It looks like your controller. Because it is yours.
PadForge draws the real thing, down to the finish. Pick yours and the preview, the button map and the annotations all follow it.
Spider-Man 2
DualSense
16virtual controllers at once
225+device profiles
1000Hzpolling, sub-ms jitter
$0forever, no paywall
Three steps
Download to playing in minutes.
1
Download and run
Single EXE, no installer. PadForge runs elevated, so Windows shows the UAC prompt every launch. First launch installs HIDMaestro, the driver that creates virtual controllers, inside that same elevated session.
2
Add a virtual controller
Click Add Controller on the Dashboard. Pick Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Extended (flight stick, wheel, HOTAS), Keyboard + Mouse, or MIDI. Up to 16 at once.
3
Assign your real controller
Open the Devices page, click the slot badge on your physical pad. Most controllers auto-map on assign. For the rest, press Map All. Done.
Remap
That game that won't read your wheel? It will now.
PadForge translates a PS5 DualSense into the Xbox pad a Steam game expects. A Logitech G29 wheel into the gamepad a racing game accepts. A Saitek HOTAS into the gamepad a flight game stubbornly insists on. The game never knows the difference.
Multi-source mapping
Pedals, wheel, and HOTAS throttle. One virtual stick.
One mapping row can read from any number of physical inputs across any number of physical devices. Six combine modes, Stick Trim, plus a drag-and-drop custom formula editor. Cross-device chords so a button on the wheel and a button on the shifter trigger one virtual press. A per-row Primary Mode picks how that source behaves: Direct, Incremental, Invert On Hold, or Ramp. Ramp turns an Up key and a Down key into a smooth stick axis, with its own attack, release, and autocenter timing.
Virtual VR controllers
A SteamVR hand pair, driven by whatever you already own.
One slot presents a left and a right hand to SteamVR, so a gamepad, a flight stick, a keyboard, or a phone over Wi-Fi can drive them. Every stick, trigger, grip and button is a mapping target, triggers and grips stay genuinely analog, and when a game buzzes a hand the pulse comes back out through the device in your hands. PadForge installs the SteamVR runtime itself if you do not have it, with no Steam account and no Steam client. It does not fabricate positional tracking: the hands sit in front of the headset and follow where you look, so what you get is the controls.
Starter profiles
Thirteen profiles that work on whatever pad you plug in.
Pick one, assign any controller, and play. They cover a kind of game rather than a single title: Desktop, WASD and Mouse, Point and Click, Strategy, Isometric RPG, Twin-Stick, Media Remote, Hotbar, Fighting Games, Emulation, Racing, Space Sim, and Gyro Aim. They never name hardware, so one profile drives a DualSense, an Xbox pad, and a Switch Pro Controller the same way, and every profile that moves a cursor offers the touchpad and the stick at once. Hotbar puts thirty-two abilities behind two triggers. Fighting Games ships tournament-legal SOCD cleaning on both axes. Saving one adds an ordinary profile you can edit.
Shift layers
Caps Lock for your controller.
Each slot can carry extra mapping tables that turn on while a button, chord, or axis is held. Six activation modes: Hold, Toggle, Latch, Cycle, Sticky, and No Button. Cycle walks a queue of layers you choose, with a Previous button that can live on another device. Per-layer color and emoji icon. A Win11-style flyout confirms the active layer the moment it engages.
Stick-assisted triggers
A digital trigger that pulls like an analog one.
Some pads only give you a digital trigger, on or off. Stick Trim changes that. Set a trigger's combine mode to Stick Trim and a stick axis ramps the pull while you hold the button, so a bumper press plus a nudge of the stick reads as a partial squeeze in the game. Each mapping sets its own deadzone, ramp rate, and whether the pull resets on release.
SOCD cleaning
Left and right at once, resolved your way.
Press left and right together and something has to give. The Keyboard + Mouse controller cleans those opposing pairs across every key you map, and any slot can clean opposing virtual controller buttons the same way. Last-wins takes the newest press, the Snap Tap behavior. First-wins keeps the key you were already holding. Neutral cancels both to center.
Nintendo output
A virtual Switch Pro Controller.
