Dylan DeverillandClaude Opus 5
350161785d
When an exclusive claim failed, the app assumed Steam was refusing to let
go, burned three device cycles over ~26 seconds, and told the user to
close Steam. All of that could be wrong: any process with the device open
blocks the claim, and no amount of cycling evicts it.
Measured while a process held an open handle and never yielded:
- disabling the HID collection is vetoed (ERROR_GEN_FAILURE, ~6s)
- query-removing it is vetoed (PNP_VetoOutstandingOpen, ~5.4s)
- query-removing the USB parent is vetoed the same way, naming the
child as the blocker
Consent propagates up the tree, so no devnode teardown reachable from
user mode breaks such a handle. The cycle works against Steam only
because Steam cooperates: it yields on DBT_DEVICEQUERYREMOVE and reopens
on arrival, which is why the reopen is a race rather than a standoff.
Against an uncooperative holder there is no eviction path, only
detection — so detection is what this adds.
- CM_Query_And_Remove_SubTreeW reports why a teardown was refused, and
the verdict crosses to the tray app through a status file
- a cycle that broke no handles stops the retry loop immediately, since
repeating it cannot do more than the last one did
- the handle table is scanned to name the processes holding the device,
which is the only actionable output left when eviction is impossible
- messages say what was established, and suggest a replug: a physical
disconnect is a surprise removal that no veto can stop
The event log carries the unfiltered holder list and the scan's coverage,
not just the conclusion — an empty result can mean nothing was holding
the device, or that the scan never reached it, and that difference cannot
be recovered from a user's machine after the fact.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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 — the upper paddles (L4/R4) left-click by default; rebind any paddle to a gamepad button, right click, or Off
- 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 (PID0x1304), or Bluetooth LE (PID0x1303, 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.
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