PC with Xpadder

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:

Xbox 360 controller to control PC with Xpadder

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!

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