The Nintendo slot type creates a virtual Switch Pro Controller through HIDMaestro. Games and emulators that speak Switch see the real thing: the full button set, gyro passed through from your physical pad, and a HOME button LED under your control.
Mouse gestures
Hold a mouse button. Flick. Fire.
Hold any button on the mouse and flick the cursor. Up, down, left, right, or a plain click while held, five gestures off one button. Each fires its own action, so a single side button turns into five bindings. Send a flick to a shift layer, a macro, or a virtual button.
Media keys as inputs
Your keyboard's media keys, mapped.
The media row on a keyboard, a media remote, a headset's transport buttons: PadForge reads them as their own device with named button chips. Map Play/Pause, Mute, Volume, or track keys to a virtual button or a macro trigger, same as any other input.
Feel
Your wheel fights back.
Plug a Logitech, Fanatec, or Thrustmaster wheel into a slot and PadForge drives its force feedback in the wheel's own native protocol: constant force plus spring, damper, and friction straight from the game. A dedicated Wheel tab sets rotation range in degrees, auto-center strength, and the RPM shift LEDs. A racing game that only knows how to talk to an Xbox pad now loads your wheel up with real road feel.
Trigger motors that feel the game
Forza, Gears, and Halo on your real Xbox pad.
PadForge passes Xbox impulse trigger data straight to the assigned physical Xbox One, Elite, or Series pad. The same data routes to DualSense as Adaptive Trigger Vibration, so a DualSense playing Forza buzzes the triggers in step with an Xbox pad doing the same. Plus audio-bass-driven trigger rumble, a constant trigger force, and a Trigger Routing card that feeds the main rumble motor into the trigger motors with per-trigger source, scale, and activator settings.
DualSense effects in any game
Adaptive triggers and lightbar that don't need the game's blessing.
Seven adaptive trigger modes with a live preview that draws the resistance curve as you drag. Fifteen lightbar modes, six of them tied to your system audio (three Audio Pulse variants, three Audio Bands variants). The DualSense lights and triggers light up in games that have never heard of a DualSense.
Audio through the controller speaker
Sound from the speaker in your hands.
The DualSense and DualShock 4 have a speaker built in, and PadForge can drive it. Mirror a Windows audio output to the pad, or send a slot's macro sounds straight to it. DualSense over USB or Bluetooth, DualShock 4 over Bluetooth. Pads with haptic actuators instead of a speaker, like a Joy-Con, Switch Pro, Steam Controller, or Steam Deck, play the same sounds as a vibrating tone, and a combined Joy-Con pair plays it through the coil the game drives. A Wii Remote plays them through its own speaker.
Guide LED brightness
Dim the glowing button, or let it follow the battery.
Set how bright the Guide button glows on an Xbox One, Elite, or Series pad over USB, the home LED on the 2015 Steam Controller, and the HOME button on a Switch Pro or right Joy-Con on any connection. Hold it at a fixed level, or let it track the battery so a full charge shines and a low one dims. A macro action changes it on demand.
Bass shakers
Rumble you can sit on.
The Bass Shakers tab routes the game rumble and force feedback a slot receives to any audio output as low-frequency tones. Four voices, low motor, high motor, and both triggers, each with its own 20 to 120 Hz frequency and gain, a mono or controller-stereo split, and a frequency sweep to find where your shaker responds strongest.
Motion
Aim with the controller, not the stick.
Gyro at Steam Input parity. Reference frames (Local, Player, World). Dual-threshold smoothing. Real-world calibration. A cross-device Aim Engage button that lets you hold a paddle on the wheel to wake the gyro on your handheld. A stick gate wakes the gyro from any stick and any direction, read before the stick's own deadzone. Tuning saves per pad per slot, so the same pad on two slots can feel two different ways.
Touchpad as more than a touchpad
Turn the DualSense pad into a mouse, a stick, or a D-pad.
Map a finger to mouse X/Y with per-axis sensitivity, invert, and a Trackpad pointer response that moves the cursor the way a laptop touchpad does. Anchor a virtual analog stick where your finger lands. Drop a wedge-thresholded D-pad on top. Pressure-sensitive pads expose per-finger pressure as sources, and swipe haptics tick the pad as a finger travels. Plus the gesture stack: 4-way and 8-way swipes, taps, longpress, pinch, rotate, two- to five-finger gestures, and shape templates. Every toggle saves per pad per slot.
