SteamlessController

A lightweight Windows system tray app that lets you use a Steam Controller as a standard gamepad — without Steam running.

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 - Automatically enable/disable based on if Steam is running, or a Steam game is running!
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
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
Steam Controller — wired USB (PID 0x1302), wireless dongle (PID 0x1304), or Bluetooth LE (PID 0x1303, pair via Windows Bluetooth settings)
Steam closed (Steam claims the controller when running)

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.

Steam's per-device controller blacklist is the narrow workaround: it leaves the Steam client and Steam Input for other controller types running, while reserving Steam Controllers for SteamlessController. Exit Steam, back up and open config/config.vdf under the Steam install directory, then add this property inside the outer InstallConfigStore object and restart Steam:

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

SteamlessController verifies both the setting and Steam's current logs/controller.txt session before treating this as safe. If Steam has not loaded the blacklist, it still yields rather than risk duplicate input. Steam games will receive SteamlessController's virtual Xbox controller instead of the physical Steam Controller, so Steam Controller-specific Steam Input layouts, gyro, and touch menus are unavailable until the entry is removed and Steam is restarted.

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

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