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 (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".

Building the installer

The installer is compiled from resources\InnoInstallerScript.iss with Inno Setup. It needs two things a fresh clone does not have.

Release builds of all three executables it packages. The command in the previous section builds only the tray app:

cmake --build build/release --config Release --target SteamlessController
cmake --build build/release --config Release --target SteamlessDeviceCycle
cmake --build build/release --config Release --target ViGEmBusProbe

SteamlessDeviceCycle is the elevated helper that restarts the controller's device node. ViGEmBusProbe is how Setup checks whether the driver actually installed, and it stays in the install folder afterwards as a diagnostic.

The ViGEmBus driver installer, which is not in this repository — it is a 6 MB vendored binary, and *.exe is gitignored. Download it from ViGEmBus releases and place it here:

resources\ViGEmBus_1.22.0_x64_x86_arm64.exe

The filename must match #define ViGEmSetup at the top of the script. Inno resolves [Files] sources when it compiles, so a missing or differently named payload fails the build outright rather than producing an installer that silently ships no driver. If you update the ViGEmBus version, change the #define to match the new filename.

CMake Targets

Target	Description
SteamlessController	Main system tray application
SteamlessDeviceCycle	Elevated helper that disables and re-enables the controller's device node, run as an on-demand scheduled task. Shipped by the installer.
ViGEmBusProbe	Reports whether a ViGEm bus is present by enumerating its interface. Used by Setup to verify the driver installed, and shipped as a diagnostic.
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