Headset head tracking
Turn your head to aim.
Sony headphones that carry a head tracker become a motion source, confirmed on the WH-1000XM5 family. The whole gyro pipeline takes it: gyro-to-stick, gyro-to-mouse, aim engage, calibration, and the motion server. Discovery is by capability rather than a model list, so any headset exposing the same sensor collection is a candidate. It reports rotation, never position, and it pairs best with an engage button because head tracking that is always live is disorienting.
Motion to emulators
Gyro into Cemu, Dolphin, Yuzu, and Ryujinx.
The built-in DSU / Cemuhook server broadcasts gyroscope and accelerometer on UDP port 26760 so emulators can use real motion for Splatoon, Wii titles, 3DS games, and anything else that asks for it. Every motion source PadForge reads feeds it: DualSense, DualShock 4, Switch Pro, Joy-Con, 2026 Steam Controller, DualShock 3 sixaxis, and Wii Motion Plus.
Flick Stick
Flick to face it. Gyro to finish it.
Flick the stick to its edge and the camera snaps to that direction, then rotates as you sweep the rim, while the gyro handles fine aim. Flick sources ride the right stick, the left stick, or a touchpad, and a rotation offset card corrects games whose camera turns more or less than the flick angle.
Wii pointer modes
Point the Wii Remote like a light gun, or a mouse.
The Pointer tab reads the Wii Remote's IR camera several ways. FPS Mouse drives the desktop mouse for shooters. The border modes keep the aimed area square, corrected for your screen's aspect ratio. When the camera loses the sensor bar, IR-offscreen freeze holds the last position instead of snapping to a corner. Cycle the modes live, or jump straight to one from a macro.
Joy-Con 2 optical mouse
The Joy-Con 2 is a mouse. So use it like one.
A Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con has an optical sensor on its face. Set it on a desk and slide it. Two sources, Mouse Motion X and Mouse Motion Y, drive a stick for mouse-look, a button, or the scroll wheel, each with its own Sensitivity dial. The right Joy-Con's IR camera also reports a brightness value you can map, so covering the sensor works like a button.
Mouse as a source
Aim with the desktop mouse.
Two Mouse Position sources read where the cursor sits and drive a virtual stick from it, each with a Sensitivity dial of its own. Separate Mouse Speed sources read movement instead of position, for velocity-style bindings.
Anywhere
Open a browser. Press buttons.
PadForge runs a tiny web server. Any device with a browser on your Wi-Fi can load it, pick a layout (Xbox 360, DualShock 4, or multi-touch touchpad), and play. Up to 16 phones connect at once, each a separate virtual pad. Touch buttons, dual analog sticks, an 8-way D-pad. Real rumble feedback through the Vibration API. No app to install on the phone.
Share controllers across your PCs
The controller is on the other PC. The game doesn't care.
Remote Link shares devices across the PadForge PCs on your network. A controller, wheel, or HOTAS plugged into one PC drives a game on another, both directions at once, and the feedback comes home: rumble, force feedback, adaptive triggers, lightbar, player LEDs, and the controller speaker all play on the physical device wherever it lives. Pair once with a six-digit code. Trusted PCs reconnect on their own. A gamepad-only switch keeps a paired PC away from your keyboard, mouse, and macros.
A MIDI keyboard as a controller
MIDI in, gamepad out.
PadForge reads MIDI input devices as mapping sources. Notes, Control Change knobs, pitch bend, and encoder dials from a MIDI keyboard or pad controller bind like any button or axis, so a piano key can press A and a mod wheel can pull a trigger. It rides the same Windows MIDI Services stack the MIDI virtual controller uses. No bridge software.
MIDI from a gamepad
A 16-channel MIDI controller, no extra hardware.
Map sticks to Control Change messages. Map buttons to Note On / Note Off. Set velocity per slot. PadForge creates a real Windows MIDI endpoint that DAWs (Ableton Live, FL Studio, Reaper), VJ tools, and stage lighting apps can subscribe to. No loopMIDI bridge.
NFC tag triggers
Tap a tag. Fire a macro.
