When Steamless Mode is active, the app disables the controller's built-in keyboard/mouse emulation (lizard mode) and exposes it as a virtual Xbox 360 controller via ViGEmBus, making it compatible with any game that supports XInput or the Xbox controller.

Features

NEW in 1.9 - Bluetooth! Use the controller wired, through the dongle, or paired over Bluetooth LE
NEW in 1.8 - Strategy-aware automatic control, with Steam handoff choices shown only when Steam can own the controller
NEW in 1.8 - Advanced debugging and local logging to help diagnose issues
Rumble Support v2.0
Support for multiple Steam Controllers! Long live split screen!
New shiny UI for remapping L4/L5 R4/L5 back buttons!
Support for Xbox OR PlayStation controllers - with PS Touchpad and Gyro plumbing.
System tray icon shows connection and mode status
Left-click the tray icon to toggle Steamless Mode; right-click for settings
Steamless Mode — disables lizard mode and exposes controller as Xbox 360 gamepad
Trackpad Mouse — use the right (or left) trackpad as a mouse cursor
Back Buttons for Clicking — map R4/R5 (or L4/L5) to left/right mouse click
Use Left Trackpad Instead — mirror all trackpad/back-button functionality to the left side for left-handed users
Start with Windows — launch automatically at login
Settings persist across restarts

Requirements

To run

Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
ViGEmBus driver installed
2026 Steam Controller (Triton) — wired USB (PID 0x1302), Bluetooth LE (PID 0x1303, pair via Windows Bluetooth settings), Proteus/Puck receiver (PID 0x1304), or Nereid receiver (PID 0x1305)
Steam closed, or a coexistence strategy selected from the tray's debug menu

To build

Visual Studio 2022 with the Desktop development with C++ workload
CMake 3.20 or later (included with Visual Studio, or install separately)
Windows SDK 10.0.22000 or later (installed via Visual Studio Installer)

Building

git clone https://github.com/your-username/SteamlessController.git
cd SteamlessController
cmake -B build
cmake --build build --target SteamlessController

The executable will be at build\Debug\SteamlessController.exe.

For a release build:

cmake -B build/release -G "Visual Studio 18 2025"
cmake --build build/release --config Release --target SteamlessController

If you have Visual Studio 2022, replace "Visual Studio 18 2025" with "Visual Studio 17 2022".

CMake Targets

Target	Description
`SteamlessController`	Main system tray application
`SteamProbe`	Console diagnostic tool — dumps raw HID report bytes as you interact with the controller. Useful for protocol research.
`RawControllerProbe`	Checks whether `Windows.Gaming.Input.RawGameController` can enumerate the Steam Controller (requires WinRT).

How it works

The Steam Controller exposes a vendor HID collection (usage page 0xFF00) that carries all game input in a 54-byte report (ID 0x42) at ~60 Hz. By default the firmware runs in lizard mode, emulating a keyboard and mouse so the controller works without drivers.

Keeping Steam running

Steam normally opens the physical Steam Controller even while the client is idle. That can produce duplicate keyboard/mouse and virtual-gamepad input if SteamlessController uses the controller at the same time.

The tray's Debug: Steam coexistence submenu can apply one of three strategies. Hover an option to see its tradeoffs; selecting one safely releases the controller, closes Steam, applies the setting, and relaunches Steam immediately. If a Steam game is running, the app asks before closing it.

Use Steam's original controller support restores the Valve PID blacklist and -nojoy state recorded before SteamlessController first changed them, then SteamlessController yields whenever Steam can see the physical controller.
Reserve Steam Controller for Steamless is recommended for Game Pass. It adds only the four supported 2026 Steam Controller product IDs to Steam's per-device blacklist, leaving Steam Input available for other controller types. Steam Controller-specific layouts, gyro, and touch menus are unavailable in Steam.
Disable all Steam controller support (-nojoy) disables all Steam client controller support, including Steam Input and Big Picture controller navigation. The app adds the flag to Steam's existing Windows startup entry; launching Steam another way without the flag is detected and SteamlessController safely yields.

The blacklist option backs up config/config.vdf to config/config.vdf.steamlesscontroller.bak, preserves unrelated blacklist entries, and manages this property inside the outer InstallConfigStore object:

"controller_blacklist" "28de/1302,28de/1303,28de/1304,28de/1305"

SteamlessController verifies both the setting and Steam's current logs/controller.txt session before treating the blacklist as safe. For -nojoy, it verifies the running steam.exe command line through Windows Management Instrumentation. Missing or stale evidence always makes SteamlessController yield rather than risk duplicate input.

Left-clicking the tray icon turns Steamless off by restoring that Steam baseline, or turns it back on with the last selected coexistence strategy. If Steam is running, the app asks before restarting it; checking Don't ask again makes future tray toggles restart Steam automatically. An already-closed Steam client remains closed.

Before its first strategy change, SteamlessController records whether each Valve PID and -nojoy were already configured. Uninstall closes the tray app, restores that recorded Steam baseline, removes the dedicated backup, Windows startup entry, and settings, and only then removes the application files. Steam is restarted if it was running; if restoration fails, uninstall stops so it can be retried.

SteamlessController sends HID feature reports to disable lizard mode, then reads the raw input reports and translates them into a virtual Xbox 360 controller via ViGEmBus. A background heartbeat re-sends the disable command every 800 ms to keep lizard mode off.

The full input report layout is documented in src/steam/SteamController.h.

Third-party

ViGEmClient — MIT License, built from source as a static library