Xbox 360 Controller for Vista

Has anyone tried using an Xbox 360 controller for Windows Vista?

On the Xbox website, it says that the only controller that will work for Vista is the one with the Wireless Receiver (and it costs over $50).

Is there any way I can use the standard controller (without a wireless receiver) I got w/ my Xbox 360 on my notebook?

Or do I really need to get the wireless receiver for it to work?

 

A standard wired Xbox 360 controller will work fine, Windows XP or Vista will easily autoinstall the drivers for it and it's probably the most widely supported game controller in games. No additional accessories need to be purchased, and it's cheaper than a wireless one in the first place.

If you want to use a standard wireless xbox 360 controller, you will indeed need to buy the receiver, which will cost $20-$30 after shipping if you buy it on ebay or from an online store. But once you get the receiver it will work just as well as a wired one.

The wireless controller cannot be hooked up with a wired connection unless you physically dismantled it and modified the circuitry. The play and charge cable is just a charging cable and not for data transfer, but it should work for charging off any powered USB port.

Hope that helped, I love using my wired 360 controller for PC gaming.

 

Yeah i can vouch for it to it works well i use a wired pad which i bought and works with no problems even a m8 of mine he has an actual 360 and he just uses the charge cable and links it to the pcs like that ofc you have to downlaod the latest drivers for this..

 

Sorry to quote such a small portion of your post, but I gotta point something out here

It's perfectly fine that the play and charge cable is just a charging cable, because when you use the cable your controller won't run out of juice. So it kinda feels like a wired controller, although it actually uses the wireless connection instead of the cable for data transfer and gets it juice from the USB connection.

So yeah.. you gotta have the wireless receiver if you wanna play games with the wireless controller on PC:
http://media.teamxbox.com/dailyposts/xbox360/xbox360-wireless-receiver.jpg

 

Devil May Cry 4 is awesome on PC with that controller, and looks brilliant.

 

Not sure about Vista though, but XP needs driver installed by yourself.

 

Last time I tried to use a 360 controller it routed all my audio to the 360's proprietary headphone jack. Unless that has changed, I wouldn't use one.

 

Wired 360 controller works perfect! By far the best pad out there!

 

I've got Vista & a Wired 360 controller & I'm playing just fine with all my current games.

 

i have a wired 360 controller and it works fine. For XP i had to manually go and download the drivers for it to work but for Vista is was working fine right when i plugged it in so maybe Vista gets the drivers for you on its own.

 

can i just get a confirmation: if i buy a wired 360 controller for xbox 360 will it work with my laptop and games?

 

It will work with "Games For Windows" titles, out of the box. But not all PC games support controllers, so you have to use a controller profiler.

I like this one,
http://www.pinnaclegameprofiler.com/

Its free for 30 days, then $20. Works very well, and I like the features, but there are some free programs out there.

I use the wireless adapter, because I already had a Xbox360. Works awesome.

 

Games that do support controllers but don't have presets for the 360 controller should still recognize the controller and allow you to assign functions to the joysticks and keys.

I suggest you use xpadder for games that don't support controllers at all, it's completely free. You can get it at Xpadder.com, check out the help section of their forums for guides on how to use it if you need them. It will let you map the keys and joysticks of your controllers to keyboard and mouse functions, and has a lot of nice features like controlling the dead zone and diagonal zones of your joysticks, or mapping one button to multiple functions at the same time.

 

You have to go into settings and switch where you want which sound to go out. You can change where ingame sound and voice chat is out put.

 

It's been a while since I used XP, but try going to control panel -> sound, or just right clicking the volume icon on the taskbar and going to properties.

Once there, go to playback devices and set the speakers (may just be called Line Out) to default.

 

This was a long time ago and maybe they changed things since then, but I couldn't find a way to change it. If I changed the settings, it would immediately revert to the xbox controller out.

 

vista & xbox 360= microsoft

 

Thanks for replying guys...

But I don't think I'll be able to use the Xbox 360 controllers I have at the moment. The two I have now are the ones that came with the Xbox 360 itself, and it seems that they are both wireless, and use the "play and charge" cable. Looks like I'm going to have to purchase the wireless receiver or a wired controller.

Or better yet, I might just consider getting a Logitech Rumblepad which is cheaper...

Anyways, thanks for clarifying that for me...

 

Just pick up the wireless receiver for $20? If you already have the controllers.

 

Thread closed. OP please do not cross post as it is against the forum rules. Thank you.

Continue discussion in the newer thread here.

Johnny T - NBR Moderation Team