Plug in an NFC reader, any PC/SC contactless reader like an ACR122U, and a tag tap runs a macro. Register a tag from the Devices page: hold it on the reader, give it a name, and it is saved for good. Each tag becomes its own trigger, next to an Any NFC Tag trigger that any tag fires. Map an amiibo, a sticker, or a card to a button combo, a profile switch, or a whole action sequence.
On-screen touchpad overlay
A touchpad on any monitor.
Pin a transparent touchpad window to any monitor and use it as a touchpad input for the assigned DS4 or DualSense slot. Adjustable opacity, size, and position. No phone required.
Every device
Local co-op without limits.
Run two sim racers on two wheels at once. A flight stick plus throttle plus rudder pedals as one virtual HOTAS. Mixed gamepad types in one session, up to 16 virtual controllers. One combo press toggles every virtual controller on or off when you need to step away.
Wii controllers, paired in-app
Pair a Wii Remote without leaving PadForge.
A Wii controller's PIN is six raw bytes set by the sync button, not text you can type into the Windows prompt. So PadForge runs the pairing itself: click Pair, press the red SYNC button, and the controller bonds and reconnects on any button press after that. A bare Wii Remote, Remote plus Nunchuk, Classic Controller, and Wii U Pro Controller all map as normal pads, with the accelerometer and Motion Plus gyro feeding the same motion pipeline as a DualSense. A Balance Board reports weight and lean as mapping sources.
DualShock 3, paired in-app
The PS3 pad on PC, without the driver hunt.
Plug it in over USB and PadForge binds it through WinUSB on its own. Or pair it over Bluetooth from the Devices page, which installs the signed BthPS3 driver only when you pair one. Either way you get the sixaxis motion, ten pressure-sensitive face buttons, rumble, the player LED, and the battery reading. No DsHidMini, no ScpToolkit. Remove the controller and PadForge cleans up the pairing after it.
Battery and idle disconnect
See the charge. Sleep it when idle.
Every wireless pad that reports a battery shows its charge on the Devices page, with a charging glyph while it tops up. Set an Idle Disconnect timer and a Bluetooth controller drops its link after a few quiet minutes, so it sleeps instead of draining on the coffee table. A Disconnect Controller macro turns one off on command.
Unknown hardware welcome
If Windows sees it, you can map it.
For unrecognised gamepads, Force Raw Joystick Mode exposes every raw button and axis directly. Or click Submit Mapping on the device's card: your browser opens a pre-filled GitHub issue, you name the inputs, and once merged the mapping ships to every PadForge user on the next release.
Compare
How PadForge stacks up.
Feature comparison against the other Windows controller mappers. Each cell is verified against the tool's own docs, source, or release notes: x360ce v4.17.15.0 (last public release Nov 2020); XOutput 3.32 (deprecated and archived Dec 2024); reWASD 9.4.0 (May 2026); ds4windowsapp/DS4Windows v3.5 (Feb 2026); Steam Input (rolling Steam client updates). Cells marked ⚠️ mean the feature exists but is limited or unverified at the level of detail PadForge implements it.
DSU / Cemuhook motion server (Cemu, Dolphin, Yuzu, Ryujinx)
✅
❌
❌
✅ port 26760
✅
❌
Phone as controller
✅ in-browser, no app install, up to 16 phones at once, touchpad layout included
❌
❌
⚠️ reWASD Mobile app (one phone, no touchpad layout)
❌
❌
Share a controller with another PC's games over a network
✅ Remote Link, both directions, feedback returns
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
Per-app profile switching
✅
✅ since v4.17.12 (Nov 2020)
❌
✅ Autodetect
✅
✅ per-game by design
Max simultaneous virtual controllers
16
4 (hard-coded PAD1-4 in UI)
4 (UI matches XInput slot indices)
4 (Slot UI cap)
4 (Output Slots UI cap)
1 per physical pad
1000 Hz polling
✅
⚠️ unverified
⚠️ unverified
✅ user-selectable 500 / 1000 Hz
✅ on USB DS4
⚠️ unverified
3D + 2D controller visualization
✅
⚠️ 2D Xbox 360 only
❌
⚠️ 2D only
⚠️ basic
⚠️ configurator preview
Multi-point sensitivity curve editor
✅ unlimited points
⚠️ single slider
⚠️ deadzone only
✅ custom 4-point
⚠️ preset curves
✅ response curves
2026 Steam Controller support
✅ via SDL3 fork
❌
❌
⚠️ unverified
❌
✅
DualShock 3 as a source
✅ USB + in-app BT pairing, no DsHidMini
⚠️ unverified
⚠️ unverified
✅ + gyro (9.3.0)
✅
✅ native (no gyro)
Wii Remote / Nunchuk / Classic / Wii U Pro as a source
✅ all four forms, in-app pairing, IR pointer
❌
❌
✅ in-app pairing (v9.4+), no IR pointer
❌
❌
❌ means the feature is absent. Tools without recent shipping releases (XOutput 2024, x360ce 2020) reflect their last public binary, not unreleased master commits.
The spec sheet
Every feature, end to end.
Short punch list. Each card is one feature. The documentation covers each in full.
Remote Link
Share a controller, wheel, or HOTAS with the other PCs on your network. Both directions at once. Rumble, force feedback, adaptive triggers, lightbar, player LEDs, and speaker audio return to the real hardware. Pair once with a six-digit code. Works on your home network, or across the internet through a VPN like ZeroTier.
Steam Workshop config import
Browse the community controller configs on the Steam Workshop and translate the one you pick into a PadForge profile: buttons, sticks, triggers, keyboard and mouse bindings, shift layers, and macros. Anonymous Steam connection, no account. An import report shows what came across clean and what was approximated. Off until you enable it in Settings.
Native wheel force feedback
Logitech, Fanatec, and Thrustmaster wheels driven in their own native protocols: constant force plus spring, damper, and friction. A Wheel tab for rotation range, auto-center, and RPM shift LEDs.
Bass shaker output
Route game rumble and force feedback to any audio output as low-frequency tones. Four voices with per-voice frequency (20–120 Hz) and gain, mono or controller-stereo split, and a frequency sweep to tune your shaker.
Nintendo virtual controller
A virtual Switch Pro Controller through HIDMaestro, with gyro passthrough and HOME button LED control. Games and emulators that speak Switch see the real thing.
Virtual VR controllers
One slot presents a SteamVR left and right hand pair, driven by any controller, keyboard, or motion source you map to it. Haptics return to the device you are holding. PadForge installs the SteamVR runtime itself, with no Steam account. Controls, not positional tracking, and one VR slot at a time.
Headset head tracking
Sony headphones with a head tracker become a motion source, confirmed on the WH-1000XM5 family. Turn your head to aim or lean, through the same gyro pipeline everything else uses. Found by capability rather than a model list. Rotation only, never position.
Controller speaker audio
Play sound through the DualSense or DualShock 4 speaker. Mirror a Windows output or route a slot's macro sounds to the pad. DualSense over USB or Bluetooth, DualShock 4 over Bluetooth. Pads with haptic actuators but no speaker (Joy-Con, Switch Pro, Steam Controller, Steam Deck) play the sound as a haptic tone, and a Wii Remote through its own speaker.
MIDI input
Use a MIDI keyboard or pad controller as a mapping source. Notes, CC, pitch bend, and encoders bind like buttons and axes. Same Windows MIDI Services stack as the MIDI virtual output.
Multi-source mappings
One row, any number of inputs, any number of devices. Six combine modes plus a drag-and-drop formula editor. Cross-device chords for free.
Shift layers
Caps Lock for your controller. Hold, Toggle, Latch, Cycle, Sticky, or No Button. Cycle steps a queue of layers with Next and Previous buttons. Per-layer color and emoji. Cross-device activators.
Phone-as-controller
Browser-based gamepad over Wi-Fi. Xbox 360, DualShock 4, or multi-touch touchpad layout. Up to 16 phones on one PC at once. Vibration API rumble back to each phone. No app install.
On-screen touchpad overlay
Pin a transparent touchpad window to any monitor and use it as a touchpad input for the assigned DS4 or DualSense slot. Adjustable opacity, size, and position. No phone required.
Touchpad outputs
Map any touchpad (DualSense, DS4, laptop trackpad, phone web touchpad, overlay) to mouse X/Y with per-axis sensitivity and invert, to a virtual analog stick anchored where your finger lands, or to a wedge-thresholded D-pad. Plus the gesture stack: swipes, taps, longpress, pinch, rotate, custom shape templates. Every toggle is per slot.
Gyro at Steam Input parity
Local, Player, and World reference frames. Real-world calibration. Cross-device Aim Engage. Tuning saves per pad per slot.
Mouse as a source
Two Mouse Position sources read where the desktop cursor sits and push a stick, trigger, or button toward it. A per-row Sensitivity dial (0.1 to 5.0) sets the cursor travel for full deflection. Separate from the Mouse Speed sources that read movement. Primary monitor only.
3D and 2D visualization
Native art per profile. Xbox 360, Xbox One / Elite / Adaptive, Xbox Series, DualShock 4, DualSense. Click any button in 3D to record its mapping.
Full rumble passthrough. HID PID 1.0 for wheels and joysticks. Audio bass rumble synthesized from system audio. Constant force vector.
Adaptive triggers and lightbar
Seven DualSense trigger modes plus a one-click GameCube preset. Fifteen lightbar modes including audio-pulse, audio-band, Strobe, and Battery.
Impulse triggers
Xbox impulse trigger passthrough on the assigned physical pad. Same data routes to DualSense as Adaptive Trigger Vibration. Audio-bass trigger rumble.
Macros with action sequences
Combo triggers and Custom Expression formulas. Key presses, mouse, scroll, volume, lightbar, rumble, and axis actions that latch, release, and scale. Twelve fire modes, from On Press through Double, Triple, Long, and Short Press to Toggle and Turbo, plus a per-macro shift-layer scope. Cursor actions to recenter the mouse, pin it at a point, or fence it inside a rectangle. Duplicate a macro in place, copy and paste between virtual controllers, or pull every macro from another in one step.
Per-app profiles
Watches the foreground window. Switches when a matching app takes focus. Win11-style flyout confirms.
DSU motion server
Gyro and accel on UDP 26760. Cemu, Dolphin, Yuzu, Ryujinx all read it. Plug-and-play for any emulator that speaks Cemuhook.
MIDI virtual output
Channel 1-16. CC for axes, Note On/Off for buttons. Real Windows MIDI Services endpoint. No loopMIDI bridge.
1000 Hz polling
Sub-millisecond jitter via high-resolution waitable timers. Bit-perfect axis passthrough at defaults. Built on SDL3.
Hide physical controllers
HidHide driver-level cloak. Per-device toggles auto-enable for gamepads. Cloak persists across launches.
Wii controllers
In-app Bluetooth pairing. Press SYNC to bond once and reconnect on any button, or hold 1 and 2 for a temporary pairing. Wii Remote, Remote plus Nunchuk, Classic Controller, and Wii U Pro Controller map as pads. Accelerometer and Motion Plus gyro feed the motion pipeline. The IR camera drives an on-screen pointer, and a Balance Board reports weight and lean.
NFC tag triggers
Read NFC tags through a PC/SC contactless reader and fire a macro on a tap. Register and name each tag from the Devices page. Every tag is its own trigger, next to an Any NFC Tag trigger. Media keys map too, and wireless pads show battery charge with an optional idle-disconnect timer.
See it
Screenshots.
Dashboard: all virtual controllers, motion server, web controller, and driver status on one screen.3D model per profile. Buttons, sticks, and triggers highlight live. Xbox Series profiles add a clickable Share button.Starter profiles: thirteen archetypes covering a kind of game rather than a single title. Pick one, assign any controller, and play.Record-by-press mapping. Per-mapping invert, half-axis, and threshold options.Six deadzone shapes. Per-axis sensitivity curves with unlimited draggable points.Rumble pass-through plus directional FFB for wheels. Audio bass rumble synthesized from system audio.Route the main rumble motors into the trigger motors, one trigger at a time. Reaches Xbox impulse triggers and DualSense Adaptive Trigger Vibration.Native force feedback for Logitech, Fanatec, and Thrustmaster wheels. Rotation range, auto-center, and RPM shift LEDs.Seven DualSense trigger modes. Live preview draws the resistance and amplitude curve while you drag the sliders.Fifteen lightbar modes including audio-pulse, audio-band, input-reactive, Strobe, and Battery. Player indicator and mute LED controls.Play sound through the DualSense or DualShock 4 speaker. Mirror a Windows output or route a slot's macro sounds to the pad. USB and Bluetooth.Touchpad finger to mouse, virtual stick, or D-pad. Gesture stack with swipes, taps, longpress, pinch, rotate, and custom shape templates. All per slot.Combo triggers fire action sequences across twelve fire modes.Per-app profiles switch automatically when a matching window gains focus.Every detected device as a card with live raw input, slot assignment, and per-device hiding toggles.Pair a Wii controller in-app. Press SYNC, watch the progress ring, and pick it from the found-controllers list.Pointer tab: a Wii Remote's IR camera aims at the screen. Set the sensor-bar position, offset, and smoothing, and map IR Pointer X / Y to a stick or the mouse.An NFC reader as a device. Register tags by tapping them, then fire a macro from each tag or from Any NFC Tag.Media keys as a Consumer Control device. Named chips for Play/Pause, Mute, Volume, and track controls, each mappable as a source or macro trigger.Battery charge on each wireless pad, plus a Power section with an Idle Disconnect timer that sleeps a Bluetooth controller after quiet minutes.Extended: flight sticks, wheels, HOTAS, and third-party gamepads through 225+ HIDMaestro profiles.Channel, velocity, CC and note mapping. Axes as Control Change. Buttons as Note On / Off.A MIDI keyboard or pad controller as a mapping source. Notes, CC, pitch bend, and encoders bind like buttons and axes.Keyboard + Mouse virtual controller with live preview of every mapped key and button.Web controller: any phone browser becomes a gamepad over Wi-Fi.Remote Link: share controllers across the PCs on your network, with rumble and force feedback returning to the real hardware.
Free means free.
No installer. Single EXE. Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. PadForge will never become paid, freemium, or Patreon early-access paywalled.
PadForge installs HIDMaestro on first run. HIDMaestro is the driver that creates virtual controllers. When you add a slot, HIDMaestro spins up a real HID device matching the controller shape you picked. The device disappears when you delete the slot.
Two more drivers are optional. PadForge offers to install each only when you need its feature:
HidHide. Hides your physical controller so games only see the virtual one. Install it when a game sees both at once.
Windows MIDI Services. Required for MIDI input and the MIDI virtual controller type. Needs Windows 11 24H2 or later.
FAQ
Questions people ask.
Will PadForge get my account banned in online games?
PadForge is a user-mode app running outside the game process. Games see PadForge's virtual controller as a real HID device, the same way they see any commercial gamepad. Nothing is injected into the game, no game memory is read or written, no anti-cheat hook is touched.
Anti-cheat policies still vary per game. The same caveat that applies to any third-party input remapper (Steam Input, reWASD, x360ce, controller-companion software) applies to PadForge. Check the game's specific anti-cheat policy if you play competitively.
Is PadForge actually free, or is the free version crippled?
PadForge is fully free. No tiered version, no feature paywall, no time-limited trial. The entire feature set ships in one EXE.
It's licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Source is on GitHub. Anyone can build it from source. The only thing PadForge asks for is that you donate to a charity if you feel like donating.
Which controllers work as a source device?
Anything Windows recognises as a HID input device. Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Elite, Xbox Series, DualShock 3 (USB or in-app Bluetooth pairing), DualShock 4, DualSense, DualSense Edge, Switch Pro, 2026 Steam Controller, the Wii Remote and its Nunchuk, Classic Controller, and Wii U Pro Controller (paired in-app), any DirectInput joystick / flight stick / racing wheel / HOTAS / pedals, keyboards, mice, and even Windows Precision Touchpads.
For unrecognised gamepads, the Devices page has a one-click "Submit Mapping" button that opens a pre-filled GitHub issue with the device's VID:PID and SDL GUID. Once merged, the mapping ships to everyone on the next release.
How do I pair a Wii controller?
Open the Devices page and click Pair, next to Refresh. Pick Nintendo Wii in the dialog, then press the red SYNC button under the battery cover. PadForge finds the controller and bonds it, so it reconnects on its own the next time you press a button. To pair for one session without bonding, tick Temporary Pairing and hold 1 and 2 instead.
PadForge runs this itself because a Wii controller's pairing PIN is six raw bytes that depend on which sync button you press, not text you can type into the Windows prompt. You need a Bluetooth radio. The Bluetooth stack writes the link key, so nothing touches the registry.
Does PadForge run when PadForge isn't running?
HIDMaestro (the virtual-controller driver) stays loaded by Windows even when PadForge is closed, so already-created virtual controllers keep their device identity across launches. But the input pipeline, reading your physical pad and forwarding it, only runs while PadForge is open. Close PadForge and the virtual controllers stop receiving input.
Enable Start at login, Start minimized, and Minimize to system tray in Settings to make PadForge a persistent background service. Combined, those three give a fully silent setup that wakes when you sign in.
The game still sees my physical controller alongside the virtual one. What now?
Install HidHide from Settings → Drivers. It's a driver-level cloak that hides the physical device from every non-whitelisted process while leaving PadForge able to read it. The per-device toggle on the Devices page enables it for that controller.
HidHide is optional because not everyone needs it. Some games handle duplicate controllers fine. Some apps you want to keep seeing the physical pad (streaming overlays, controller-test tools). Install when you need the cloak.
Do I need an internet connection?
No. PadForge is local-only. It does not phone home, does not sync to a cloud, does not require an account, and never talks to a license server. Your settings live in PadForge.xml next to the EXE. Back that file up to keep your profiles.
Can I use a phone or tablet as a controller?
Yes. Enable the Web Controller on the Dashboard, open the URL it shows from any browser on the same Wi-Fi network (no app to install), pick an Xbox 360 layout, a DualShock 4 layout, or a Touchpad-only layout, and start playing. The browser sends input, PadForge feeds it into the slot you assign it to, and rumble feeds back to the phone through the browser's Vibration API where supported.
What does PadForge need to run?
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The .NET 10 Desktop Runtime is bundled in the single-file release so there is nothing else to install. HIDMaestro auto-installs on first launch. HidHide and Windows MIDI Services are optional and install from Settings when you need them.
For best results: a recent Windows 11 build (24H2 or newer). MIDI input and the MIDI virtual controller type need Windows MIDI Services, which is Windows 11 24H2 (build 26100) and later.
I have a controller PadForge doesn't recognise. Can I add it?
Yes, in two ways. The fast way: turn on Force Raw Joystick Mode on the device card. PadForge stops trying to interpret it as a known gamepad layout and exposes every raw button and axis directly. Map them by hand on the Mappings tab.
The better way: click the Submit Mapping button on the device's card. Your browser opens a GitHub issue pre-filled with everything PadForge can read about the device. You fill in which raw input is which named button, and once merged the mapping ships in gamecontrollerdb_padforge.txt for every PadForge user.
Can I share a controller across several PCs?
Yes, across as many as you like. Remote Link pairs PadForge PCs on the same local network. A controller, wheel, or HOTAS plugged into one PC shows up in the others' Devices lists, ready to assign to a slot and map like any local controller. One PC can be linked to several at once, both directions, and the feedback returns to the real hardware: rumble, force feedback, adaptive triggers, lightbar, player LEDs, and the controller speaker all play on the physical device wherever it is plugged in.
Pairing is a one-time six-digit code you match on both screens. After that, trusted PCs reconnect on their own. A gamepad-only switch keeps a paired PC from reaching your keyboard, mouse, and macros. Remote Link finds PCs on your local network on its own. To play across the internet, put the PCs on one virtual network with a VPN like ZeroTier and connect by address.
How does PadForge compare to reWASD, Steam Input, or DS4Windows?
See the comparison table above. reWASD is the closest paid alternative at $9.99 and up. Where PadForge takes a different approach: DualSense virtual output, Extended virtual joysticks through 225+ HIDMaestro profiles, MIDI virtual output, a built-in phone-as-controller server, and gyro that matches Steam Input's reference-frame model (Local, Player, World) with real-world calibration and cross-device Aim Engage. DS4Windows, x360ce, and XOutput each leave one or more of those out.
